The All-inclusive Greeting

Paul's greeting to his friends is: Grace be to you and peace, from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ (compare Romans 1:7 ; 1 Corinthians 1:3 ; 2 Corinthians 1:2 ; Galatians 1:3 ; Ephesians 1:2 ; Colossians 1:2 ; 1 Thessalonians 1:1 ; 2 Thessalonians 1:2 ; Phlippians 1:3 ).

When Paul put together these two great words, grace and peace, (charis, Greek #5485 , and eirene, Greek #1515 ), he was doing something very wonderful. He was taking the normal greeting phrases of two great nations and moulding them into one. Charis ( Greek #5485 ) is the greeting with which Greek letters always began and eirene ( Greek #1515 ) the greeting with which Jews met each other. Each of these words had its own flavour and each was deepened by the new meaning which Christianity poured into it.

Charis ( Greek #5485 ) is a lovely word; the basic ideas in it are joy and pleasure, brightness and beauty; it is, in fact, connected with the English word charm. But with Jesus Christ there comes a new beauty to add to the beauty that was there. And that beauty is born of a new relationship to God. With Christ life becomes lovely because man is no longer the victim of God's law but the child of his love.

Eirene ( Greek #1515 ) is a comprehensive word. We translate it peace; but it never means a negative peace, never simply the absence of trouble. It means total well-being, everything that makes for a man's highest good.

It may well be connected with the Greek word eirein ( Greek #1515 ), which means to join, to weave together. And this peace has always got to do with personal relationships, a man's relationship to himself, to his fellow-men, and to God. It is always the peace that is born of reconciliation.

So, when Paul prays for grace and peace on his people he is praying that they should have the joy of knowing God as Father and the peace of being reconciled to God, to men, and to themselves--and that grace and peace can come only through Jesus Christ.