Exhortations and Blessing

Dannah Gresh: All this month, we’ve heard that it’s the season of joy. But the truth is, sometimes that’s hard to believe. Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth says the Bible acknowledges real pain, but also provides hope.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: In this world, there’s a whole lot of cause for grief and sorrow. But for the believer, grieving is not incompatible with rejoicing. They can go hand in hand.

Dannah: This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author of Adorned, for December 29, 2021. I’m Dannah Gresh.

Sometimes we make a big deal about the last thing someone said before they died, or the closing lines of a book. For example, you may be familiar with the final words of the book A Tale of Two Cities. Sydney Carton says before he gives his life for the sake of the one he loves, “It is a far, far better thing that I do than I have ever done. It is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”

Well, here it is, the end of the year, and Nancy is going to take us to the last lines of the apostle Paul’s second letter to the church in Corinth. His words have meaning for all of us today as we close the book on this year in just a few days and open up the new year. Let’s listen.

Nancy: I’m so grateful for the way that God’s Word speaks to us at every season of life, in every season of our calendar and our year. Every day it has fresh, new things to say to us.

Over the past few months I’ve been journaling in the book of 2 Corinthians. So for the next few days, as we come to the end of this calendar year and we prepare to turn the page to a new year, I want to unpack with you a few verses that I’ve been meditating on recently. They’re found in the last chapter of 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 13. Don’t think of the love chapter when I say that—that’s 1 Corinthians 13. We’re looking at 2 Corinthians 13, and we’re going to be looking over these three days at the last paragraph in this chapter.

So in verse 11 the apostle Paul says, “Finally . . .” Chapters one through twelve, chapter 13:1–10, has all been Paul addressing things that he knew these Corinthian believers needed to hear. Now he says, “Finally . . .”

Paul is bringing his letter to a close, and he does this with a series of exhortations, with a promise, with personal greetings, and with a benediction. We’re going to look at all of those over the next few days. So let me read this passage, and then we’ll dive into it.

Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice. Become mature, be encouraged,be of the same mind, be at peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints send you greetings. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Cor. 13:11–13)

We could just say, amen!

So here Paul is giving a blessing to these people. I love this passage, and I wanted to share it as we come to the end of one year and the beginning of another. Now, verse 11 is where we’ll park ourselves today. Paul addresses these verses to brothers and sisters. “Finally, brothers and sisters . . .”

Now, if you’ve read the rest of 1 and 2 Corinthians, you know that there were some serious issues and challenges in that church. But Paul still views them, he still treats them as family, brothers and sisters.

Notice that this exhortation at the end of the book is not just to the leaders of the church, it’s to the whole church. It’s a corporate message. Paul talks about “one another.” Each time you see the word “you” in this paragraph, it’s the plural you. “You all.” He wraps up his message to these believers, and he summarizes his concerns for them.

Notice what he’s concerned about. He’s not focused on their financial well-being or their personal comfort or any kind of worldly success, but he’s focused on their hearts. He’s focused on their spiritual flourishing and on their relationships with each other in the body of Christ.

Today, we’re going to look at five exhortations found in 2 Corinthians 13:11. The first one is, rejoice. “Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice.” This is a word that’s used eight times in the book of 2 Corinthians, and it’s a word that means to be cheerful, to be calmly happy or well-off. It’s a word that’s used in the imperative mood in salutations.

What’s a salutation? That’s what you say when you meet somebody or when you’re parting from someone. When you meet someone, what do you say? “Hi! Hello.” Or when you part, you might have said in an old-fashioned way, “Be well,” or “Farewell,” or “Godspeed.”

But this word “rejoice,” this salutation, is not just like saying, “Hello,” or “Goodbye.” It always communicates the idea of joy, of cheer. It means, “Rejoice!” When you see somebody you haven’t seen in a while or you’re leaving someone that you’ve been with for a while—maybe you just sent family off or guests from the holidays—you say, “Rejoice! May joy be with you.” It’s a way of saying goodbye, it’s a way of saying hello that’s packed with meaning.

Now, Paul’s letters to the Corinthians are filled with weighty issues. You have glimpses into his sufferings that he talks about in these books. There are challenges that he had to deal with that threatened the body of Christ. There were some important things, but Paul never lost his joy in the midst of it all, and he never failed to impart joy to others. Paul was a joy-receiver and a joy-giver.

So what does he say in 2 Corinthians 7:4? I think it’s one of the most remarkable verses in Scripture. He says, “I am overflowing with joy in all our afflictions.” Wow! “I’m overflowing with joy in all our afflictions.” But it wasn’t just Paul. Our Savior, Isaiah 53 tells us, was a “man of sorrows.” But Hebrews 1 tells us he was also anointed with the oil of—what? Joy! Gladness! So sorrow and gladness.

In this world there’s a whole lot of cause for grief and sorrow, but for the believer, grieving is not incompatible with rejoicing. They can go hand in hand.

I see my friend here who just days ago lost her mother. She didn’t lose her; she knows where she is. Her mother has gone on to heaven. Rene is grieving the loss of her mother, and yet in Christ she’s rejoicing in the hope of the resurrection. This is very possible.

Paul wanted these believers to be left at the end of this letter with a call to glad-hearted cheerfulness that was rooted in Christ and rooted in the gospel. Joy ought to be a characteristic that stands out in the servants and followers of Jesus, always rejoicing in what we have in Him. That kind of rejoicing is independent of our circumstances, what’s going on around us, what’s happening in our world. That’s not going to make us joyful this year-end or in the year to come. So Paul says, “Finally, rejoice.” How do we do that? We rejoice in Christ.

That’s the first exhortation: Rejoice. Be glad. Be cheerful. He says it when he’s greeting people, and he says it when he’s leaving people. He says it at the conclusion of this letter to the believers that he loves in Corinth.

Now, what’s the second exhortation? You find it in the same verse. Paul says, “Become mature.” Some translations say, “Become complete.” Another translation says, “Aim for restoration.”

Now, Paul had used this same word earlier in chapter 13. If you look at verse 9 of this chapter, Paul says, “We also pray that you become fully mature.” Same word.

What does this word mean? What’s it talking about? Well, it’s a word that means “to make complete, to make whole.” But that sometimes involves a repair or an adjustment. It means “to mend something, to restore something, so it can be put back together and be whole.” It can be put back in order.

For example, if you have a broken or dislocated bone, the doctor may reset it. It may be a painful process, but he wants to put it back in the right place. Sometimes we get broken relationships. They need to be reset; they need to be put back in order.

This word has to do with restoring what is broken in our physical bodies or in the body of Christ so that it can be whole and it can function as it ought, so it can be a body of Christ fit to be used by God in our world.

Now, Paul says, “Become mature,” or “Be being restored.” The implication here is you haven’t arrived. There’s still work to do. Now, throughout these books, Paul commends the believers in Corinth for many strengths. In chapter 1 he talks about their faith and their love. You say, “Well, isn’t that enough?” Paul is saying that the sanctifying, restoring work of God in these believers was not yet complete. There was more work to be done.

So Paul urged them to press on to spiritual maturity, not to settle into where they were at the moment. This is a process that doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time, it requires change and mending and adjusting and restoration. It’s a process that not only did the Corinthian church need—become mature, become whole, become restored—but it’s a process we need perpetually in our lives and relationships.

What’s Paul saying? Don’t be content to stay where you are spiritually. As we head into a new year, be pressing on, encouraging one another to press on to spiritual maturity. Paul’s saying, “Grow up, and don’t ever stop growing in Christ and His grace.” No matter how old you are, no matter how long you’ve been in Christ, keep growing. Become mature.

So, rejoice, become mature, and then, number three, be encouraged. Another translation says, “Comfort one another.”

This is a word, “encouragement or comfort,” that means “to call to one’s side, to call near, to call for aid, first aid, or help.” Now, this is a theme that we see in the first chapter of 2 Corinthians, where Paul talks about God being the God of all comfort. He’s the One who comes alongside of us when we are hurting, when we are grieving, when we are sad, when we are heavy-hearted, when we’re weak and needy. He comes to our aid. He comes alongside of us by His Holy Spirit to comfort us, to encourage us, to give us aid when we are afflicted.

This is a reminder that we are not self-sufficient. We were not created, and we are not able to carry our burdens on our own. We are needy. We’re prone to be discouraged, we’re prone to be heavy-hearted. So Paul says, “Comfort one another. Encourage one another. And as you do, be encouraged. Be comforted.”

So, watch the progression here. We are to receive comfort from the God of all comfort, and then we are to offer that encouragement and comfort to others in the body who need it. We’re offering them God’s encouragement, God’s comfort. What we’ve received from Him, we’re offering to others who need it.

Now, we never get beyond our need for the emotional, spiritual companionship and aid of the Holy Spirit, the God of all comfort. We never get to the place where we don’t need the support and the encouragement and the comfort that we receive from other believers who come alongside of us to minister God’s grace to us. So, we get God’s grace, comfort, and encouragement; we give it to others. 

You get God’s grace, comfort, and encouragement from the God of all comfort, and you give it! So I get it from you, you get it from me, and we’re all getting it from Him. It’s a never-ending supply and flow of comfort and encouragement and grace. We’re always both receivers and givers of this comfort. “Be encouraged. Comfort one another.”

When we face trials and afflictions, we have to be willing to receive encouragement and comfort, not only from God, but from others, from His people. As we receive comfort and encouragement, we will be enabled to rejoice and to press on through our trials with hope.

We will be enabled to pour out to others the comfort and encouragement we have received from God and from others. It’s this never-ending flow of comfort and encouragement.

Do you know what that means? It means that in the body of Christ there should never be any among us who are not encouraged in Christ and who do not experience the warmth of His comfort, received from God and received from us as His people.

So the first exhortation: rejoice. The second: become mature. And the third: be encouraged and comfort one another.

Now, here’s the fourth one: be of the same mind. Your translation may say, “Agree with one another,” or “Be like-minded.” Paul says in Philippians 2, “Make my joy complete by thinking the same way . . . intent on one purpose” (v. 2). He says in Philippians 2:5, “Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus.” 

Think about the attitude and mind that Christ has toward us. That’s the very same attitude and mindset that we’re to have toward one another. It’s how we’re supposed to think about each other. As He loves us, as He has sacrificed for us, as He has given Himself for us, as He has put His favor and His affection upon us, that’s how we’re to think about each other.

Now, this verse doesn’t mean that we will agree on everything. “Be of the same mind.” It doesn’t mean we will think the same way about every matter. In fact, just in this room we probably have a lot of differences of opinion about a lot of things—maybe some doctrinal issues, the mode of baptism (depending on your background), or how often we should observe the Lord’s Supper, or your eschatology, or your ecclesiology. Maybe you’re saying, “I don’t even know what those things are!” But other people say, “This is super important,” and they’re drawing dividing lines on these things.

We have differences on how you should educate your children, differences about politics and political parties and leaders and the outworking of justice and cultural issues and mask and vaccine mandates—oops! I said it. Because even in this room, I’m sure, if we were to take some polls, we’d have some really different opinions on all of that. And it’s okay to have differences of opinion.

How can he say, “Be of the same mind,” but you don’t have to agree on everything? Well, our mindset toward one another should be one of humility and mutual love and care. We are to agree on the things that are essential to our faith. We have a shared commitment to truth, that this is the Word of God and it is true. Whatever it speaks to, we’re going to agree on that, and whatever it doesn’t speak to or whatever it’s not clear about, then we can agree to disagree, something that people seem to have a hard time doing these days. We are to agree on the essentials of our faith. That is the basis for unity in the church.

So Paul says, “Rejoice, become mature, be encouraged and comfort one another,” and then, “Be of the same mind.” Finally, he says, “Be at peace.”

Do you see how these kind of interrelate to each other? If you’re not thinking right about each other, then there’s no way you’re going to be at peace. Another translation says, “Live in peace.” This is a thing that seems to be in short supply today, doesn’t it? Where’s the peace?

If you’re on social media at all, you see people are not at peace. They are at war with each other. Even Christians are picking at each other, condemning each other, criticizing each other, tearing each other down. There are even, sad to say, some respected Christian leaders who do this.

My heart breaks when I see it. It grieves me. If it grieves me, how much more does it grieve God? It’s not fair for me to just point the finger at people who do that publicly. What about in our private conversations? I’m way more free to say things in private that may be demeaning of other people or putting them down. Paul says, “Live in peace.”

We are not to allow our pride or our personal preferences, personal viewpoints to put up walls between us. We’re supposed to be intentional in the body of Christ about bringing warring, feuding parties together. 

Now, we can’t force anyone else to act peaceably. You may have some family members or some friends or some people in your church . . . We have some pastors’ wives here today. You can probably think of people in your church who are not peaceable people. They are not peacemakers, they do not love peace, and you can’t force them to love peace. But here’s what we can do: we can act peaceably toward them. That peace is the fruit of the Spirit. It molds and melds and weaves our lives together as we walk in His Spirit.

So Paul says, “Rejoice! Become mature. Be encouraged. Encourage one another. Be of the same mind, and be at peace. Live in peace with one another.” Now, those five exhortations in 2 Corinthians 13:11 provide a pattern, a template by which to evaluate our lives and our relationships in the family of God.

Let me ask, how are you doing—how am I doing—at cultivating and modeling these qualities? Sometimes when we hear Scripture taught this way, what comes to our mind is somebody else that we think needs to hear this and that we think needs to be doing this. “I have to share this message with someone else.” But first we need to say, “Lord, how am I doing at cultivating these qualities, of modeling them?” What about joy? 

Some of you have heard me say many times before that a goal I’ve had since I was a little girl is to be a godly, old lady. Well, recently I’ve changed that. What I’m saying now is I want to be a happy, godly, old lady. I’ve found some old ladies who aren’t so happy! Some old men, too. Robert and I are saying to each other regularly that we want to be a happy older couple as we age. There are things that will be going wrong and hard things, but we want to be joyful people.

Are you a joy-giver in your home, in your workplace, in your church, in your neighborhood? You can’t control what others do, but you can be filled with the Spirit of God and be a joyful person, a joy-giver.

Number two, spiritual maturity, growth, restoration. How are you doing on that? 

• Are you growing, or are you in kind of a neutral cycle? 
• Are you kind of zoned out, not being intentional about spiritual growth? 
• Are you continuing to grow, to be fixed, to be restored, to let God work in you and change you so that you can fit better into the whole of His body?

What about comfort and encouragement? Do you receive comfort from God and from others? Are you a giver of comfort and encouragement to those around you?

What about oneness of mind and heart? Are you a divider or a reconciler?

What about peacefulness through our words, our actions, and our attitudes?

You see, our world is marked by that old-time word: hubris. It means pride, arrogance, one-upmanship, jockeying for position and prominence, self-exaltation, divisiveness. This is what comes naturally to the children of Adam and Eve, but it’s a toxic fruit of Satan and his demons. He is a divider, he is a destroyer, he is pulling apart people and families and relationships and marriages. How our world needs today to see a radically different paradigm in the people of God, a reflection of His heart and His Spirit.

What kind of difference would it make around you if the people in your church, if we as the people of God, were living out these qualities? I’ll tell you what it would do: it would transform the environment around us. It would transform marriages, families, family gatherings. You say, “People at my family gathering are just cantankerous. I’ve just been there, and there’s no way there’s going to be peace.” Listen. Did you fuel the divisiveness and the angry, proud words, or did you let God use you as an instrument of peace? You can’t control them, but you can do it yourself.

Church gatherings would be transformed. Private conversations would be transformed. Social interactions, workplace environments, and social media, if we were to live out these qualities, these characteristics.

Rejoice, become mature, be encouraged, be of the same mind, and be at peace.

Now, just quickly as we close and we look at the end of verse 11, there’s a blessing promised to those believers and churches that follow these exhortations. What does Paul say? If you do these things, “the God of love and peace will be with you.” Again, that “you” is plural—y’all. Your church. 

Now, we know that God is everywhere; He’s omnipresent. But He wants to pour out among His people a sense of the fullness of His presence. He wants there to be undeniable evidence that God is in that church, God is in that marriage, God is in that family.

I had a woman text me last night whom I barely know, but I’ve had some contact with her over the years. She texted me and she said, “I’m in trouble. I need help.” I’ve never seen her, heard her open up about anything personal in her life, nothing spiritual expressed. But she said, “I so respect you and Robert.” She’s plagued with anxiety and with a number of stress-related issues, and she said, “I need help. Can you help me?” 

She has seen something in our limited contact that made her think this was a place she could go, and that maybe there was hope for her. She needs love, she needs peace. 

• God is the God of love. 
• He is the God of peace. 
• He is the source of all true love and peace. 
• He gave His Son to reconcile us to Himself, and thereby to one another. 
• He is with His people always by the ministry of His indwelling people.

There are times in the Old Testament and when you go to the book of Revelation when God withdrew His presence from His people because of their disobedience and their pride, because they shut God out. God said, “Okay, you want to live on your own? Go ahead and do it.”

So as our churches and our families and as individuals, we can welcome and embrace the presence of God, or we can reject it. But churches and believers who heed these instructions we’ve been talking about will have a conscious awareness that God is with us, and they will experience His love and His peace. It will be seen in and through us, and what a sweet thing that is in a world that is torn apart with hatred, animosity, and division.

“Finally, brothers and sister . . .” as we come to the end of this year, as we embark on a new year, “. . . rejoice. Become mature. Be encouraged. Comfort one another. Be of the same mind. Be at peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.”

Dannah: Amen. Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth has been sharing some exhortations from 2 Corinthians chapter 13 with us. 

I hope you’ve been encouraged by those five key reminders as we get ready to wrap up 2021. If you want to take a closer look at those exhortations, visit ReviveOurHearts.com. They’re available to you as a free PDF download. Just look for a link on today’s transcript. 

You know, Nancy, it’s truly our prayer that these truth-filled reminders are going to bring our listeners fresh perspective as they head into the new year.

Nancy: Yes, absolutely, Dannah. That’s why that passage was on my heart as we close the calendar on one year and get ready to open it on 2022, which is nearly here.

While none of us knows exactly what this new year is going to bring, we can be sure that God is at work and that He’s going to use every moment, even every challenge we face, for His glory and for the good of those who love Him. So, whatever season you may be facing in this new year, whether it’s joy or pain (or probably some of both), we want you to know that Revive Our Hearts will be here for you with a message of timeless truth.

You know, for more than twenty years now listeners like you have prayed for this ministry and given financially to support our outreaches. I could not be more grateful. If you’ve ever supported Revive Our Hearts in any way, thank you so much! You’re part of bringing truth to women around the world, truth to help every woman thrive in Christ.

Dannah: You know, over the last year we’ve seen God working in incredible ways as He continues to expand our outreach. Our team made a special video to give you a glimpse of what the Lord has done in 2021. You can watch that on our website at ReviveOurHearts.com.

As Nancy mentioned earlier, we’re only able to have that kind of impact across the globe through the support of our listeners. Here at the end of the year it’s such a crucial time for us. Did you know that almost half of the donations we receive throughout the year come during the month of December? All month long, we’ve been praying for God to provide $2.8 million. That’ll help us close out the year and prepare us for all He has in store for next year.

Nancy: I’m so thankful for some friends of the ministry who have said, “We see how God is using Revive Our Hearts to transform the lives of women, and we want to encourage others to be a part.” So as you’ve heard us share in recent weeks, these friends have offered up a matching challenge just for the month of December. That means that when you give any amount, they will double it dollar for dollar, up to $1.4 million. Put that with the matching challenge, and there you end up with the total amount we’re praying that God will provide even in these last few days of the year.

Dannah: Yes. You need to hurry, because our deadline is December 31 at midnight. So, if you’d like your gift to count toward our matching challenge, make sure to head to our website, ReviveOurHearts.com, in the next three days. Or, if you’re like me, just do it now, or you might forget. You can always give us a call at 1–800–569–5959. 

Can I just say thank you? Thank you for joining us in the work God is doing through Revive Our Hearts.

Nancy: Dannah, have you ever wondered what the phrase in the Bible, “greet one another with a holy kiss,” means?

Dannah: Actually, yes, I have!

Nancy: Well, tomorrow I’m going to unpack that phrase and how we can take the concept of greeting each other into the new year. My sweet husband was in the studio when I recorded this session, and actually, he loved it. But we’re going to talk about what it means, not just in marriage, to have a holy kiss, but in the body of Christ.

If you want to look ahead, we’re going to walk through verse 12 in 2 Corinthians chapter 13. So please be back for Revive Our Hearts.

Dannah: I think I will be!

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth encourages you to live in freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

All Scripture is taken from the CSB.

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