¹⁶Now may the Lord of peace Himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance. The Lord be with you all! ¹⁷I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand, and this is a distinguishing mark in every letter; this is the way I write. ¹⁸The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

Paul concludes his letter to the Thessalonian believers, leaving with them the thought of peace like the lingering aftertaste of wine. This is their final takeaway, no less important than anything else he has written to them. In fact, all was written so that they would continue to experience peace with God. He began with peace (2 Thess. 1:2) and ended with peace. Grace and peace are two sides of the same coin: Paul preached the grace of God toward those who would believe, and he taught them peace with God, the result of being right with the Creator, the Sovereign of the universe.

Again, using the benediction form, he expresses this as his great desire. While he speaks formally as asking the Lord to “grant [them] peace,” there is also the inherent promise for believers to hold on to, to embrace in faith. Paul desires this, and his prayer invokes that which God desires. So to gain the full experience of peace, we must desire it and believe that we have it with God. And therefore we can have peace “in every circumstance.”

Peace doesn’t just float down mystically like fairy dust landing on us with a euphoric feeling. No, it is a settled rest in knowing that God has accepted us by His grace through our faith. We can have a quiet confidence, a certainty, an assurance, a conviction that affects all areas of our life that threaten our internal wellbeing. Peace controls our anxieties, our fears, and our doubts. We can experience peace amid storms, loss, and pain.

This peace is not dependent on outward circumstances, whether they change or not. Why? Because this peace rests in the timeless God who is before all and in all. He is there, no matter where we are, and therefore His peace is there also. If we are right with Him and we rest in Him, and if we know that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ (Rom. 8:38–39), then we will be able to resist the efforts of the enemy of our souls to turn us from God, or even to cause us to stray just a little bit. For, like Peter, if we know He can walk on water during the storm, we would rather be with Him in that storm than hugging the gunnels of our leaky boats in false security.

So Paul’s statement, “The Lord be with you,” is an encouragement to faith in the God of grace and peace. What more do we need?

Lord, I am so very thankful for Your presence in my life, in all my circumstances. In You only do I find grace and peace.