First Lines

What if we would start all of our conversations with the statement below? Would we begin to see people differently?

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. (Galatians 1:3-5)

Just think about the gravity of this greeting: “Grace and peace from God.” What’s the point in trying to continue the rest of the conversation? You have already been blessed by God! I’ve read these introductions so often and frequently in the Bible that I tend to ignore them in the Pauline letters. I know I shouldn’t be admitting that, but it’s true. You know you’ve ignored these greetings too. I mean, there is no theological meat in them.

However, today I was struck by Paul’s greeting to the churches of Galatia. It’s like being prayed for when you don’t feel like God’s peace and grace is on your life because what you’re going through is so difficult and hard. To understand where I’m coming from, you have to understand the context of this letter and why Paul was writing this letter in the first place. People came to the churches in Galatia and started making the lives of the newly converted Christ followers a living hell with their distorted beliefs and twists on the faith Jesus wanted us to have.

Just imagine being in a community that is already outcast by the rest of society because there is only one God, now has a bunch of agitators spreading rumors about the guys that shared Jesus with them, and then telling them to do things that they never signed up for. It’s like asking for one thing and getting a totally different thing after the sale is done and you’re just like, “What the….????!!!” Maybe that’s how your life currently feels. I know I definitely didn’t sign up to be doing what I’m doing right now. I know you never intended what you originally planned out to be your life to be where you are now, currently stuck in between a rock and a hard place. But there is grace and peace from God, the Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ.

We are being delivered according to the will of God from the present evil age. That is a conversation starter. That is encouragement. That is the question we need to be asking each other and the experience we need to be sharing with one another– what are we being delivered from? How are we feeling the grace and peace today? As we start our journey to Thanksgiving, I want you to know that there is a lot to be thankful for when our first lines are, “grace and peace to you from God.”