The Value of a Letter

Philemon 25

It is amazing to think that not long ago a personal letter from someone you knew was always opened, read, and sometimes read more than once.  In our modern world of text messages, face book, and the Internet, we have lost much of the value of a letter.  We often get too many from the same person, I’m guilty of that, and often they are stuff we are passing on with no personal message to the one who is receiving the message.  So we look at the sender or the title block and make a judgment whether to hit the delete button or put that person in our Spam file so that we are not bothered by their emails.  That is the world we live in, and it would be horrible if they were sharing a personal prayer need with us, but we spam them. 

We live in a time where more words are being sent out in one of these forms, but so little is being said.  When you get a letter in your mailbox at home and it is from someone you know, I’m guessing you open it, and read it because it came in the U.S. mail and we know it took some effort from the sender.

The 25th verse of Philemon’s letter is the last line and it is understood, that it had no verses, just sentences, so this would be the last sentence.  “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.”  I have a bad habit of dismissing the greeting and the final greetings, much like many of you do with emails that you assume you understand the contents.  But are we missing something of great value in doing so, and I’m talking about the greetings. 

What is your spirit; is it not the real you, is it not hidden from others sight, and it has residence in our earth-suit. The spirit is that which gives us the ability to have an intimate relationship with God.  James 2:26 states that a body apart from the spirit is dead and Job 32:8 states this truth; “But it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand.”  We also have this insight from Stephen in Acts 7:59, “While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”  When “spirit” is used, it often refers to the immaterial part of humanity that “connects” with God, who Himself is Spirit.  Jesus tells us, “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.  God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23-24)

Is this not what Paul is saying, may the unmerited favor of Jesus Christ be all over you.  If we only grasp that Paul is stating so much more than what is understood in that greeting.  When the Spirit of Jesus Christ and His grace is with our spirit, He is compassionate, gentle and humble, longsuffering, forgiving, burden bearing, faithful, tender, quiet, gentle, just, and faithful.   He is a saving spirit, and we are blessed with all Spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus. 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice