Greetings of Peace
'Greetings' are a wonderful way of giving salutations or giving our wishes, good will etc. We wish a 'Good morning' at the start of the day, we greet someone with a 'Happy Birthday' on his/her birthday, we wish a 'Happy Anniversary' to the married couple celebrating the occasion of their marriage anniversary and a 'Happy Married Life' to the newly married couple.
The same way are the religious greetings. A Hindu when meets another Hindu greets him by saying 'Om Shanti' which means 'Peace' and he too replies to him by saying the same. When a Muslim meets another Muslim, he greets him by saying 'As-Salam-u-Alaikum' which means 'Peace be unto you' and he replies saying 'Wa Alaikum Assalam' which means 'May peace be unto you'. The Jews greet each other saying 'Shalom aleichem' which means 'Peace be upon you' and they reply saying 'Shalom aleichem' but how do we as Christians greet another Christian. We usually say a 'Good morning' or a 'Praise the Lord'. Ya right I've got a heart block and I can't arrange money for the surgery, and YES my morning is a good one (Just an example, not really). It's good but I didn't find a single verse in the Gospel wherein it is written to greet each other that way. It may be fine if we greet priests and nuns by saying 'Praise the Lord', but not otherwise; as I think. So now how are we supposed to greet each other?
I checked in the Bible and found a verse in the Gospel where Jesus is specially teaching his disciples how to greet. We read in Luke 10:5 Whenever you go into a house, first say, ‘Peace be with this house.’ OK so here we learn how to greet when you enter a house and your greetings descends upon the house and the people living in it and rests after they accept it. But what about individual greetings? How are we supposed to greet an individuals when we meet them on road or somewhere else? So far what I learned was that the greeting shoulg be of peace. So the answer I searched in the Gospels was somewhat like this in Luke 24:36 While the two were telling them this, suddenly the Lord himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” So now we would try to figure out the greetings which we can apply according to the scriptures, which focused on 'PEACE'. So let's consider “Peace be with you.” as equation 'A'. Again in John 14:27 “Peace is what I leave with you; it is my own peace that I give you. So here my own peace i.e the peace of Jesus will be considered as equation 'B' So adding up equations A & B we can get close to a phrase which we can conclude as "May the peace of Jesus Christ Be With You". That greeting did sound a pleasant greeting to me and we can reply the greeting saying "May the peace of Jesus Christ Be With You". That way we can reply the geeting.
Even St Paul in his letter tells us in Romans 15:33 May God, our source of peace, be with all of you. Amen. So now let our Christian greetings instead of a good morning may be of peace.
MAY THE PEACE OF JESUS CHRIST BE WITH YOU ALL
The same way are the religious greetings. A Hindu when meets another Hindu greets him by saying 'Om Shanti' which means 'Peace' and he too replies to him by saying the same. When a Muslim meets another Muslim, he greets him by saying 'As-Salam-u-Alaikum' which means 'Peace be unto you' and he replies saying 'Wa Alaikum Assalam' which means 'May peace be unto you'. The Jews greet each other saying 'Shalom aleichem' which means 'Peace be upon you' and they reply saying 'Shalom aleichem' but how do we as Christians greet another Christian. We usually say a 'Good morning' or a 'Praise the Lord'. Ya right I've got a heart block and I can't arrange money for the surgery, and YES my morning is a good one (Just an example, not really). It's good but I didn't find a single verse in the Gospel wherein it is written to greet each other that way. It may be fine if we greet priests and nuns by saying 'Praise the Lord', but not otherwise; as I think. So now how are we supposed to greet each other?
I checked in the Bible and found a verse in the Gospel where Jesus is specially teaching his disciples how to greet. We read in Luke 10:5 Whenever you go into a house, first say, ‘Peace be with this house.’ OK so here we learn how to greet when you enter a house and your greetings descends upon the house and the people living in it and rests after they accept it. But what about individual greetings? How are we supposed to greet an individuals when we meet them on road or somewhere else? So far what I learned was that the greeting shoulg be of peace. So the answer I searched in the Gospels was somewhat like this in Luke 24:36 While the two were telling them this, suddenly the Lord himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” So now we would try to figure out the greetings which we can apply according to the scriptures, which focused on 'PEACE'. So let's consider “Peace be with you.” as equation 'A'. Again in John 14:27 “Peace is what I leave with you; it is my own peace that I give you. So here my own peace i.e the peace of Jesus will be considered as equation 'B' So adding up equations A & B we can get close to a phrase which we can conclude as "May the peace of Jesus Christ Be With You". That greeting did sound a pleasant greeting to me and we can reply the greeting saying "May the peace of Jesus Christ Be With You". That way we can reply the geeting.
Even St Paul in his letter tells us in Romans 15:33 May God, our source of peace, be with all of you. Amen. So now let our Christian greetings instead of a good morning may be of peace.
MAY THE PEACE OF JESUS CHRIST BE WITH YOU ALL
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