1:3 part 1
Paul wishes them grace and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Wait - isn't there only one God? Yes, but 3 persons. The mystery of the Trinity. I don't think I'm going to launch into a Trinity discussion right now. Maybe another time.
The word for grace is charis. Charis means "favor, goodwill, gracious care or help" (Bauer). It carries the notion of freedom - that someone (God) is gracious freely, not because he has to be. It also has the meaning of "gift," or as the Lexicon puts it, a "practical application of goodwill, a (sign of) favor, [a] gracious deed or gift."
God's grace is His good will, His favor towards people. It is freely given, under no obligation. It is a gift, not an earned wage (or a loan, for that matter). It is not just a feeling that God has toward us, like some kind of pleasant, positive mood. It is an attitude and a practical, real gift.
If you have a flat tire on the side of the road, and I drive by, I might have good will towards you as I pass by, saying to myself "I hope he has a cell phone and that it all works out for him." But God's grace goes beyond that. God's grace would be exemplified by someone seeing you stranded, pulling over, and giving you a new tire for free. It is an attitude and an action of practical results.
Grace is not earned. In our tire example, if you had a flat tire and called AAA, then when the AAA guy shows up and fixes your tire, that's not grace. You paid for that service.
In Christ God saw that we were helpless to do anything with our sin, He had compassion and good will toward us (freely - we didn't deserve that compassion), and He provided the practical solution - His Son as an offering for sin. That is grace.
The world knows next to nothing about grace. Everything in our fallen world, apart from God, is based on earning and deserving. We assume that if we earn enough money, we can compel others to do what we want. The global economy is totally based on that assumption.
Let me stand on the soapbox here for a minute. (If you don't want to hear it, head on over to Horizon's web page or something.) When companies act as if "the customer is always right," they are in effect saying "You can treat our employees however you want, just as long as we don't lose your business." What does that tell us customers? Basically that we can demand service, we have the right to this and to that, we deserve something, just because we spend money at the store.
Recently I heard an employee from a major coffee chain tell me that they aren't allowed to defend themselves to the customers, and a customer had been verbally difficult (possibly abusive) because the drink had been made wrong. I had one of those prideful "If only I was in charge" moments, because I thought "That manager should have stuck up for his employee. His employee is much more important than losing whatever money the customer would have spent there."
The reason so many people serve and worship money is that it earns them the power to follow their own desires. This is the entire system in which we live. It is opposed to the way of the Kingdom of God - the way of grace.
The attitude of deserving and earning, the attitude of entitlement, is a pernicious and evil thing. God's way of freely giving favor and the right Gift is a glorious thing, but hard, so hard for us to grasp.
The word for grace is charis. Charis means "favor, goodwill, gracious care or help" (Bauer). It carries the notion of freedom - that someone (God) is gracious freely, not because he has to be. It also has the meaning of "gift," or as the Lexicon puts it, a "practical application of goodwill, a (sign of) favor, [a] gracious deed or gift."
God's grace is His good will, His favor towards people. It is freely given, under no obligation. It is a gift, not an earned wage (or a loan, for that matter). It is not just a feeling that God has toward us, like some kind of pleasant, positive mood. It is an attitude and a practical, real gift.
If you have a flat tire on the side of the road, and I drive by, I might have good will towards you as I pass by, saying to myself "I hope he has a cell phone and that it all works out for him." But God's grace goes beyond that. God's grace would be exemplified by someone seeing you stranded, pulling over, and giving you a new tire for free. It is an attitude and an action of practical results.
Grace is not earned. In our tire example, if you had a flat tire and called AAA, then when the AAA guy shows up and fixes your tire, that's not grace. You paid for that service.
In Christ God saw that we were helpless to do anything with our sin, He had compassion and good will toward us (freely - we didn't deserve that compassion), and He provided the practical solution - His Son as an offering for sin. That is grace.
The world knows next to nothing about grace. Everything in our fallen world, apart from God, is based on earning and deserving. We assume that if we earn enough money, we can compel others to do what we want. The global economy is totally based on that assumption.
Let me stand on the soapbox here for a minute. (If you don't want to hear it, head on over to Horizon's web page or something.) When companies act as if "the customer is always right," they are in effect saying "You can treat our employees however you want, just as long as we don't lose your business." What does that tell us customers? Basically that we can demand service, we have the right to this and to that, we deserve something, just because we spend money at the store.
Recently I heard an employee from a major coffee chain tell me that they aren't allowed to defend themselves to the customers, and a customer had been verbally difficult (possibly abusive) because the drink had been made wrong. I had one of those prideful "If only I was in charge" moments, because I thought "That manager should have stuck up for his employee. His employee is much more important than losing whatever money the customer would have spent there."
The reason so many people serve and worship money is that it earns them the power to follow their own desires. This is the entire system in which we live. It is opposed to the way of the Kingdom of God - the way of grace.
The attitude of deserving and earning, the attitude of entitlement, is a pernicious and evil thing. God's way of freely giving favor and the right Gift is a glorious thing, but hard, so hard for us to grasp.
posted by Rob | 9:24 AM
1 Comments:
I'm you Rob. I hope to get sharper myself.
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