The End - 2 Corinthians 13:7-14

13:7-9 - Knowing that this letter is the wrap up before he sees them again, Paul ends it urging them to “do no evil… that ye should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates.” The NIV of this verse translates that to mean, “Now we pray to God that you will not do anything wrong- not so that people will see that we have stood the test but so that you will do what is right even though we may seen to have failed.” Paul wants them to detach themselves with the church leadership personally and grow their faith based on Jesus, not them. Paul even continues telling the people that “we are glad, when we are weak, and ye are strong.” They are grateful when their weakness does not impact the righteousness of others, and really that’s how it should be. Our testimonies should be independent of what others do or say, but unfortunately that isn’t always the case. It wasn’t for me, that’s why I left so long ago, and I refused to come back until I was strong enough to not leave if something like that ever happened again. Ironically, I didn’t understand that I would never grow stronger spiritually if I distanced myself from God, but that’s a lesson I just figured out right now as I was typing this. 13:10-14 - Paul recognizes that portions of this letter can come across as harsh, but he wants to clarify to the people, he’s putting this out there before he arrives so that when he shows up, if the people have repented then it can be a time of rejoicing and if they have not then they shouldn’t be surprised by what he tells them, because he’s told them exactly what he’s going to say. He wants his visit to be positive and full of “edification, and not to destruction.” So if he gets there and the letter is sufficient, he wants to have a good experience with them, instead of preaching repentance to them. He urges them to “be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.” This concept of being of one mind, to me, is about having the same common goal, which is to live Christ like lives. He encourages them to live in harmony with each other and “greet one another with an holy kiss,” which the Joseph Smith Translation changes to “salutation.” And he blesses them with “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.” And that’s it, I’m finally done with the letters to the Corinthians. I’ve been in Corinthians for 11 months, and the New Testament as a whole for 4 years now. So much has happened in that time and it’s been pretty crazy, but before I start on Galatians next week, I just want to say that I’m grateful for all that I’ve learned and for this opportunity to study the scriptures.