As I have stated, we are wrapping up our time in First Corinthians. A big help this past year was Dr. Gordon Fee's Commentary on First Corinthians. If you are going to preach or teach on First Corinthians, you need to get this commentary.
Anyhow, last Sunday I ended the sermon with this quote from Dr. Fee's Commentary that I thought summed up both chapter 16 and the entire book rather well.
“Thus the letter ends on a note similar to its beginning, full of the same tensions between what they are by grace and what they yet need to become in terms of obedience to Christ. They are greeted with warmth, and assured of Christ's grace and Paul's love. Along with him they await the coming of the Lord. They should continue to greet one another with the kiss of love. However, they are not yet fully there, so even here there is the word of warning. Christians must continually live in the tension between the “already” and the “not yet”; what they must not allow themselves to do is to excuse themselves from obedience because they are not yet fully there. The grace of the Lord and the hope of his coming should cause all to heed the words of this letter so as to be watchful and to do all things in love.” - Dr. Gordon Fee
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