Theme: The consequences of Christmas

Exegetical note:
In this brief doctrinal incursion into an otherwise largely hortatory letter, "the grace of God" refers to the first coming of the Christ, and "the glory of God" to the second. The author, almost certainly not Paul and very probably not even Jewish, at least manages to capture one dynamic of his namesake's theology in his assertion that godly lives and eagerness to do good deeds are practical consequences of such theophanies and the salvation that the…