1 Peter 1:2 - Peter's prayer, grace, and merit

[thomat65]

At the end of the Apostle Peter’s introduction to 1 Peter he issues what appears to be a short prayer:

Grace to you and peace may be multiplied

The NASB puts it this way:

May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure

My understanding is that the CCC defines God’s “grace” as a thing like a “help” (1996, 2021) or a “gift” (1999, 2000, 2003, 2023) arising from God’s favorable disposition.

What would be an example of God’s potential answer to the Apostle’s prayer?

 

[po18guy]

A salutation, a greeting, a doxology. The potential answer is exactly what the Apostle prayed for. The recipients had to have the correct disposition in their hearts - that is the only caveat.

Grace is the free, unmerited gift that allowed them to persevere in faith - even increasing their faith - under the intense persecution of the time. Peace is a spiritual state that is brought about by, and reveals the presence of the Holy Spirit. Such peace is very difficult to describe in human language.

 

[thomat65]

free, unmerited gift that allowed them to persevere in faith

Thank you for your reply.

CCC 2010 says:

Since the initiative belongs to God in the order of grace, no one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification, at the beginning of conversion. Moved by the Holy Spirit and by charity, we can then merit for ourselves and for others the graces needed for our sanctification, for the increase of grace and charity, and for the attainment of eternal life. Even temporal goods like health and friendship can be merited in accordance with God’s wisdom. These graces and goods are the object of Christian prayer. Prayer attends to the grace we need for meritorious actions.

So would you say that a potential answer to that prayer would be the “increase of grace and charity unto the attainment of eternal life for members of Peter’s audience”?

If so, (and here is where I tie in the “merit” part of my title) then who would have merited the individual’s attainment of eternal life? The Apostle Peter, the individual attaining eternal life, or some combination of people?

 

[po18guy]

Here is what the standard reference Catholic biblical commentary (Rev. George Leo Haydock Commentary) has to say about the first two verses:

Ver. 1. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers dispersed. Lit. of the dispersion; i.e. to the Jews or Gentiles now converted, who lived dispersed in those countries, chosen or elected[1] according to the foreknowledge and eternal decrees of God unto the sanctification of the spirit. Wi. — Asia is taken for one of the four quarters of the globe, or for Asia Minor, or for that province of Asia Minor of which Ephesus is the capital. It is in this latter sense it appears here to be understood, since Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, and Bithynia are also contained in the provinces of Asia Minor. V.

Ver. 2. Unto the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ; i.e. to be saved by the merits of his death and passion. Wi. — All the three divine Persons conspire in the salvation of the elect. The Father as principle of their election, by his eternal prescience; the Son as victim for their sins, and the source of all merit; the Holy Ghost as the spirit of adoption and love, animating and sanctifying them, and leading them to glory.

 

[Cathoholic]

thomat65 . . . .

So would you say that a potential answer to that prayer would be the “increase of grace and charity unto the attainment of eternal life for members of Peter’s audience”?

If so, (and here is where I tie in the “merit” part of my title) then who would have merited the individual’s attainment of eternal life? The Apostle Peter, the individual attaining eternal life, or some combination of people?

I am surprised you are asking this Thomat65.

Didn’t we already discuss merit in the Christian sense??

I think your issue comes from looking at justification from a Protestant perspective (at least some of them) of justification being a moment ALONE.

Whereas the fullness of Christianity teaches your justification is a moment followed by a process. A lifelong process.

One cannot merit at all on their own.

Jesus draws us to Him (prevenient grace) without any merit on our part.

He did that with humanity as a whole, then likewise with us individually as well.

That’s the Ephesians 2:8-9 the Baptists correctly hammered into me when I was a child.

But then comes the rest of it (which my Baptist teachers ignored).

The life of grace. That is not only God’s favore but God’s Divine life within you.

So THEN YES in the Spirit you CAN and MUST then merit eternal life.

Not on your own mind you.

But with God working IN YOU and through you you CAN WORK unto eternal life.

That is the Christian teaching.

Yes Grace is God’s FAVOR (but not merely God’s favor).

CCC 1996 Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor , the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life.46

.

But Grace is ALSO a PARTICIPATION with God working in you and through you.

THAT is the Christian teaching.

CCC 1997 Grace is a participation in the life of God. It introduces us into the intimacy of Trinitarian life: by Baptism the Christian participates in the grace of Christ, the Head of his Body. As an “adopted son” he can henceforth call God “Father,” in union with the only Son. He receives the life of the Spirit who breathes charity into him and who forms the Church.

I will give you a few Scriptural examples of this type of grace of God working in and through you in my next post.

Once you have that Christian life, once you are made partakers of the Divine nature, once you are born again or born of water AND the Holy Spirit, you CAN merit.

You can merit NOT on your own but WITH Christ.

 

[po18guy]

The thing about being justified by faith, and it being absolutely true, is that you must drop dead right then and there.

Otherwise, God expects you to do sometihng for the building up of the body of Christ with the overflow of grace He has poured upon you.

It’s not all about us - the gross error of the so-called reformation. It is about the Body of Christ as a single, living and mystical unit, and well did Saint Paul write about that.

 

[Cathoholic]

CCC 1997a Grace is a participation in the life of God.. . . .

PHILIPPIANS 2:12-13 12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13
for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

2nd CORINTHIANS 6:1 1 Working together with him, then, we entreat you not to accept the grace of God in vain.

PHILIPPIANS 4:13 13 I can do all things in him who strengthens me.

GALATIANS 2:20 20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh
I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

EPHESIANS 3:20-21 20 Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.

HEBREWS 13:20a, 21 20 “Now may the God of peace . . . . 21 equip you with everything good that you may do His will, working in you that which is pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

1st THESSALONIANS 2:13 13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is,
the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

2nd CORINTHIANS 9:8-10 8 And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that you may always have enough of everything and may provide in abundance for every good work. 9 As it is written, “He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor; his righteousness endures for ever.” 10 He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your resources and increase the harvest of your righteousness.

 

[thomat65]

Here is what the standard reference Catholic biblical commentary

Thank you for the pointer to that resource. Unfortunately that author didn’t address the prayer itself, and I’m also not seeing any uses of the word “grace” by that author in the context of 1 Peter.

You can merit NOT on your own but WITH Christ .

Thank you for joining this discussion, and thank you for your (name removed by moderator)ut.

Before I continue I’d like to put CCC 2010 before our eyes again:

Since the initiative belongs to God in the order of grace, no one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification, at the beginning of conversion. Moved by the Holy Spirit and by charity, we can then merit for ourselves and for others the graces needed for our sanctification, for the increase of grace and charity, and for the attainment of eternal life . Even temporal goods like health and friendship can be merited in accordance with God’s wisdom. These graces and goods are the object of Christian prayer. Prayer attends to the grace we need for meritorious actions.

I’m noticing this:

1. Others’ graces needed for their sanctification is the object of Christian prayer (CCC 2010)
2. Christians can merit others’ graces (including through prayer) (CCC 2010)
3. The Apostle Peter issued a Christian prayer (1 Peter 1:2)

Therefore, I have this question: Does the Catholic understand the “grace” for which the Apostle prayed to be the same as the “grace” of CCC 2010?

If so, then taken together these things mean that the Apostle merited the grace for which he prayed would be received by the recipients of his letter, and he merited their grace by praying for it.

Is this the Catholic understanding?

 

[thomat65]

P.S. I think there can be some confusion between us when we use words like “grace” and “favor”. But I think I was correct in my reading of CCC 1996 when I said the CCC defines God’s grace as a thing like a “help”.

Yes Grace is God’s FAVOR (but not merely God’s favor).

It appears the CCC also defines “favor” as a thing (arising from a disposition, but not the disposition itself). Here’s CCC 1996 again:

Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life.

When someone tells you “Blaxorg is uubleq, the free and undeserved help that Someone gives”, then you know that by both “Blaxorg” and “uubleq” they mean a “help”. And further that it can be given (“help that God gives us”). Therefore it’s clear that the CCC understands “grace” and “favor” to be things that can be given, not an attitude or disposition.

I’ll contrast this with another possible definition of “grace”: “the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings”. The difference is that this latter definition assigns to “grace” the idea of a disposition or attitude of God which cannot be transferred among the objects of His disposition, and this attitude of God is known by the giving of things to said objects. But the things themselves are not “grace” according to this definition.

It’s fine to call the graciously-given gifts “graces”. I’m just pointing out that the CCC appears to use both “grace” and “favor” in the sense of the gifts themselves rather than in the sense of God’s disposition.

Of course it is possible to say “the king set his gracious disposition upon his subjects”, and in this sense one might say the king’s attitude was given. But I’m skeptical that this is the sense used by the CCC.

 

[Cathoholic]

thomat65 . . .

Is this the Catholic understanding?

As I said. It is PART of it. There is MORE.

Do you affirm you can merit unto eternal life NOT on your own, but with Jesus? (I am talking about AFTER you are united to Christ. Not before.)

 

[Hodos]

Grace is typically referring to the unmerited receipt of God’s favor (meaning his love and good will) through forgiveness of sins. Grace and peace be multiplied is just a way of saying I wish you an abundance of peace and grace through Christ.

 

[po18guy]

I believe that you may be over-thinking this. If the greatest commentators in Christian history have not addressed your specific concern, then maybe it is simply what it is and it was a salutation and a prayer all-in-one.

Best not to complicate things.