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The Pursuit of Happiness Daily Devotional -2

by David Joynt on January 04, 2021


PHILIPPIANS 1:2 | 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

This greeting, or salutation, shows the universal character of the Christian faith. Charis, or grace, was the standard Roman greeting. It was related to the words for joy, beauty, and pleasure. Eirene means peace, or total well-being, in body, soul, and relationships. It was the standard Jewish greeting. God’s grace brings us into loving relationship with Him despite our failings, and Paul offers a prayer or blessing that his friends will experience this grace and because of it, a new peace with themselves and others.

 Interestingly, Acts 16 shows the power of these elements. The Philippian community included rich merchant women like Lydia, who was from Asia, a slave freed from spiritual oppression with a Greek background, and a Roman jailer! Such relationships were a sign of God’s presence and activity.

How do you greet people?

Is your life peaceful?

What is grace to you?

 

Tags: peace, charis

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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