Grace, mercy, love and peace; from God our Father and His Son Jesus Christ.
Today I reflect on this Pauline greeting and share why I find it important to use it and embrace it as my own greeting to all that I interact with.
Grace means “kindness” which is a gift from God. Our lives are a gift, the world we live in is a gift, our relationships and our place in this world is a gift – it all comes from God. It is not earned nor is it deserved; it is simply given in love by a God who fills our lives with goodness. God chooses to express his goodness in and through our lives. God’s kindness is given through His blessings. It stands to reason then, that when I greet you, I recognise this: We are God’s gift to each other, God sharing himself through our interaction. Together we have received life for this very moment. By God’s design and for his purposes we are together, and we are interacting (across whatever medium we might be doing so). It is a salutation of recognition, that you are from God, and I am from God and that we are given to each other, for God’s good, and therefore our meeting is filled with gratitude on my part (and hopefully yours too).
Mercy is God’s love for us which is compassionate and kind. Recognising that we live under God’s mercy and that we are not getting what we deserve, but what God in His kindness chooses to give us: and so, I pray that as we meet there will be mercy, toward me, and that I will be merciful toward you. I pray that you will look past my flaws and mistakes, and I pray that I will see you beyond what our presenting circumstances reveal. God is merciful to us and calls us to be merciful to each other, that means being forgiving and kind.
Love – in Greek there are four words that are translated “Love” in English; and I share my interpretation of that here and, I put to you that we need to embrace all four as we interact with one another: God is Love – in all these four forms. Christ is the revelation of God’s love, and he wants relationship with us, he is our friend, we are his family, his passion and desire for us is so great and he gives of himself completely, entering our world and overcoming the sting of death. God is Love!
Philia (GK)- is friendship, which rests on mutual appreciation. We enjoy being together because we add value to each other’s lives. It is a mutually beneficial relationship. Our relationship with God is not one-sided, God wants to be in your life, and he wants you in His.
Eros (Erotic) the world has perverted this, and I could write a book on my thinking around this, but for here and now let me limit it to that attraction that you feel for someone who shares your interests, your desires your hopes. It is an emotional bond (and I repeat that this has been confused by the world and is reduced to physical and sensual as opposed to spiritual and emotional). It is a love that comes from an excitement that one experiences from an attraction to another. Read the Song of Songs…
Storge – the natural bond between family – the love that we have because we are on common ground and share the same inheritance in Christ as brothers and sisters in Christ. We are God’s family.
Agape – this is a self-giving love that pours out oneself for another. It is love for loves sake it is of God, and we can only achieve this out of an overflowing love for God which makes us whole and without need to get anything for ourselves but simply to give of oneself. It is deeper and richer than philanthropism – it is an overflow of God in us. God is Love.
Peace – this is a confidence in God that is rooted in His Sovereignty. It is accepting that God is all and in all and that our lives are in His hands. It is the confidence that no matter what is going on in my life and the world around me, “God is for me not against me.” Peace is a fruit of faith. Peace gives us courage and the ability to endure. It is not the absence of trouble; it is a confidence in God in the face of troubles.
And so, I greet you and ask God’s blessing on us, that our lives will be a “living letter” of the goodness of God. That our relationship will be in Christ and with Christ and through Christ, bringing kindness and forgiveness and hope into the world. That we may be godly in our interaction and bring glory to God through whatever it is that we do together.
My greeting is a challenge and an admission. It is faith statement, which expresses my desire for our life together.
And so: “Grace and mercy and love and peace be ours through Christ Jesus.”
Amen.
~Revd Andrew Manning
