Groundbreaking Greetings

For those of you who do not know me well, it is important to know that I love studying the historical context of the Bible. I relish learning new facts about the ancient world in which the Bible was written. There is so much depth to these passages when you know the culture and context of the Bible.

Ancient letters followed a certain formula. The writer would state who they were followed by who the letter was written to and end with a greeting. In the Greek world, the salutation was grace (charis). In the Hebrew world, the word was peace (shalom).  Peter and Paul combined these two greetings in their letters. By doing so, they acknowledged Christianity was not strictly a Hebrew religion but had also spread to the Greeks (a.k.a. anyone who was not Jewish). They knew both Jews and Greeks would read their letters and did not want to alienate one culture by writing strictly to the Jews or to the Greeks. Many of their letters included calls to unity between the believers in different cultures.

The early Christians were the first group that spread throughout different cultures without trying to fundamentally change the cultures. Kings and emperors came through the ancient world and tried imposing their systems and beliefs on their conquered enemies. The Romans were no different. They came along and set their own leaders over the people. Their end goal was to Romanize the world. They built roads, standardized currency and enforced the Roman way of thinking as best they could. With this increased ability to travel, the cultures began to spread out. This lead to increased animosity between cultures. Cities became divided into cultural sections instead of simply by profession and class.  

This is the world into which Christianity first began. Now, this is all vastly simplified, and there were exceptions to every circumstance mentioned above. However, the point is that the early Christians were groundbreakers of their time. They did not have books on how to interact cross-culturally. They could not attend seminars and classes on intercultural awareness or communication. They simply relied upon Holy Spirit and trial and error.

God used the people the world saw as the most uneducated and rebellious people to change the world by focusing on people, not systems and power. (Unfortunately, this became grossly taken advantage of in the years and centuries to come.) The Bible is full of stories of God’s redemption. God continues to use people who believe they have nothing left to offer.

What is your story? Where do you need to see God’s grace and redemption? Does your dream seem impossible? Ask God how He sees your circumstance or your dream.