Paul and TImothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all God's holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. - Philippians 1.1-2
Grace.
And.
Peace.
These are the opening words of Paul to the Philippians. In some sense it is Paul's traditional greeting, found in nearly every letter he writes in the New Testament. But in another sense, it is a complex, inspiring, and provocative.
First, grace.
Now, Paul is creative. The typical greeting in the Hellenistic world was the greek word, chairein - which simply means “greetings.” However, the word Paul uses is similar in sound but more layered in meaning, charis - which translates to “grace.” Traditionally understood, grace is the unmerited favor and acceptance given from God. And while that is certainly not wrong, if we stop there we are left with a flat understanding. For Paul, grace has layers, depth, and nuance.
Consider what he writes in 1st Corinthians 15.9-10 - “For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.”
Here, grace is not the acceptance or unmerited favor of God. Here grace was the thing enabling Paul to work. But not just work, but to work “harder than any of them” (“them” being the other Apostles). Grace is, the power - the force - the energy, that was with and within Paul. Grace was the animating force behind all his missional drive.
Consider 2nd Corinthians 8.1-2, 7, 9 - “We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part…But as you excel in everything - in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you - see that you excel in this act of grace also...For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich."
Again, grace here is not a declaration of acceptance, but here, grace is the act of generosity. It is the compulsion to live from an other-centric posture. Freely giving of our finances, our resources and ultimately the whole of our lives.
Last one, 2nd Timothy 2.1-6 - “You then, my child, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus; and what you have heard from me through many witnesses entrust to the faithful people who will be able to teach others as well. Share in suffering like a good solider of Christ Jesus. No one serving in the army gets entangled in everyday affairs; the soldier’s aim is to please the enlisting officer. And in the case of an athlete, no one is crowned without competing according to the rules.”
Grace, is the power to fight and compete. It is the thing that propels a solider; it is the drive of an athlete to get up each and every morning striving to pursue the goal. Grace is the driving energy within you, pushing you forward.
For Paul, grace is the empowering presence of God that resides deep in our being. It is the unmerited favor and acceptance of God, but it is also the animating presence of God given freely to you. Tertullian once said, “Grace is the divine energy working in the soul.” Grace is the thing that wakes you up. It motivates you to work, laugh, smile, cry. Grace is the very presence of God seeping out of your essence. It is the overwhelming, undeserved, unearned, empowering blessing and presence of God that animates you to joy, peace, power, generosity and vocational depth.
Grace. To. You.
And secondly, peace.
For most of us, the word “peace” means the absence of conflict. To Paul, peace is far more. Now, although Paul writes in Greek, he thinks in Hebrew and to the Hebrews the word for peace is, Shalom, and shalom carries weight for the jewish mind. In short, Shalom is a way to speak about the Genesis story. It is the picture of the world the way God intended it. Theologian Cornelius Plantinga writes this,
“Shalom is the webbing together of God, humans, and all creation in justice, fulfillment, and delight…We call it peace, but it means far more than mere peace of mind or cease-fire among enemies. In the Bible, shalom means universal flourishing, wholeness, and delight - a rich state of affairs in which natural needs are satisfied and natural gifts fruitfully employed, a state of affairs that inspires joyful wonder as its Creator and Savior opens doors and welcomes the creatures in whom he delights. Shalom, in other words, is the way things ought to be.”
Shalom is the reminder of the beginning of the story of God’s good creation. And shalom is about the trajectory of the story. It is about God recognizing the disruption of shalom and working in the brokenness to bring about a new world, a restored and reconciled world, brought back into harmony.
Shalom animates the imagination of what the world could be. It is an enduring vision that begins in Genesis and ends in Revelation. For a world run amuck, Shalom is a disruptive vision that subverts the powerful and protests individualism, nationalism, and exploitation in pursuit of the in-breaking reality of resurrection here-and-now.
Paul opens his letter to the Philippians with a dynamic, explosive, and subversive address that animates the divine energy within his readers toward a vision of the world set in rhythm.
Grace and peace to you.