“Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule—to the Israel of God. From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.”
Paul ends the letter of Galatians with his usual sign of, leaving peace and mercy upon the recipients who respond appropriately to his instruction, & one final blessing for all the brothers & sisters in the church of Galatians.
In this seemingly meaningless portion of the letter, I want us to reflect upon how we greet & address our fellow brothers & sisters. I believe I would be accurate to say that in most of Paul’s addresses to the churches, he wished blessings, grace, mercy or peace upon them.
What is even more intriguing is that, in most of his letters, Paul was rebuking & correcting those same churches in some manner. On day 136 of our daily devotional, we looked at Galatians 4:19-20 and the idea of correcting only from a place of love. It can be all too easy to point fingers & call out our brethrens weaknesses or shortcomings, yet when we reflect, is this coming from a place of love or a root of the flesh?
You see, Paul rebuked in love. He spoke as a parent to the churches, lulling them into the loving correction they needed, whilst reminding them of their identity & imparting spiritual blessings to them. Can we honestly say that after we have rebuked someone we were desiring to follow it up with a blessing, a genuine blessing?
Let us always walk like the giants of the faith who went before us & humbly correct one another only from a position of absolute love.
Read previous commentary on Galatians 6:15
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