1 Thessalonians 5:28

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christbe with you This is St Paul's usual form of final benediction. He expands it later Into the full Trinitarian blessing of 2 Corinthians 13:14, or shortens it into the brief "Grace be with you" of Colossians 4:18. It contains all spiritual good that one Christian can wish another. Such grace is withus, when it constantly attends us, when it forms the atmosphere we breathe, the light by which we see, the guiding and sustaining influence of our whole lives. Comp. note on ch. 1 Thessalonians 1:1; and on grace, 2 Thessalonians 1:12.

The liturgical Amen is added by the Apostle in some of his letters, and was very naturally supplied by devout copyists in others. Here it is not authentic.

¶ The firstepistle unto the Thessalonians was written from Athens This, like the other "subscriptions" to St Paul's Epistles, is a note of the Greek editors, which may be perhaps as old as the second century. It is almost certainly erroneous in point of fact; see Introd. pp. 22, 27. In the oldest MSS the words "To the Thessalonians I" are placed at the end, repeated from the beginning of the Epistle. See note on the title, p. 45.