Grace Be With You!

Scripture — 1 Thessalonians 5:28

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Devotion

The letter we know as 1 Thessalonians ends much as it began. In the opening verse of the letter, Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy greet the assembly of Christians in Thessalonica: “Grace to you and peace” (1:1). The letter’s last verse states, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you” (5:28). If you worry that peace has been left out, remember that five verses earlier God was identified as “the God of peace” (5:23). Grace shows up as the final wish prayer of the letter writers. They want the Thessalonian believers to experience the grace that comes from God through Jesus Christ.

Interestingly, the word “grace” doesn’t appear elsewhere in 1 Thessalonians, other than in the first and last verses. That’s not to say that the idea of God’s grace through Christ is absent from this letter. If you read between the lines, you can find grace almost everywhere (especially in 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10; 2:7-12; 3:9-12; 4:1, 9-10, 17-18; 5:9-11, 16-18, 23-24).

What is grace? Grace is undeserved favor. It’s being given something we have not earned. Grace is unmerited kindness. In particular, grace is God acting to save us in Christ and, we must remember, to mend the broken world in which we live.

Though Paul and his colleagues don’t speak in depth about grace in 1 Thessalonians, you can find much more on grace in Paul’s other letters. Ephesians, for example, shows us that God’s “glorious grace” has been “freely bestowed on us [by God] in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:6). We have “the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of [God’s] grace” (1:7). God will one day “show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (2:7). But, even now, we have experienced the riches of grace because “by grace [we] have been saved through faith, and this is not [our] own doing; it is the gift of God” (2:8).

It’s fitting to begin and end with grace because grace makes all the difference in the world. By grace, God saves us and calls us into a life of purpose. By grace, we know that we are loved by a God whose love will never let us go. By grace at work in our hearts, we are able to extend grace to others.

The failure of Christians to treat others graciously is one of life’s mysteries and tragedies. It just doesn’t make sense for us, having received God’s limitless grace in Christ, to fail to extend that grace to other people. When Christians are judgmental, critical, mean, uncaring, and unjust, it is utterly baffling. Well, sort of baffling, I should say. Why? Because there are times when I have not been gracious to others even though I have received God’s grace in my life more times than I can count, most of all when I was first saved by God.

Though Paul and his co-writers don’t use the word “grace” very often in 1 Thessalonians, this letter shows how grace transforms us. What grace did in the lives of the Thessalonians is what grace can do in our lives as well. For example, it enabled the believers in Thessalonica to “turn from idols to God, to serve and living a true God” (1 Thessalonians 1:9). Grace enabled Paul and his colleagues to refrain from abusing their authority, but rather to be gentle and kind among their converts, acting like a nurturing mother and an encouraging father (1:8-12). Grace enabled the Thessalonian Christians to abound in faith and love (3:6; 4:9-10). Grace enabled them to live so as “to please God” (4:1). Grace enabled the Thessalonians to grieve when they lost loved ones to death, but to do so with confident hope in the future resurrection (4:13-18). And grace would, in time, guarantee that the Thessalonians would be fully dedicated to God, completely whole and free from sin when Christ returns (5:23-24).

I can think of no better way to conclude this series of devotions based on 1 Thessalonians than by quoting the final verse of the letter: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” And, yes, I mean you. May you have a fresh, transforming, and truly encouraging encounter with God’s grace, lavished on you through Christ. Yes, indeed!

Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the High Calling archive, hosted by the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project. Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: Grace and Peace.

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