Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.
Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen. The peace here sought is to be taken in its widest sense: the peace of reconciliation to God, first, "through the blood the everlasting covenant" (Hebrews 13:20; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; 2 Thessalonians 3:16; Philippians 4:9); then, the peace which that reconciliation diffuses among all the partakers of it (1 Corinthians 14:33; 2 Corinthians 13:11; and see the note at Romans 16:20); more widely still, that peace which the children of God, in beautiful imitation of their Father in heaven, are called and privileged to diffuse far and wide through this sin distracted and divided world (Romans 12:18; Matthew 5:9; James 3:18; Hebrews 12:14).
Remarks:
(1) Did "the chiefest of the apostles" apologize for writing to a Christian church which he had never seen, and a church that he was persuaded was above the need of it, except to "stir up their pure minds by way of remembrance" (2 Peter 1:13; 12:1); and did he put even this upon the sole plea of apostilic responsibility? (Romans 15:14-16). What a contrast is thus presented to hierarchical pride, and in particular to the affected humility of the bishop of this very Rome! How close the bond which the one spirit draws between ministers and people-how wide the separation produced by the other!
(2) There is in the Christian Church no real priesthood, and none but figurative sacrifices. Had it been otherwise, it is inconceivable that the 16th verse of this chapter should have been expressed as it is. Paul's only priesthood and sacrificial offerings lay, first in ministering to them, as "the apostle of the Gentiles," not the sacrament, with the 'Real Presence' of Christ in it, or the sacrifice of the mass, but "the Gospel of God," and then, when gathered under the wing of Christ, presenting them to God as a grateful offering, "being sanctified (not by sacrificial gifts, but) by the Holy Spirit" (see Hebrews 13:9-16).
(3) Though the debt we owe to those by whom we have been brought to Christ can never be discharged, we should feel it a privilege, when we have it in our power, to render them any lower benefit in return (Romans 15:26-27).
(4) Formidable designs against the truth and the servants of Christ should, above all other ways of counteracting them, be met by combined prayer to Him who rules all hearts and controls all events; and the darker the cloud, the more resolutely should all to whom Christ's cause is dear "strive together in their prayers to God" for the removal of it (Romans 15:30-31).
(5) Christian fellowship is so precious that the meat eminent servants of Christ, amidst the toils and trials of their work, find it refreshing and invigorating; and it is no good sign of any ecclesiastic that he deems it beneath him to seek and enjoy it even among the humblest saints in the Church of Christ (Romans 15:24; Romans 15:32).