The Merciful MasterSample

Grace and Peace

Greetings are beautiful. Sadly, in our hurried world of communication by text messages and social media we seldom consider the depth and meaning of a greeting. However, there is profound theology when Paul greets Philemon and his family and the church that meets at their home. Apphia was Philemon’s wife and Archippus was probably their son who was an elder in the Church (Colossians 4:17) and later a bishop of the Church at Laodicea (according to tradition). We see the rich legacy of God’s grace at work in the life of Philemon and his family and the incredible blessing they were to the church and community. 

Paul, in His customary manner, greets with the grace and peace of God. This grace of God that Paul invokes is the same grace that took hold of him on the road to Damascus and had captured the hearts of Philemon and his family. It is a transformative grace that makes sinners who are otherwise children of wrath to be sons and daughters of God in the service of Jesus. This grace is wholly a gift from the heavenly Father mediated through the work of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 

This grace of God is never apart from the peace of God – that perfect Edenic blessed state of being to which all creation aspires to be. This is why the word shalom (peace) was a common Hebrew greeting for the Old Testament covenant people of God. They understood those who experienced the grace of God which brings salvation will never lack the peace of God reigning in their heart. Thus, Paul is not merely saying some clichéd words of well-wishes, but he is conveying a genuine experience in the life of a child of God. Paul is desiring that Philemon along with his family and all of the other saints of God would continue to experience daily this grace and peace. To be a Christian is to have experienced the grace and peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and to live in this experience till our final breath. This is the only way we can bless others as the Lord blesses us.