No preacher can say this to us! He cannot say, ‘Grace to you and peace.’ If he says to us, ‘God bless you,’ well, that is a desire for us. Hopefully he will say it genuinely; that is a prayer and a desire. He cannot dispense it – only God can dispense his blessing. So when we say to each other, ‘God bless you,’ we mean, ‘May God bless you.’ But an apostle, who is speaking God’s word, can say, ‘Grace be to you and peace.’ It is an expression of God’s good will towards his people and we live under that good will. How much we owe to him and we must serve him and keep ourselves untainted from the world, because God’s will is to give us continued, undeserved favour, love, and peace, communion and blessing. It is God’s intention expressed through an inspired apostle.