Paul is saying to us that if we will look in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, as he is revealed in the Bible, and as he presents the grace of God to us in the Bible, you will gain the greatest encouragement, because God’s grace will invite you to receive his heavenly peace. For when you in the audience, as it were, look onto the stage of heaven and you see there the star of all history, he will reveal himself—the very Lord of heaven and earth. He will reveal himself as a Saviour who died for your sins. Jesus invites you to believe in him. He calls you to enter his church—the church of which he is Lord and Saviour. And then, as you are encouraged by his grace, he calls you to extend the same offer of peace to the same sinful, broken world in all the places where you live. Grace and peace to you in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. That is Jesus’ message to you, and he invites you into it through faith.1
Richard D. Phillips
1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.