When you send a greeting to someone, what have you found to be the words which convey your true desire that those people would be blessed? Words are meaningful and powerful yet so often we use them flippantly. What if someone you greatly respected said to you: “Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”? (2 Thess. 1:2) Would those words be a catalyst to you, propelling you to live vibrantly, courageously, withstanding the persecution you might be facing?
It’s with those words of greeting and blessing that the apostle Paul began his second letter to Christian friends struggling under persecution in Thessalonica, Macedonia in the year 51ad. You may notice it’s also how he ended his first letter?