A letter from Paul to Christians in the US
Let me cut to the chase, brothers and sisters. Is this what you think living in Christ looks like?
Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the church of God that happens to be in North America. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
As you know, one of my favorite ways to speak about our life together is with the short phrase “in Christ,” or “in the Messiah.” That phrase will be the subject of my letter. It is what you sometimes call “spirituality”; it may surprise you that it also means “mission.” It is what a mutual friend calls “cruciformity,” or cross-shaped living.
But before I get too far into my letter, let me go back to those first two words: grace and peace. These are not epistolary niceties. They constitute the core of my message, the heart of God’s heart. It is evident to me that you are very comfortable with the word grace. It is far less apparent to me that you understand the word peace—shalom. To be sure, this word means inner peace and security. But it signifies much more. It means wholeness and harmony, right relations between us and God, within the human family, and between us and the rest of creation. Peace is one of those scriptural words that sums up what God is up to in the world—the mission of God.
