As we enter the Christmas holiday season, we often either begin or end our conversations, even with complete strangers, with phrases like, “Merry Christmas” or the more politically correct, “Happy Holidays.” Outside of the Christmas season we often will say things like, “it’s good to see you” when we reconnect with someone we haven’t seen in awhile.
Similarly, as we begin to read many of the letters of the NT which have been preserved for us, the authors would start with a general greeting before getting into more of the meat of the letter. One welcoming phrase that we often read involve the words grace, mercy and peace. We read this phrase in the third verse of 2 John, which reads, ” Grace be with you, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.” Often when we read this phrase, we just skim along looking for the more deeper verses or sections of the book. But lets just take a moment to consider those 3 words.
“Grace be with you.” One of my favorite Bible words is the word grace. It can simply be defined as God’s unmerited favor to men, or God extending favor and blessing us in any variety of ways when we truly don’t deserve it. Expressing to someone that “grace be with you” is similar to saying that we wish for that God’s full favor to be upon that person.
“Mercy.” Thank for the Lord for mercy! While grace is God extending something positive to us, mercy is His withholding from us something that we deserve. It’s the idea of not disciplining one of our kids when they clearly deserve it- that’s mercy. In reality, His mercy extends to us every time we take a breath or our heart takes the next beat.
And “peace.” I’m sure we all understand the concept of peace as being in a place with the absence of conflict, or a general sense of tranquility and rest. Peace can extend to our human relationships or our relationship with God. Thank God through His Son Jesus we can have peace with God (Rom 5:1). So while we enjoy the spirit of this Christmas season, may we take a moment to reflect on and thank God for grace, mercy and peace.