2 Corinthians 1:2Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Thus, having united all into one and made a common greeting, according to his accepted custom of greeting all, he says: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father,” who made you worthy of adoption by Him, “and from our Lord Jesus Christ,” who made you His own kin and His fellow heirs.

Since the grace of God and of Christ is one, Paul trusts that they share in the grace of God, which is also Christ’s.

Both Timothy and Titus were sent to the Corinthians. But the Apostle did not place blessed Titus beside himself in the writings, because he appointed him to be their minister and sent this epistle with him. He calls the Corinthians “the Church of God,” again bringing them into concord and pointing them to the Master and Benefactor. He also joined to them all who had believed among that people, recognizing as one body all who had been counted worthy of salvation.

In the introduction, the Apostle, on behalf of himself and Brother Timothy, gives the Corinthians, together with all the saints of Achaia, grace and peace from God and Jesus Christ. He blesses God, who increases consolation for the Apostle as Christ’s sufferings increase in him. Then, having said that he places the purpose of all his sufferings and consolations in the consolation and salvation of the Corinthians, the Apostle tells of a mortal danger that had befallen him in Asia. From this the Lord delivered him through the cooperation of the prayers of the Corinthian Church.

In the inscription of the epistle it is said that it is intended for the Church of Corinth and for all the Christians of Achaia, that is, almost all Greece. Achaia included both Hellas proper and the Peloponnese.

Therefore the question arises: was this epistle circular? Yet, judging from the fact that the epistle contains details referring exclusively to the Corinthians, one must suppose that the Christians of other places in Greece are mentioned for another reason.

It was so that the epistle would also become known to all of them. Their intellectual and moral condition was more or less the same everywhere, and therefore the same doubts and perplexities could arise.

This is evident, for example, from the Athenians’ attitude toward the Apostle Paul.

In the words “grace to you and peace,” grace may be understood as the whole fullness of spiritual life. Peace may be understood as the whole fullness of outward well-being.

This includes not only the peaceful union of believers among themselves, and the peaceful course of their affairs, but especially peaceful relations with those outside. Thus there would be no persecutions, oppressions, or deprivations.

In outward peace, they could more easily advance in the inward life pleasing to God.

“From God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

“He points out to them the Master and Benefactor,” says Theodoret.

This is the usual word in all the epistles. Yet as the Apostle does not tire of mentioning it each time, so we also should not be lazy in refreshing a good thought in our mind.

Every good thing descends to us from God the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ. We should add, “in the Holy Spirit,” from the Most Holy Trinity, the one God, infinitely benevolent and infinitely generous.

Just as the works that the Father does are likewise accomplished by the Son (cf. Jn 14:10), so the gifts that the Father gives are also granted by the Son. And it should be said that, when they call God their Father, they no longer call the Savior their brother, but their Lord. They show that mortal men, even if they become sons of God, nevertheless remain servants of the Lord Jesus, their Creator. For He alone is the Son of God in truth, and not by name, and the Master of those who become sons.