Paul is calling the Corinthians to holiness, so that they may be bold enough to return the greeting of the saints. For they are greeted by the saints with the intention that they should imitate them. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.
The grace of the Lord, &c. Chrysostom, Ambrose, and Theodoret point out that this passage proves that the Holy Trinity is consubstantial, or of the same nature, power, and operation, especially in the work of our redemption, which is more particularly in the Apostle"s mind. Ambrose says. "In the Trinity there is a unity of power, perfecting the whole of our salvation. For the love of God sent His Son to save us, by whose grace we are saved; and that we might possess this saving grace, He makes us sharers of His Holy Spirit."
Observe1. that by the phrase "the love of God," the name of God is appropriated to the Father. For the Father is the fount of Godhead, and the Origin of the other Persons of the Blessed Trinity.
2. Love is fitly attributed to the Father, grace to the Song of Solomon , and fellowship to the Holy Spirit: for from the Father and His love our redemption took its rise. "The Father so loved the world that He gave His Only-Begotten Son" to die for us. By the Son came gr...
For my part, I wish you, with all my heart, that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the charity of God, and the communication of his holy Spirit, may dwell with you all. Amen is wanted in the Greek, but was added by the Church of Corinth, which was accustomed to make this reply as often as this epistle was read. When we recall to our mind the excess of corruption that had reigned in the city of Corinth under paganism, excess attested by profane authors, and which St. Paul brings to their recollection, (1 Corinthians vi. 9.) we are all astonishment that in the short space of four years the gospel had operated amongst the faithful of this church, such a prodigious change in their manners, and that they were become capable of receiving lessons of morality so very pure as is this of the apostle. (Bergier.)
And that the holy Trinity is to be worshipped without either separation or alienation, is taught us by Paul, who says in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with yon all."
By this also giving them good hopes. He has added this in the place of the kiss, knitting them together by the salutation, for the words also proceed from the same mouth from which the kiss. Do you see how he brings them all together, both those who are widely separated in the body and those who are near, these by the kiss and those by the written message?
