Phillipians 1:2
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
Grace and peace might sound like just a polite greeting to us, but this is no throwaway statement from Paul. Grace is the Christian life. we are saved by grace and we are sanctified by grace.
Peace is not just the absence of conflict, but shalom, a wholeness, everything being how its supposed to be. We misunderstand this if we think it refers to peaceful circumstances, our lives will have many situations that aren't "peaceful", Jesus promises as much. But throughout all of that, we have peace with God, a peace that He initiated while we were His enemies.That peace allows us to face any external situations.
God is described as our Father. God chooses to identify himself this way. Whether our earthly Father was good or bad, God is the perfect Father. Totally loving, always acting in our best interests and more commited to our good than even we are
Jesus is described as Lord, a position of authority over us. He is not our genie in a bottle, there to make us feel better and give us things as if we were in authority over Him. If He is our Lord, we serve Him and obey Him, not expecting Him to serve us.
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