How do you address those to whom you write? Is it always the same no matter who it is?
Dear So-and-so,
Hey, So-and-so!
So-and-so:
Greetings, my dear So-and-so!
Why is this? Well, for one, we have varying relationships with the people to whom we write. Our affections towards each person vary as does the time we spend with him/her. We may also find our circumstances different when we write. In like manner, Paul addressees the recipients of his letters differently. Of course Paul would never greet his recipients the way that we might today.
I thought it might be interesting for us to take a moment and flip through to the beginning of some of the other Pauline epistles. Read the greeting. What kinds of things do you notice? What is similar? What is different? Feel free to share your findings with the rest of us in the comments section*. It’s such a blessing to learn from one another as the Holy Spirit reveals God’s Word to us.
*Note: Some of you don’t have a blogger account and don’t care to get one. I understand because I don’t have a myspace account for the same reason. If ever you have a comment to share, e-mail me with that comment and I can post it. I’m happy to do that to add more comments to the mix.
God's blessings be upon you.
4 comments:
From Carmen ...
The likeness of Paul's greetings are in his introduction. Always a humble introduction giving the credit to Christ. ( a servant, an apostle, a slave, imprisoned etc.)
He seems to always greet with Grace and peace to the recipients of his letters. Grace...something he never knew as Saul and embraced so well IMMEDIATELY once he knew Christ. Paul is incredibly patient and kind after knowing Christ, what a tranformation!!
You said, "Of course Paul would never greet his recipients the way that we might today."
I'm not sure I understand.
As in a greeting similar with what I started out with in this blog entry ... "Hey, Alice. What's up?" or something of that nature. Back then they had a systematic way of starting a letter - from A to B. And we probably wouldn't do it their way now either ... Angie, (and whatever description I wanted to use), to Alice, a dear sister in the Lord (yada yada yada), etc. Does that make sense? Thanks for letting me know when you need some clarification. Let me know if you're still confused. I don't want to be misunderstood. :-)
Got it! Thanks.
al
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