The technical term for closing a letter is “valediction”. It’s how one bids farewell. We use such common words or phrases as “Sincerely”, “Respectfully”, “Best Wishes”, “Till we meet again”, even “Love”. Now I suspect that when you close a letter, you give little thought to how you close it. But I can honestly say that I give careful contemplation to how I close mine, because I try to tie it in with what I’ve written.
Very typically, I close most church correspondence with, “Joy, Peace and Hope”. But sometimes, like when I’m challenging someone to accept a particular ministry, I’ll close with, “All for Him”. By and large however, I believe most people give very little thought to their valediction. If this is so, I presume that the readers give even less reflection to the specific closing; unless of course, the letter has been sent from that special someone. He/She had better signed off with “Love” or “Yours forever”. You know a relationship is in trouble if the boy/girlfriend signed with the more detached, “Affectionately” or “Fondly”.
Come this Sunday to learn how the Apostle Paul closed his letter to the Philippian Church with much more than just an innocuous and meaningless twaddle.
