“Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ — this dual blessing (charis and eirēnē) opens every Pauline epistle, signaling that all that follows flows from God's unmerited favor and the reconciling work of Christ. In a society built on status hierarchy, 'grace' subverts patronage logic: all receive this gift equally, regardless of wisdom or power.
Church Fathers on 1 Corinthians 1:3
See how immediately, from the very beginning, he casts down their pride, and dashes to the ground all their fond imagination, in that he speaks of himself as “called.” For what I have learned, says he, I discovered not myself, nor acquired by my own wisdom, but while I was persecuting and laying waste the Church I was called. Now here of Him that calls is everything: of him that is called, nothing, (so to speak,) but only to obey. “Of Jesus Christ.” Your teacher is Christ;…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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