Philemon 1:3

Philemon 1:3. Grace to you. The gift of grace is sometimes represented as of Christ's bestowing ‘the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ;' and at other times, as here, the gift of the Father and the Son. But the same is meant in both phrases. Christ, who has been declared by His resurrection to be the Son of God with power, is the channel through which the Church receives the peculiarly Christian gift of grace, the source of which is with the Father.

and peace, an especially fitting blessing to be invoked upon a congregation, for among them spiritual unity was to be preserved, and of this the apostle elsewhere declares that peace is the bond whereby it may be kept

from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. To those who felt the force of Christ's words (John 17:22), ‘That they may be one, even as we are one,' there could be no thought of a double source of blessing. Not only in the material creation, but also in the redemption and restoration of all things, by the gifts of grace and peace, does the Son co-operate with the Father (Hebrews 1:3; Ephesians 1:9 seqq.).