“After the severity, the struggle and the debate, there comes the serenity of the benediction. One of the best ways of making peace with our enemies is to pray for them, for it is impossible to hate people and pray for them at the same time. And so we leave the troubled story of Paul and the church of Corinth with the benediction ringing in our ears. The way has been hard, but the last word is peace.”[1]
To sum up the benediction at the end of 2 Corinthians, Paul prayed that the Triune God would bless this dysfunctional church. Paul had planted the church in Corinth and brought many of them to Christ, but in spite of that, through their bad behavior and rebellion against his apostolic authority, the Corinthians had treated Paul as if he were their enemy rather than their spiritual father.
This caused Paul immense grief and pain, which is why he seems to wear his emotions on his sleeve in this letter. But ultimately, his response is beautiful, reflecting others-centered love grounded in the love demonstrated by the Father and the Son for the sake of the world. Paul, in invoking this blessing over the Corinthians, is practicing the kind of selfless, non-retaliatory love Jesus both demonstrated and commanded His followers to practice.
I believe the reason Paul wrote so harshly to them was because of the love he had for them. And in this we see a deeper theological truth; God will, when necessary, speak to us and discipline us harshly, precisely because He is our Father (if we’re in Christ). God loves us too much to allow us to stray from Him without convicting and warning us, and disciplining us. And that is wonderful news.
“It is a singular paradox that a letter so full of indignation, remonstrance, and gyrating emotions should conclude with the most elevated trinitarian affirmation in the NT couched in the form of a benediction addressed to all the members of a factious church.”[2]
Such is the marvelous love of God.
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[1] William Barclay, The Letters to the Corinthians, 3rd ed., The New Daily Study Bible (Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2002), 317.
[2] Murray J. Harris, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians: A Commentary on the Greek Text, New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Milton Keynes, UK: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co.; Paternoster Press, 2005), 941.