Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Corinthians 13:11

"Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfected; be comforted; be of the same mind; live in peace: and the God of love and peace shall be with you." — 2 Corinthians 13:11 (ASV)

Finally, brethren, farewell.—The word (literally, rejoice) was the natural close of a Greek letter, and is therefore adequately represented by the English “farewell,” if only we remember that it was used in all the fullness of its meaning. “Rejoice—let that be our last word to you.”

Be perfect.—Better, as before, restore yourselves to completeness; amend yourselves. In the words be of good comfort (better, perhaps, be comforted, with the implied thought that the comfort comes through accepting his word of counsel—see Note on Acts 4:36), we trace an echo of what he had said in the opening of the Epistle, as to the “comfort” which had been given to him (2 Corinthians 1:4; 2 Corinthians 1:7). Paraclesis in its twofold aspect is, in fact, the keynote of the whole Epistle. Taking the verb and the noun together, the word occurs twenty-eight times in it.

Be of one mind.—The phrase was one specially characteristic of Saint Paul’s teaching (Romans 15:6; Philippians 2:2; Philippians 3:16; Philippians 4:2). His thoughts are apparently travelling back to the schisms over which he had grieved in 1 Corinthians 1–3 and to which he had referred in 2 Corinthians 12:20. What he seeks is the restoration of unity of purpose, and with that, of inward and outward peace. If these conditions were fulfilled, the God of love and peace would assuredly be with them, for peace rests ever upon the son of peace (Luke 10:6).