St. Paul’s Trinitarian Blessing
St. Paul’s Trinitarian Blessing
“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
The love of God,
And the fellowship of the Holy Spirit
Be with all of you. Amen.” (2 Corinthians 13:14).
One inescapable truth from this Blessing is that it can be sung in three-part harmony: The Person of Jesus Christ the Anointed One is the world’s source of grace, and the Person of God the Father is the world’s source of love, and the Person of the Holy Spirit is the world’s source of fellowship.
The Grace of Jesus Christ: The Greek word here for “grace’ is the tremendously rich word of “charis,” which is pronounced either “care-iss.” This important biblical word was adopted from Greek mythology, and it means: undeserved favor; the gift of good will; unmerited kindness; the unexpected spiritual blessing that brings delight and pleasure; a free gift of acceptance with no strings attached. This is the dictionary version, the basic concept. This biblical grace is an absolute truth, and so grace exists whether or not we choose to accept it. But it is an abstract truth unless we make it a living truth in our Christian walk. Grace is intended to be a personal experience that is lived into and fleshed out. Grace is the exhale after the inhale of Jesus into one’s life. Grace cannot be a product of will power, because one has to tap into the source of grace in order to demonstrate it to others. The life and death and resurrection of Christ was an act of pure grace, a voluntary act of profound favor towards us, as if we actually deserved it. Jesus pioneered the way of grace for us by touching the untouchable, accepting the unacceptable, providing spiritual blessings for those who were spiritually empty. Through His gracious sacrifice, Jesus declared us righteous, despite the evidence to the contrary. The Cross extended mercy to all of us, who didn’t even come close to deserving fairness or the benefit of the doubt. The death of Christ weighted the scales in our favor, even though we have been weighed and found wanting. The Cross was an act of pure grace, the ultimate in offering undeserved favor on mankind. Every person on earth has already been offered this grace and have only to accept it as true to make it the first part of God’s rescue operation. If we hoard this grace and don’t find an outlet for it, we become a Dead Sea Christian. If we allow grace to overflow our hearts and is offered to others, then we would be a Jordan River Christian providing fresh water to all we meet. Jesus Messiah is the only possible source of grace in this world, and His intention is that we participate in His grace and flood the earth with a clear picture of what the grace of Christ looks like… Loving the unlovable.
The Love of God. The particular kind of love Paul points us to in this Trinitarian Blessing is agape love. It is the same love that the Father and the Son share. It is the highest form of love, and can only come from the heart of God Himself. Agape love is the supreme of all the loves, and desires the highest good of someone else. Agape is “the highest level of love known to humanity” (C. S. Lewis), and thus can only come from above with God as its source. Agape love is the ultimate expression of God’s nature, the essence of His character (see Exodus 34). Agape love is not Eros, which is romantic love. It is not Phileo, which is brotherly love. It is not Storge, which is family love. God is truly the source of all these other loves, but it is only agape love that is poured into our hearts from the Holy Spirit, to those who believe in Christ. The most virtuous person on the planet cannot manufacture agape love as if it’s merely a highly esteemed trait. We don’t have it in us. We aren’t born with the ability to show agape love. It is impossible for us to demonstrate agape love on our own, because it can only derive from God, and not from human nature. Agape love is the supreme Fruit of the Spirit, and can only be produced in us through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. “For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with love; God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom He has given us; We can now experience the endless love of God cascading into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who lives in us!” (Romans 5:5). This divine love being poured into our hearts is meant to be demonstrated to others through sacrificial acts of kindness and compassion. This love, this affectionate regard of others, is deliberate and intentional. Agape love spills over from our hearts only after being poured into our hearts. Through the Holy Spirit, agape love can realistically become second nature to us and in us, by displacing the old loves in a Christian’s life, the love of money and things, of pleasure and self, of power, ego and attention. In some beautifully mysterious way, the loyal, unconditional love in us from above is somehow completed when Christians love others. Agape love is the means by which God’s love may reach the world. Agape love is an eternal virtue, and will still be in operation after faith and hope are rendered unnecessary in heaven (1 Cor. 13:8). Agape love is the divine Fruit offered to us to personally enjoy, and to spread God’s affectionate acceptance to others. Love poured into us, love splashed out to others. “So now I am giving you a new commandment: Agape-Love each other. Just as I have agape-loved you, you should agape-love each other.” (John 13:34-35).
The Fellowship of the Holy Spirit. The Trinitarian Blessing that closes Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians contains an interesting observation concerning the Holy Spirit. The Greek term “Hagiou” is used for Holy, and it means sacred, different from the world, as well as unique in likeness to the Lord God. The Greek word for Spirit is “Pneumatos,” and can mean wind, breath or spirit, and is always capitalized when referring to the third Person of the Trinity. After praying for them to be blessed in the grace of Jesus Christ and the love of God, Paul completes the blessing by praying that they would experience the “koinonia” of the Holy Spirit. Koinonia is another rich Greek biblical term, meaning communion, participation in, companionship, intimate partnership with, deep fellowship with. We are not only joined into the community of the Trinity through the Spirit, but we are plugged into a profound fellowship with other believers as well. There would be no intimate friendship with other believers were it not for the source of all communion, the interwoven unity of the triune God. We are one with other believers only because of our oneness with the Trinity. Believers are welcomed into the relationship of the Trinity, and through that spiritual source of oneness we have the possibility of intimate fellowship with fellow believers. The Holy Spirit dwells within us, along with the Father and the Son, and thus we are able to live inside the Trinity while the Trinity lives within us and we live within the community of believers. The Holy Spirit, our true Companion, our intimate Friend “who sticks closer than a brother” (Proverbs 18:24).
I love this Trinity song, it hits me in the gut every time… “Father, you found me; Jesus my Lord, you’re all around me, Sweet Holy Spirit, you’re all around me.” The final moments of this song done live is the singer’s impassioned, heartfelt declaration, “Father you found me!” I love that.