The epistle reading for this week gives us Paul's concluding words to the troubled, contentious church in Corinth. Scholars generally agree that 2 Corinthians is actually made up of several letter fragments joined together (although they agree less well on just how many fragments and where all the cutting and pasting has occurred). It appears, however, that the final portion of 2 Corinthians runs from 10:1-13:10 and originally included the greetings and benedictions found in today's epistle portion, 13:11-13. Note that in some translations, these final words extend over 13:11-14. The two "greeting" references, designated in the NRSV as verse 12, are in other translations, divided into two verses, 12 and 13, making the closing benediction verse 14.
The severity of some of Paul's earlier wor…