Grace and peace
Before the true body of the letter begins there is a phrase that is used in many other of Paul’s letters, in which he prays blessings of grace and peace over the church. Again, he recognises the true source of these blessings, ‘God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ’, and how true it is that we must recognise the source of all our blessings as the Lord, but in my mind the most poignant thing about this statement is the blessings Paul continually chooses to send, ‘grace and peace’. I think it is reasonable to assume that the grace Paul speaks of here is directly talking about God’s grace shown on the cross; above all else we, as Christians, are a people born of grace and the more we receive the better! True recognition of grace is a key factor to stepping deeper into a relationship with God, when the truth of what He did by sending His Son to the cross brings us to a place of deeper humility and spiritual strength. The peace Paul wishes us all to experience is the same peace that passes all understanding talked of in chapter four, verse seven. This peace is enough to keep our hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of Christ, in other words God’s peace on its own is enough to sort our sinful natures out from the inside. There is no surprise therefore that right at the beginning of the letter Paul and Timothy have asked for this blessing! We too ought never to stop asking for these things. Underlying everything else in our lives should be a desperate desire to experience more of God’s grace and peace, as we have recognised that with these two we can bring glory to God without saying or doing anything. And when we have that covered then we know that every other area in our Christian walk will be following the right path.
Created about 4 years ago
