Peace and Love, With Faith and Grace!

Peace and Love, With Faith and Grace – My Daily Bread!

Our call to unity in Christ is taken from Ephesians 6: 23-24, NIV, which reads:

“Peace to the brothers, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.”  

These words of encouragement are contained as the ending salutation of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, just after he had finished talking about the supremacy of Christ over the Church and encouraging the Ephesians on how they should live in relationship to one another.

Here Paul particularly stressed maintaining unity in the relationships that are at the core of the Church, in our families, in our work, and between brothers and sisters in Christ.   Paul knew that although they were made new in the Spirit of Christ they were still imperfect and as such living Christ in the shadow of their “old selves” could often present a challenge that would either lead to – greater unity or greater discord.

So here he uses four words to exhort them and us to unity in Christ: peace, and love with faith, and grace!  Simple, yet so powerful for us who love the Lord and believe.   Earlier in Ephesians 4: 3, NIV,  he counseled them to “make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace”.   Paul’s reference to effort recognizes that it will not be easy, but he also gives us the key – God’s Holy Spirit.  The Spirit of God allows us to set aside our differences and strive for God’s oneness.

Without this unity we are no different from the world.   So the next time you are having an issue that threatens to destroy the unity of God that He has called us to maintain – remember you already know  how to act – with peace, and love with faith, and grace through the power of the Holy Spirit!

Copyright© 2011-2012 Colleen Holton All Rights Reserved.