Lesson 29: The Benediction - Part 1 (series: Lessons on Ephesians)

Commentary on the Book of Ephesians

By: Tom Lowe                                  Date: 3/7/18

Lesson 29: The Benediction (6:23-24)

(Ephesians 6:23-24, KJV)

23 Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

24 Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen.

 

Introduction

We have come to the end of the book.  All that remains is the benediction (a pronouncement of blessing from God.).  The apostle provides us here with a suggestive benediction, which every minister can employ at the end of his sermon, and one whereby every Christian can be comforted by the mention of peace and grace.  It perfectly summarizes the blessings in Christ that the whole letter has expounded.

 

The letter to the Ephesians was an encyclical letter and the bearer from church to church was Tychicus (See lesson 28).  Unlike most of his letters Ephesians gives us no personal information about Paul, except that he was in prison; but Tychicus, as he went from church to church, would tell how Paul was faring and would convey a message of personal encouragement.

 

The Lesson

23 Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

24 Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen.

 

Paul begins with three suggestions concerning the elements that make-up the benediction (two are in verse 23, and one in verse 24).  Most of the great words of the gospel are contained in it; peace, love, faith, grace. Hope is absent, for the believer is in the heavenly places where all is realized. Paul says the benediction should―

  1. RECOGNIZE THE DIVINE SOURCE OF ALL BLESSINGS (v. 23)—“From God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul traces the blessings brought to us by the Spirit back to their source in the Son and the Father, and thus brings a gracious closure to all that he has taught us. All our blessings are divine, and flow from the inexhaustible fountains of divine grace.  “God the Father,” in the paternal counsel’s of His wisdom and love, “and the Lord Jesus Christ,” who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself as an atonement for human sin—the glorious Trinity of Persons in the Godhead—contribute from their combined perfections the spiritual good that enriches every believing soul.  The God of Abraham and of Jacob, the God of Christians, is a God of love and of consolation; a God who fills the heart and the soul where He resides. A familiar old hymn satisfies this first suggestion: “Praise God, From Whom All Blessings Flow.”
  2. PRAY FOR SPECIFIC BLESSINGS UPON CHRISTIAN BRETHREN (v. 23)—“Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith.” This is not only the secession of hostilities, but the re-establishing in working order of broken relationships. It is shalom, well-being.  It comes from being set free from the dark powers that bind and destroy us, from being reconciled to God in Christ, and subsequently working this out in relationship to others. 

 

Where there is no love there is no peace, and peace and love without faith are unreliable and worthless.  Love is the strength of the patience and self-suppression so essential to the maintenance of peace.  As faith grows and intensifies it opens up new channels in which love can flow.

 

“Peace” was the form of greeting of the Jewish world.  A sinner must know the grace of God before he can experience the peace of God.  This is the peace of God which passes all understanding.

  • GREET WITH UNRESTRAINED GENEROSITY ALL GENUINE LOVERS OF CHRIST (v. 24).—“Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen”.  “Grace” is the key word of the epistle.  It opened the epistle (Ephesians 1:2) and is the subject of the epistle (Ephesians 2:7-8).  It now concludes the epistle.  It is a fitting word because it is God’s grace which saved us and which sustains us today.  Sincere love for Christ opens the heart to the rich endowments of grace, and blends all hearts that glow with a kindred affection.  If we love Christ, we love one another; we love His work, His word, and are eager to obey Him in all things He commands.  We may not agree on a standardization of creeds, but we reach a higher union when our hearts are mingled in the reliable receptacle of a Christ-like love.  The benediction of grace to all who love Jesus is answered and confirmed by an appropriate “Amen.”

 

Within verse 23 there are three elements of religious comfort—the apostle prays that, with FAITH, there may be PEACE and LOVE.

  1. Faith brings the soul into obedience to the gospel by giving effectiveness to its teaching, examples, and doctrines. Where faith operates, love will appear, and peace will follow. Faith means faith in Christ which produces active love. These flow from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
  2. Love produces peace.—
    1. Inward peace.―It extinguishes malice, envy, hatred, wrath, revenge, every unfriendly passion.
    2. Social peace.—Christians will be careful not to give offense, either by real injuries or unnecessary differences. They will be slow to take offense.
  • Love brings religious comfort.—Love is comfortable in its immediate feelings and in its calming influences. It brings comfort to the soul seeing that it is an evidence of godly sincerity.  If we would enjoy the comfort, we must maintain the comfort of religion.  “Love” in verse 23 means love for the other believers.  This is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.  In verse 24th the “love” is of the believer for the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lesson 29: The Benediction - Part 2 (series: Lessons on Ephesians)

 

(Verse 24) The Christian’s Truest Test and Excellence.

Other things may be required to complete the character of the Christian; but without love for Christ there can be no Christian at all.  It is the Holy Spirit which must animate and enliven the whole combination; and in whomsoever this spirit prevails we are entitled and instructed to welcome that person as a disciple.

 

  1. Consider the love of Christ as a duty we owe to Him.—
    1. Bring to your remembrance His personal excellences.
    2. Consider the great and glorious object of all He did and endured—the everlasting happiness of human souls.
  2. Consider the love of Christ as a principle which works in ourselves.—
    1. It does not destroy natural affections, but teaches us to fix them on proper objects and to give a right direction to their fullest energies.
    2. A due sense of the Saviors love makes us feel at once that He merits all our best affections in return.
    3. It gives delight in meditating on the precepts and promises of God’s word.
    4. It helps in all the duties we owe to our fellow-creatures.
    5. It animates the soul in the hour of death and the prospect of eternity.

 

Loving Christ in Sincerity.

  1. On what account Christ is entitled to our love.—
    1. He is a divine person.
    2. He was manifest in the flesh. In the man Christ Jesus appeared every virtuous quality which can dignify and adorn human nature.
    3. His mediatorial offices entitle Him to our love.
    4. He is an object of our love because of His kindness to us.
  2. An essential qualification of love to Christ is sincerity.—
    1. Our love for Christ must be real, not pretended.
    2. Must be universal. It must respect His whole character.
    3. Sincere love for Christ is supreme. It gives Him the preference over all earthly interests and connections.
    4. It is persevering.
    5. It is active.

 

Finally, we must not miss the force of this final word of the epistle, translated here as “sincerity,” but more accurately rendered “incorruptibility.” It is a term rich in meaning (See 1 Corinthians 9:25; 15:52; 1 Timothy 1:17).  Here it characterizes the enduring, deathless quality of the love of believers for their Lord.  It is a fitting word with which to close this sublime epistle. 

 

  • How sincere love for Christ will reveal itself.—
    1. It will make us want to please Him.
    2. We’ll be accompanied with humility.
    3. We shall be fond of imitating Him.
    4. We shall promote His interest and oppose His enemies.
    5. We shall do good to His needy brethren and friends.
  1. The benediction connected with his temper.—It is called “grace”; God’s love and favor displayed in Jesus Christ to sinners. Without grace we are spiritually dead, blind, lost, enslaved, guilty, and condemned.  It comprehends all the blessings the gospel reveals and promises.
    1. Justification before God.
    2. The presence of the divine Spirit.
    3. Free access to the throne of grace.
    4. The gift of a happy immortality.

 

Love for Christ.—What is it that constitutes Christ’s claim to love and respect?  What is it that is to be loved in Christ?  Why are we to hold Him dear?  There is just one ground for virtuous affection in the universe, and one object worthy of cherished and enduring love in heaven and on earth, and that is—moral goodness.  My principle applies to all beings, to the Creator as well as to His creatures.  The claim of God to the love of His rational offspring rests on the righteousness and benevolence of His will.  It is the moral beauty and grandeur of His character to which alone we are bound to pay homage.  The only power which can be and ought to be loved is a beneficent and righteous power.  The ground of love for Christ is His spotless purity, His moral perfection, His unrivaled goodness.  It is the spirit of His religion, which is the Spirit of God, dwelling in Him without measure.  Of consequence, to love Christ is to love the perfection of virtue, of righteousness, of benevolence; and the great excellence of this love is, that by cherishing it we imbibe, we strengthen in our own souls the most illustrious virtue, and through Jesus become like God.  I call you to love Jesus so that you may bring yourselves into contact and communion with perfect virtue, and may become what you love.  Paul prays that his readers will experience “love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”  God has demonstrated his love for us in His election, in the work of Christ, and in the presence of His Spirit in our lives.  I know no sincere, enduring good but the moral excellence which shines forth in Jesus Christ.

 

  1. The Subjects of the Benediction.—“All them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.”
    1. The object of their love.—“The Lord Jesus Christ.”
    2. The character of their love.—They love in sincerity. This is proved by the affects it produces.
      1. Love of God’s word.
      2. Prompt obedience to Christ’s precepts (teaching).
  • Brotherly love.
  1. Zeal for God’s house.
  1. The Nature of the Benediction.—
    1. The prayer embraces the communication of divine grace.
    2. All Christians Need the Grace of God. The prayer closes with a prayer for the blessing of the whole church of God. To the believers at Ephesus, he said, “Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Then reaching out through the church age until the Bride is complete and all born again are caught up to meet the Lord Jesus in the clouds in the air, Paul says tenderly, “Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.” That includes you and me. Yes, the Christian life begins in grace, we are kept in grace, and we will stand before God accepted in the Beloved . . . in grace.
      1. In all trials peculiar to the age in which they live.
      2. In time of temptation and spiritual of darkness.
  • In the discharge of Christian duties.
  1. To sanctify, refine, and make them prepared for the inheritance of the saints.

 

 

 

Final Thoughts

 

Paul’s own swan song is found in 2 Timothy 4:6-8: “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” Paul reflected what a good soldier of Christ should be and what rewards awaited him.

 

The apostle’s closing desire, then, is that the grace he has expounded will be the grace that we have experienced.  If so, our love for the Lord will be a love that is undying.  That is what Ephesians was written to teach.

 

Hear these clear understandable words: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

 

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all” until we meet―if not on this earth, then in the City of God.” Amen.