'Grace to You and Peace'

This "throwaway" greeting I read today in Philippians (nothing in the Word is really throwaway, of course) can be only one of three things, methinks:

How did the apostle Paul regard his own act? Was he conscious of himself as actually imparting some grace to his readers here? I don't think it would be outrageous to consider this possibility, inasmuch as every Sunday at the close of our worship service we all bow our heads as the pastor solemnly pronounces a benediction, as if something mysterious were going on. Moreover, Revelation 1:3 pointedly avers that a blessing of some kind will come upon the person who both reads and does the words of that book. (Parenthetically, I wonder why we as a Church are not all over that book, considering.)

I suspect that we shall all be surprised someday at how shallow we have been, at how we skated on the surface of great truths unawares, or have been tickling the tail of an unseen tiger, thinking we had our hands on a bathrobe sash.

What's up with "binding and loosing" (Matthew 16:19)? Ever think about that? Why don't we look into that more?

Is it possible that there is some spiritual principle afoot, as yet little noted by the Church, that the presence of God's power in our lives is directly related to the words we speak aloud? We all vaguely know, of course, that words have consequences. But have we only scratched the surface? Check this out:

"Out of the mouths of babes and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger" (Psalm 8:2).

Did I just hear right? The vocal emissions of even the least esteemed members of the kingdom of God are the strength God flexes to silence and scatter his enemies?

What is it about the Word when it is expressed? Jesus is the Word of God expressed. None of us knows what lies behind all that. On the other hand, what we do know about our own words is that we will be judged by each careless one (Matthew 12:36). What, pray tell, is a careless word? Is it not especially a word that is not in agreement with the truth of God but with the lie of the father of lies?

Back in November we were discussing the film Doctor Zhivago. The first commenter on my first column about it mentioned that her parents made the decision to divorce immediately after watching that film at a drive-in theater. I myself recall that when The Bridges of Madison County was the box office hit, an interview of viewers in China evinced the same phenomenon. One woman who saw it testified that the Clint Eastwood film gave her courage to leave her husband.

If we only had magic glasses that allowed us to see the infinite ripples of an exhaled word not in line with God's truth, I think we would tremble at the thought of what we have spewed so casually all our lives.

Nowadays I start Paul's letters and I pause over the words that I used to skim, and I wonder: What precisely is going on when Paul says "Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ"?

To hear commentaries by Andrée Seu, click here.