THURSDAY 21st
2 Thessalonians 3:16-17
NIV (v17) – ‘I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand, which is the distinguishing mark in all my letters. This is how I write.’
ESV (v17) – ‘I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. This is the sign of genuineness in every letter of mine; it is the way I write.’
This verse would indicate that up until verse 15 of this chapter, someone else had written down what Paul had wanted to say in this letter for him, but to show it was a genuine letter from Paul himself, he was doing the greeting in his own handwriting, which we assume they would have recognised. It would have guaranteed that they knew exactly who this letter had come from. You may recall earlier in this letter Paul had said about ‘a letter seeming to be from us’ (2:2) and of spoken words that obviously had been claimed to have come from Paul which were not from him, he wanted them to know that this letter was genuine, they could be without any doubt whatsoever of where and from whom it had come.
The word genuine or genuineness are important words regarding the Christian faith, we need to ensure that what is declared and taught is genuinely grounded in the truth of Scripture, we need to ensure that we are genuine in our faith, with a good and proper relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, we need also to ensure that we are genuine in the way that we present ourselves to one another and to those who are outside of the Church.
The opposite to genuine would be fake or false, even fraudulent, let us ensure as we come to the end of our look at this second letter to the Thessalonians that we seek to always be genuine and are always willing to ensure that we only pursue after that which is genuine, that which is truth. Let is ensure that we are genuine with each other and before God, for it is before him one day that we will have to give an account of ourselves.