2 Thessalonians 3:18

(18) The grace.—This is his “salutation.” The Greek secular salutation, at greeting and parting alike, was chaire (literally, rejoice); so St. Paul, alike at beginning and ending, uses a word of kindred origin, charis (“grace”). Observe the word “all” again, as in 2 Thessalonians 3:16. St. Chrysostom’s beautiful comment may well be given: “What he calls his ‘salutation’ is the prayer, snowing that the whole business they were then about was spiritual; and even when he must give a salutation, there must go some benefit along with it, and it must be a prayer, not a mere symbol of friendship. ’Twas with this he would begin, and with this he would end, fencing round that which he said with mighty walls on either side; and safe were the foundations he laid, and safe the conclusion that he laid thereon. ‘Grace to you,’ he cries, ‘and peace’; and once more, [‘Peace always’ and] ‘the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.—Amen. ’”