Grace to you, and peace from God our Father, and [the] Lord Jesus Christ.
The second letter to Thessalonica opens with the same greeting as the first. It went to believers who were under persecution. Why repeat a familiar greeting to people in trouble? And what does it give them to hear that grace and peace come from two Persons at once?
A greeting repeated, not worn out
Paul had already sent this greeting in his first letter. One writer explains why it had lost none of its force.
The "grace and peace" he wishes them is as fresh and new as if he were saying it for the first time. In fact it is all the more needed now that doubts and alarm have attacked them. It is no less available in days of decline than in days of greatest spiritual energy. But we must use it if it is to do us any good. If we ourselves have failed, yet the blessed source of this grace and peace is unchanging — "God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
Another writer looks at the greeting from the side of their suffering.
As children of the Father, and owning Christ their Lord, he greets them and wishes them grace and peace from the Father and the Lord. Their sufferings changed nothing about this. They only brought its comfort, greater than words can say, right into the need they were in.
Grace to endure, peace to guard
Each of the two words meets something specific in what these believers faced.
The Apostle writes to the assembly of the Thessalonians as being "in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." He sees that they enjoy the full truth of Christianity. That truth reveals God as our Father and Jesus Christ as our Lord… He wants these believers to have grace to endure their persecutions, and peace to guard their hearts despite their troubles.
"Our Father" — a relationship neither Jew nor Gentile had known
One writer traces how these two names — God as Father, Jesus as Lord — cut the readers off from both worlds they came out of: the Jews and the other nations.
Again he describes the assembly as in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The first name cuts them off from the Gentiles, the second from the Jews. In truth each name marked them off from both. What did a Jew know, any more than a Gentile, of such a new, living, close relationship with God as Father? And what did a Gentile know, any more than a Jew, of a rejected but risen Lord and Saviour in heaven? He adds the word "our" here, which the greeting of the first letter did not have. Is it not to fasten those believers… to Him whose grace is the source of all blessing?
Set against Israel's standing under law, the change of ground is the whole point.
Grace had put them in that known position and relationship. So at once the apostle asks for them the favours they need, "grace and peace," to keep them always for God's praise and pleasure. God placed Israel before Jehovah under law; He sets us before the Father under grace.
Two Persons, one source
The verse names two givers, not one. One writer draws out what that says about who Christ is.
Notice how closely God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ are joined here, as Joint Givers of these good gifts. It would be blasphemy to link the name of men or angels with "God our Father" in this way. In chapter 2 we will read plainly that Christ Jesus is equal with God, and this verse tells us the same wonderful truth. May God help us always to hold on to this foundation of the Faith, and to enjoy the Grace and Peace He offers us!
Grace as daily supply
What does it mean to be wished "grace" when you already have it?
"Grace to you" is not only that you stand on the foundation of grace. "Grace to you" means you live from moment to moment in the resources of God's grace… The people of God need those resources of grace and peace every day, every moment… The source is one, yet there is still a difference. The name God the Father brings out the family side. The name Lord Jesus Christ brings out the kingdom side, His authority.
Summary
- Source. Grace and peace come from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ together. That pairing tells us Christ is equal with God.
- Unchanging. The source never changes. Grace is as available in days of decline as in days of great spiritual energy.
- Supply. Grace is not only the ground you stand on once, but the resource you live from moment to moment.
- Steadying. Under persecution it means grace to endure and peace to guard the heart in the middle of it.
- Standing. "Our Father" names a relationship neither Jew nor Gentile had known. We stand before the Father under grace, not before Jehovah under law.