An Incorruptible Benediction Text: Ephesians 6:23-24
Introduction: The End is the Beginning
We have come to the end of this magnificent letter. Paul has taken us to the highest peaks of theology, showing us our election in Christ before the foundation of the world, and he has walked us through the most practical corridors of our lives, teaching us how to walk, how to love, how to work, and how to fight. And now, at the end of it all, he does not simply trail off. He concludes with a benediction, a blessing. But we must understand that a biblical benediction is not like waving goodbye from a departing train. It is more like a general giving his soldiers their final charge before they enter the battle for which he has just equipped them. It is a sending, a commissioning, packed with dense theological reality.
The entire book of Ephesians is structured as a great indicative/imperative sandwich. The first three chapters are the glorious indicatives, what God has done for us in Christ. This is the gospel. You are seated with Him in the heavenly places. The last three chapters are the imperatives, what we are to do in response. Therefore, walk worthy. And now, at the very end, Paul returns to the source of it all. He pronounces a blessing that is not a mere wish, but a declaration of what is, and what shall be, for the people of God. He began with grace and peace, and he ends with grace and peace. This is not a literary device; it is a theological necessity. Everything we have and everything we are is bracketed by the grace and peace of God.
This final blessing is a potent summary of the Christian life. It contains the essential elements that must mark the church in every age: peace among the brethren, love tethered to faith, and a grace that fuels an incorruptible love for the Lord Jesus Christ. In a world that is disintegrating into factions, sentimentalism, and corruption, this benediction is not just a pleasant farewell. It is a battle cry. It is the final equipping for the saints who have just put on their armor.
The Text
"Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love."
(Ephesians 6:23-24 LSB)
A Triad of Covenant Blessings (v. 23)
We begin with the first part of the benediction in verse 23:
"Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." (Ephesians 6:23)
Notice first who the recipients are: "the brothers." This is covenant language. This blessing is not a generic, sentimental wish for all mankind. It is a family blessing, spoken over the household of God. Peace is for the brethren. This is crucial. The world seeks a peace that is nothing more than the absence of conflict, a fragile truce built on compromise and tolerance. But biblical peace, shalom, is a positive reality. It is wholeness, rightness, flourishing. It is the result of being rightly related to God and, consequently, rightly related to one another. Paul has already told us that Christ Himself is our peace, having broken down the dividing wall of hostility (Eph. 2:14). This peace, therefore, is not something we manufacture; it is something we receive and then are commanded to maintain in the bond of the Spirit (Eph. 4:3).
But this peace does not exist in a vacuum. It is coupled with "love with faith." These are not three separate items on a spiritual checklist. They are a tightly woven cord. You cannot have true peace without love, and you cannot have true love without faith. Our modern world has tried to hijack the word love and turn it into a gooey, sentimental affection that affirms everything and judges nothing. But biblical love is rugged. It is a covenantal commitment, a loyalty that rejoices with the truth. And it is always "with faith." Faith is the root; love is the fruit. Faith is our grip on Christ, and love is the outworking of that grip in our relationships with the brothers. A faith that does not produce love is a dead faith (James 2:17), and a "love" that is not grounded in the faith once for all delivered to the saints is a counterfeit.
And where do these blessings originate? Paul is explicit: "from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." This is not an afterthought. It is the foundation of everything. The Father is the ultimate source, the fountainhead of all blessing. The Lord Jesus Christ is the sole mediator and channel of that blessing. There is no other tap. If you want peace, it must come from them. If you want love with faith, it must come from them. This consistent, casual yoking of the Father and the Son is one of the clearest and most profound statements of Christ's divinity in all of Scripture. He is not a junior partner. He is the co-equal source of all spiritual life. This benediction is thoroughly Trinitarian in its structure and substance.
The Uncorrupted Heart (v. 24)
The benediction then broadens, but with a very specific qualification.
"Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love." (Ephesians 6:24 LSB)
Here we have the capstone blessing: grace. If peace, love, and faith are the gifts, grace is the divine atmosphere in which they live and breathe. Grace is God's unmerited favor, His divine enablement, His operational power in our lives. Paul began the letter by celebrating this grace (Eph. 1:2), he explained our salvation by it (Eph. 2:8-9), and now he concludes by praying for its continued presence with the saints.
But notice the qualification. This grace is for "all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ." This is the defining mark of a true Christian. Not perfect performance, not intellectual acumen, but a genuine love for the Lord Jesus. This is the question Jesus put to Peter three times: "Do you love me?" It is the heart of the matter.
And Paul adds one final, crucial descriptor. This love must be "incorruptible." The Greek word here is aphtharsia. It means immortal, undying, imperishable. It is the opposite of that which decays, rots, or fades away. This is a direct shot across the bow of any cheap, sentimental, or fair-weather faith. Our love for Christ is not to be a fleeting emotion. It is not a temporary enthusiasm. It must be a love that cannot be corrupted by worldly pressures, by false teaching, by suffering, or by the sheer passage of time. It is a love that endures to the end.
This incorruptible love is not something we muster up through sheer willpower. How can a corruptible creature produce an incorruptible love? We cannot. This kind of love is the direct result of the grace that Paul is praying for. God's grace comes to us and produces in us a love for Christ that partakes of the character of the grace itself: it is incorruptible. It is a supernatural, Spirit-wrought loyalty. It is a love that has been born from above, and therefore cannot see decay.
Conclusion: A Benediction to Be Lived
So, as we leave this letter, we are not left with a list of rules to follow in our own strength. We are left with a blessing to inhabit. This is the shape of a healthy Christian and a healthy church. It is a community of "brothers" living in the peace that Christ purchased. It is a people whose love for one another is the direct and observable fruit of their shared faith in the gospel. It is a body whose defining characteristic is a durable, undying, incorruptible love for Jesus Christ.
And all of it, from beginning to end, is soaked in grace. The peace is a gift of grace. The love is a gift of grace. The faith is a gift of grace. And the incorruptible nature of our love is sustained by grace upon grace. This is why Paul can pronounce this as a blessing. He is not telling us to go out and try really hard to be peaceful, loving, and faithful. He is declaring what God, the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, will be and do for His people.
Therefore, we should desire this for one another. We should pray this over one another. Peace to the brothers. Love with faith. And may God's grace be with all of us who, by that same grace, love the Lord Jesus with a love that will not rot, will not fade, and will not die, but will endure into eternity.