Environments

Imagine for a moment that you live in a society that has closely knit ties with each neighbor. You rely heavily on each other to help with tasks going on in each other’s *lives and protecting what belongs to the community as a whole. If a foreign entity should try to invade your territory, some of the more able people would go to defend the land while those remaining would maintain the property of those who had left. The known expectation within the community is that those left behind would go during the next crisis.

When the battles were over the victors would come home and celebrations would be held nightly within the community. Stories would be told about the great heroic feats that occurred in the recent battles and they would be mixed with memories from past events and long-lost friends. The young women of the community would joyously dance about during these galas attempting to woo the bravest souls into matrimony. Occasionally you would and some of the poorer neighbors entreating their richer ones with riches, gifts or promises in order to try to get their social standing lifted a bit higher in the eyes of the community.

Everything that you’ve just imagined actually occurred thousands of years ago. It was the societal structure of the ancient Greeks. The interplay which I described here in its various forms was described by them in the term “charis.” Unless you’re a Greek scholar, that term doesn’t generally mean anything to most people. However, it is a term that became the center point of a traveling writer centuries later who spoke to people in the region who knew and could relate to the significance of the term.

That writer was the Apostle Paul. Many historians have called him the apostle of charis, or as it is known today, the apostle of grace. As you read his letters to the various people groups he cared for, try to recognize some of the contexts that he is using to get his point across to them. The descriptions that I’ve given to you above are just of few that will lift off the page when you come across the word grace in his writings. Hopefully you now have a more rounded picture to the amazing nature of grace. Enjoy your reading.