Re: Verse reading—Romans 1:1–17 (day three)
“Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” Sometimes when you read an email, the more that people use pleasantries up front–“Hope you’re having a great day”, “I pray you’re well”, “How have you been?”, etc., the more you anticipate unpleasantness. What sales pitch will you hear? What favor will you get asked to do? What will the writer try to convince you to give up? You know the drill. Paul, though, was blessing his readers, not buttering them up. Would they read things in his letters that they wouldn’t like–things that would be hard to accept? Absolutely. But Paul prayed for them that grace and peace would operate in their souls so that they could receive the revelation of reality. May we use such words in the same way.
