(28) The grace.--St. Paul's autograph to conclude the letter. (See 2Thessalonians 3:17-18.)

Verse 28. - The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. A similar salutation is to be found at the close of all Paul's Epistles; indeed, in the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, he states that this salutation was the token which he affixed to his Epistles (2 Thessalonians 3:17, 18). Amen. To be rejected, as not in the original.

5:23-28 The apostle prays that they might be sanctified more perfectly, for the best are sanctified but in part while in this world; therefore we should pray for, and press toward, complete holiness. And as we must fall, if God did not carry on his good work in the soul, we should pray to God to perfect his work, till we are presented faultless before the throne of his glory. We should pray for one another; and brethren should thus express brotherly love. This epistle was to be read to all the brethren. Not only are the common people allowed to read the Scriptures, but it is their duty, and what they should be persuaded to do. The word of God should not be kept in an unknown tongue, but transplanted, that as all men are concerned to know the Scriptures, so they all may be able to read them. The Scriptures should be read in all public congregations, for the benefit of the unlearned especially. We need no more to make us happy, than to know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is an ever-flowing and an over-flowing fountain of grace to supply all our wants.The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you, Amen. This is the apostle's usual salutation in all his epistles, and the token of the genuineness of them, 2 Thessalonians 3:17. See Gill on Romans 16:20, 1 Corinthians 15:23, 2 Corinthians 13:14.

The subscription to this epistle is not genuine, which runs thus, "The first Epistle unto the Thessalonians was written from Athens"; whereas it appears from 1 Thessalonians 3:1 compared with Acts 18:1 that it was written from Corinth, and not from Athens; nor are these last words, "from Athens", in Beza's Claromontane copy; though they stand in the Syriac and Arabic versions of the London Polygot Bible, which add, "and sent by Timothy", and in the Alexandrian copy, and Complutensian edition.