1:2
Grace and peace to you: In the early days of Christianity many people used this sort of Christian greeting. It was like a prayer or a blessing. You may need to use the verb “pray” or “ask/request God” in your translation. For example:
We pray that God will give you grace and peace.”
Even if in your language you normally translate Grace or peace as a long phrase, you may want to use something shorter in a Christian greeting like this. Here Paul was not actually teaching about Grace and peace, and so it may not be necessary to include all the elements normally associated with these terms.
Grace: The Greek word charis that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Grace here means “favor, goodwill, kindness, blessing.” See “grace” in Key Biblical Terms. Paul wanted God to show kindness and favor to the Philippian Christians. This is an important term in the New Testament, although it appears only three times in Philippians (see also 1:7 and 4:23). In some languages it may be necessary to translate the noun Grace as a verb. So you might translate the phrase “Grace…to you” in the following ways:
I pray that God will be very good to you.
-or-
May God act favorably toward you.
peace: The Greek word eirēnē that the Berean Standard Bible translates as peace means “well-being” or “absence of conflict.” It refers mainly to peace with God but may also have the secondary meanings of peace with man and peace of heart (a person’s own inner peace). See “peace” in Key Biblical Terms.
you: The Greek form here is plural. This pronoun appears frequently throughout the book of Philippians and (except for 4:3) is always plural, because Paul was addressing the letter to all the Philippian Christians.
our Father: God is called our Father because he is the one who gives us both physical and spiritual life. He loves us as a father does and has adopted us as his children. We are to love, trust and obey him as children do their earthly fathers.
our: In this letter Paul almost always includes the Philippian Christians as well as himself when he says “us” or our. See the note on “we” in 3:17b for an exception to this.
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