greetings

Philippians 4:21-23

Greet and greetings are the two repeated words. Basically this contains a list of people who send greetings to the church in Philippi. I wonder if the greeting that they use is found in verse 23: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. This is a variation of the greeting that Paul puts at the beginning of his letters: grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So much more meaningful than, "Hey. How's it goin?" Can you imagine how people would respond if we started greeting people that way? I think the modern variation that I like the best is simply "peace". This goes back to pronouncing blessings: rather than just a simple "God bless" (which is meaningful), Paul always found a way to specifically bless certain people.
The other phrase that captures my attention is "those who belong to Caesar's household". In a few short years, the message of the kingdom has spread from a handful of rough fishermen and tax collectors to the very halls of Caesar's palace. This reminds me of the parable that Jesus told about the yeast hidden in the bread dough - it works under the surface, almost subversively, but you never know where you are going to see the evidence of it and you can bet that it's influence is great than you could ever imagine.