Peace: a state of harmony between people or groups…third in the list of fruit of the Spirit…God is the God of Peace…Jesus is the Prince of Peace…Paul coupled peace with grace in his most common blessing to his churches…Jesus said the ones who make it will be called the children of God…If we make our request known to God, peace will guard our hearts and minds…The angels proclaimed peace on earth to the shepherds…Yet Jesus said He came to bring not peace, but a sword…Yet Jesus said “My peace I give you”
Peace has a prominent, complex place in the Kingdom of God. Prominent because it’s a foundational characteristic for our lives. Peace is something upon which other character traits rest. Our faith rests on the fact that we’re ok with God and He’s ok with us (peace). Love and kindness flow because we have peace with one another.
Forgiveness, humility, generosity, quickness to listen – these are products of peace and they promote peace. How good and how pleasant it is when brothers and sisters live together in unity (Psalm 133).
I see peace in Scripture playing out through a process. Like love, grace and forgiveness, peace originates with God, He gives it to us, and we give it out to one another. Jesus came to remove the barrier (sin) between us and God. That’s the peace He brought. There’s nothing between us and God now if we’ve accepted Christ by faith. We have peace with God through Christ.
But then there’s the interpersonal arena. Each of us believers has the directive of Romans 12:18 to do everything possible to live at peace with one another.
Yet there is sometimes a barrier to peace between us and those who choose to not accept Christ, which is often Satan’s attempt to rob us of our inner peace by creating strife. Jesus said this would happen. Father and son…mother and daughter…would be at odds because of Christ. A person choosing to follow Jesus while a person close to them chooses to reject Him can be a difficult situation.
Even those not particularly close to us can present challenges to our peace. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 12 that he was given a thorn in the flesh. God gave this thorn purpose, to keep Paul from pride. Many have speculated what that thorn might have been. I think Paul reveals a lot when he says it was a messenger of Satan. That wording makes me think it was either a person or a demon used by Stan to present a challenge to Paul. There was an effort at play in that day’s war between the kingdoms to discredit and silence Paul. If that messenger was a person, how could Paul be at peace with them? Paul must not have thought that possible, so he asked God three times to remove them. (May the slanderer not be established in the land – Psalms 140.) But God’s ultimate answer was that His grace would carry Paul through this attack. So if Paul was to maintain his inner peace, he would have to walk through this immense challenge and trust God’s grace as he continued to be under attack.
So we have our peace with God through our faith in Christ. We have peace with our brothers and sisters in Christ by doing everything possible to keep it. We have our inner peace by walking in the Spirit, even amid attacks from the messengers of Satan at work to attack us. With all that in mind, let there be peace on earth.
