Ephesians 1:2

χάρις ὑμῖν καὶ εἰρήνη : Grace to you and peace. Supply εἴη, on the analogy of other optatives, e.g., in 1 Peter 1:2; 2 Peter 1:2; Jude 1:2. This is the Christian rendering of the greeting with which letters began. It combines the Greek form with the Hebrew, but translates the χαίρειν of the former into the evangelical χάρις. What Paul desires for his readers is the enjoyment of the free, loving favour of God and the peace which results from it. This is the usual form which the opening salutation takes in the Epistles of the NT. So it is in Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Philemon 1:1 and 2 Peter; as also in Revelation 1:4. It is not, however, the only form. In James, but only in him, we have the old formula χαίρειν (Ephesians 1:1). In 1 and 2 Timothy and 2 John (but not in Titus according to the best reading) it is χάρις, ἔλεος, εἰρήνη; and in Jude we find ἔλεος ὑμῖν καὶ εἰρήνη καὶ ἀγάπη πληθυνθείη. ἀπὸ Θεοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν καὶ Κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ : from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The grace and peace desired for the readers by the writer are blessings which come only from God the Father and from Christ. The “Lord Jesus Christ” is named along with “God our Father” as the giver of the grace and peace a collocation impossible except on the supposition that the writer held Christ to be of the same rank with God or in a unique relation to Him. There is a distinction indicated here between God and Jesus Christ. But it is not in what they are able to give; for the gifts of grace and peace come from both. Nor is any distinction suggested here in respect of nature. But there is a distinction in respect of relation to believers. To the receivers of grace and peace God is in the relation of Father; to the same subjects Christ is in the relation of Lord. God is Father, having made them His children by adoption. Christ is Lord, being constituted Head of the Church and having won the right to their loving obedience and honour; cf. MacP., in loco,