1 Thessalonians 5:25

Brethren, pray for us. Salute all the brethren with a holy kiss. I adjure you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the brethren. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Despite its brevity, this apostolic benediction and signature contains some very important teaching.

Brethren, pray for us ... Despite being a giant of prayer himself, Paul always felt the need of the prayer of others; and the more one prays the more he feels such a need.

Salute all the brethren with a holy kiss ... This has been frequently commented upon in this series in the several other places where the apostle issues such a command. As Cousins noted:

Kissing was a normal mode of greeting friends and became a sign of the mutual affection within the Christian brotherhood. Later it continued (to the present day in some liturgies) as a ritual observance. In the West today, even the most conservative are content to substitute the handshake.[35]

That this epistle be read unto all the brethren ... As a considerable portion of this epistle was directed to the elders at Thessalonica, Paul, by this powerful, even blunt, adjuration served notice upon them that the epistle did not belong to the elders, but to the church. They were to be selective neither in the matter of what was read nor the individuals to whom it was read. One cannot resist the conviction that these words were written prophetically with regard to the times which, soon after the decease of the apostles, resulted in the officialdom in Christianity taking over the scriptures and arrogating to themselves the sole right, either of reading or of interpretation.

Furthermore, in some of the ancient versions (from whence the same error in the KJV), the passage was perverted to read "all the holy brethren," this device making a discrimination to the effect that only the holy brethren were to hear it read. Presumably, this was then interpreted to mean that only the orders of the religious should read it; and thus the common man was robbed of his access to this epistle and to all the word of God. William Tyndale was burned at the stake for challenging such a conception.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you ... With these noble and characteristic words, Paul closed this beautiful and instructive epistle. Every line of it is a gem. It is rich with some of the most inspiring and comforting passages in all the Bible, and the voice of this letter is frequently sounded over the graves of the righteous in all generations. Fittingly, this final brief paragraph presents the Christian's right to know, his right to read and understand the word of God. O Lord, blessed is thy holy word. Amen.