346...third thought--we'll get to "ho, boy!" yet:

Some new friends I've made this year have often signed off their communication to me...

Best

...or...

Best regards

...or...

Best to you

...which has had me asking, what, exactly does "best" mean?

Webster’s Dictionary states this about “best:”

Pronunciation: 'best
Function: adjective, superlative of GOOD
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English betst;
1 : excelling all others <the best student>
2 : most productive of good or of advantage, utility, or satisfaction <what is the best thing to do>
3 : MOST, LARGEST <it rained for the best part of their vacation>

Then I read Philemon yesterday (one more time being drawn in by Eugene Peterson’s introduction to this small letter of huge impact), and there was that word again…”best.”  Verses 3 and 25 read…

3.    God’s best to you!  Christ’s blessings on you!

25.    All the best to you from the Master, Jesus Christ

…what splendid ways to say “hello!” and “good bye!” when communicating to friends, as Paul was doing with his good friend, Phil, the slave owner.  Paul’s new good friend was Onesimus, one of Phil’s slaves.  What a statement this letter is of what the gospel can do…if allowed.  Again…read it in The Message for added impact as we exist in today’s world.

Here is what Peterson says in his intro to Philemon…

Every movement we make in response to God has a ripple effect, touching family, neighbors, friends, community.  Belief in God alters our language.  Love of God affects daily relationships.  Hope in God enters into our work.  Also their opposites—unbelief, indifference, and despair.  None of these movements and responses, beliefs and prayers, gestures and searches, can be confined to the soul.  They will spill out and make history.  If they didn’t they are under suspicion of being fantasies at best, hypocrisies at worst.

Christians have always insisted on the historicity of Jesus—an actual birth, a datable death, a witnessed resurrection, locatable towns.  There is a parallel historicity in the followers of Jesus.  As they take in everything Jesus said and did—all of it a personal revelation of God in time and place—it all gets worked into local history, eventually into world history.

Philemon and Onesimus, the slave owner and slave you figure prominently in this letter from Paul, had no idea that believing in Jesus would involved them in radical social change.  But as the two of them were brought together by this letter, it did.  And it still does.

*       *       *       *       *       *       *

So, for this weekend, and forever…

…God’s best to you!

Comments

[sean dietich]

I love Eugene Peterson!
I read the Message sometimes and think to myself: This guy really gets it!! The gospel is really as simple as he explains it!

I am a musician and I would be honored if you would check out my music. Its all free for download on my site. Anyway, I just thought that I would share.

Thanks,
-Sean
________________________
www.SeanDietrich.com
"All my music is free."