WISHING GRACE AND PEACE

Can I pray for you in any way?

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.

I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand, which is the distinguishing mark in all my letters. This is how I write.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

2 Thessalonians 3:16-18

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

We’ve had a great study of Paul’s second letter to the church in Thessalonica and as we look at the Apostle’s closing words, we couldn’t find a much better way to close things out. Look at these final verses from the third chapter:

Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.

I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand, which is the distinguishing mark in all my letters. This is how I write.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Vv. 16-18

I have always admired about how Paul corresponded with the newly established Christian churches, many of which he had personally helped plant. He wrote out of general love and concern for his brothers and sisters in Christ, always striving to help them succeed and thrive as a congregation and become more like Christ as disciples.

Of course, we know the first century Christians were under constant harassment and persecution, trying to establish a foothold in the midst of older, more established religions. Even among the Jews, who placed their belief in God but refused to accept that He would send His own Son Jesus to save them as well as everyone else, there was mistreatment and even a striving for eradication of the Christ-centered faith.

With this, note how Paul doesn’t just end his letter with a simple “goodbye” or “Love, Paul” ending. Rather, we find him wishing that two things would fall on his brother and sister Thessalonian Christians.

First, he petitioned for them to have peace, not just any peace but the perfect peace that would come from a perfect Lord, the “Lord of peace”. This wished serenity wasn’t targeted toward some specific need. Rather, Paul asks for the Thessalonian believers to experience peace from the Lord, “at all times and in every way”.

In other words, Paul hoped that there never would be a time when the church in Thessalonica and its members weren’t experiencing peace. It’s a beautiful desire lifted up to a beautiful Lord for a beautiful group of Jesus followers.

Now, Paul could have just mentioned this one longing and it would have been amazing as is but he didn’t stop there. For we see that he not only requested the Lord’s peace to be with the Thessalonian Christians but grace as well.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

Despite committing their belief in Jesus as Savior, the believers in Thessalonica were still sinners. There would be times when they would fail and fall into disobedience like any other people.

In those moments of failure that Paul knew would surely come, he asked for the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ to be with the Thessalonian disciples, a pardon and forgiveness from repented sin that could only come from the One who had paid the sin debt in full. It’s a grace is fully undeserved and unearned, a grace that could come from no other source. That’s why we refer to it as “amazing”.

Friends, as we write to others in our own hand as Paul did, let us always remember to wish others would have the peace and grace of our Lord at a minimum. For perhaps there could be no greater two things we could petition for that would show our love and caring, a love and caring we find modeled by the Apostle.

Tomorrow, we begin a study of Paul’s first letter to his protégé, Timothy.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.