This Believe Series message was developed by Dave Morehouse and Brent Hudson. This post is the message delivered by Brent Hudson at River of Life Church. You can view Dave Morehouse’ version from the TJC YouTube channel here.
God pursues peace with us
Ephesians 2:13–14 NIV
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility,
Last week we doubled up in our Believe series looking at love and joy. We saw the connection between experiencing the full joy of Christ with a close relationship with him and active engagement in loving one another — obeying his commands. As we continue to survey the Christian virtues given by Paul in Galatians 5:22-23 we come to the complex theme of peace.
Just like Paul, we want to start looking at this from point of view of God making peace with us through Jesus Christ. This is the ultimate starting point. Understanding the value of peace to God must start with God’s seeking peace with you and me.
Ephesians 2:17 NRSV
So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near;
Clearly, the idea of peace is important to us because it is important to God. Just paying off our debts was not God’s plan. He did that in Christ, but that was not his goal. That was a means to another end. That ‘end’ is reconciliation which itself is technical and really just means making a friendship out of a broken relationship. This is at the heart of God’s pursuit of peace with us. It is why multiple times in the Bible, God is called “The God of peace”
| Romans 15:33 NRSV – The God of peace be with all of you. Amen.
Romans 16:20 NRSV – The God of peace will shortly crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Philippians 4:9 NRSV – Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 NRSV – May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews 13:20 NRSV – Now may the God of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant Judges 6:24 (NIV) – So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it The Lord Is Peace…. |
And we like the idea of Peace with God. We sing about it. We give thanks because of it. And it is good that we do — peace with God is at the heart of our experience of Salvation.
In fact, it is because of we are at peace with God that can experience inner peace. We experience turmoil and anxiety in a variety of ways. Life brings its stresses to us in various ways. Being aware that greatest enemies of humanity have been defeated in Christ — namely Satan and death — gives comfort to all of us. (cf., Hebrews 2:14)
| Hebrews 2:14 NIV Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil… |
No wonder Paul writes that God is the God of all comfort (cf., 2Cor 1:3-4). There is a pattern though and we would be wise to see it. Let’s look at that verse in 2 Corinthians:
2 Corinthians 1:3–4 NIV
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.
What we experience from God, we are called to share with others. This is an important principle that we must understand. Often our inclination — because of our highly individualistic culture — is to just focus on the inner quality of God’s comfort. We celebrate our feeling comforted and all too often just leave it at that. But that is only the first part of what God intends. God gives us this comfort so we can bring comfort to people around us. This same principle is at work when we look at the idea of peace that we receive from God through the Holy Spirit. It is for our benefit – there is no doubt about that – but not for our benefit alone.
It is because we have peace with God that…
We pursue peace with others
This can sometimes make us uncomfortable because the idea of Peace with God is powerful and triumphant. God accomplished this through Christ. But when we start asking how this has affected our relationships — how the inner peace have moved outward into our relationships all we can think about is our conflicts. We all can think of people very easily who we need to have conversations with. Who we have had rough patches that have been smoothed over by the eroding forces of time more than have experienced the peace of God at work in our relationships.
Dave Morehouse mentioned a story he once read about a Christian Speaker who asked his audience to close their eyes and imagine peace. After a few seconds the audience was invited to share their mental pictures of peace. One person described a field with flowers and beautiful trees. Another person spoke of snow-capped mountains and an incredible alpine landscape. Still another described the scene of a beautiful, still lake.
After everyone described their mental picture of peace there was one thing common in them all—there were no people in them. Ramsden commented, “Isn’t it interesting, when asked to imagine peace the first thing we do is to eliminate everyone else.”
I think we can identify with this.
We think Pursuing Peace is hard because…
It doesn’t make sense
Maybe it was a bad bad experience and you feel that addressing that particular conflict is just going to unearth a lot of misery. It just doesn’t make sense to jump into that again.
It’s not my fault
Maybe you found yourself in a conflict because of demands others have placed on you and you feel you are not to blame. The other person is at fault, so they are the ones that need to initiate any conciliation process.
And sometimes we actually just give up on reconciliation because addressing conflict makes us feel bad and…
I don’t need the stress
At the outset we need to hold on to the words of Paul when he said that we don’t control the outcomes ultimately. Sometimes we seek reconciliation and the other party is not willing. Maybe they are angry. Maybe their belief system opposes the idea of reconciliation — there are a thousand reasons why people will walk away from peace-building. Which is why Paul said
Romans 12:18 NIV
If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
Notice how much uncertainty is in this. Is it possible? Is the ball in your court in terms of communication? Paul is saying don’t be the reason for lack of peace in relationships. Be the one who humble enough to engage a conversation. Have we even tried? If we have, sometimes we need to accept the brokenness of the situation. But we must never close the door on the possibility. We must not grow cold and hardened toward making peace. We are reminded of this by Jesus himself:
Matthew 5:23–24 NIV
“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.
Jesus is saying that it is not really about whether your conscience is clear. It is about a broken relationship. I know I have broken relationships in my life where I have a clear conscience. I know I have not sinned. But I also know I need to keep the door open to conversations . . . and for me that is harder. I have a desire to shut the door, lock it, reinforce it with iron girders. What Jesus is saying is that we need to be the one to bring the olive branch. To ask if there is a need to have a conversation. To allow forgiveness and reconciliation a chance.
Often we don’t allow for this because we forget
The Challenge of peace is forgetting…
the Gospel that saves us is the Gospel of peace
Ephesians 6:15 NIV
and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
When we think about the gospel, we often think about believing in Jesus so our sins will be forgiven. We think of receiving the promise of eternal life. We think about Jesus, the cross and the resurrection, heaven and so forth. I have talked about the idea of Shalom before — the Hebrew word for peace and the idea of well-being associated with it. This Shalom is when people live in harmony and relationships thrive. People pay a fair price for work and workers get paid a fair price for working. It is integrally connected to societal justice and also mercy and covenant love. This is the framework that Jesus talks about peace and following him, the disciples and the NT writers. when we read ‘peace’ we need to think Shalom. It is a simple word infused with great depth of meaning.
Our gospel is a gospel of peace. Paul calls it that when writing about the armour of God in Eph 6:15. It is more than me being at peace with God, it is the Peace of God, the Shalom of God blanketing my entire life. My spiritual life, my relational life, my financial life, my thought life, my entire being and everything that my life touches is under the dominion of God’s Shalom at work in me through the gospel.
We cannot simply turn a blind eye to unresolved conflict or having angry relationships with other, particularly brothers and sisters in Christ. We believe a gospel of peace. It is a Gospel that bring peace with God and a gospel that touches our entire lives.
Getting back to the idea of the Fruit of the Spirit, which this section of our Believe series is ultimately rooted, we see that this Shalom of God is something that the Holy Spirit works in us and extends outward into the world. We see that…
the Spirit within us is the Spirit of peace
Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
I suppose would think about “unity of the Spirit” as being purely functional. Just do the task at hand. But it seems that Paul means more than that because it is rooted in the bond of peace. The ‘bond’ is not some spiritual word about “bonding” or anything like that. In Greek it can also be translated as “fetter” or “chains”. Here the use is probably epexegetical, meaning “the bond which is peace”.
Peace is that agent that keeps us in unity. We can’t just do whatever we want. And when we feel anxious about that, we can go to our theme verse in Philippians 4:6-7 and understand that the context here is Paul telling his ministry partner to help two women in the church — Euodia and Syntyche — to get along. To actually become “one mindset”. That’s a difficult undertaking and one that can cause significant distress and anxiety.
What Paul does there is genius really. He connects the building of peace between these two women with the peace that passes all understanding given by God, which will help that worker in his or her anxiety about working with these two — no doubt outspoken — women in the church. Peace is not an option. It is what God is working in us through his Spirit. It is at the heart of his message to us, the gospel. It is at the core who God is. He is the God of Peace. He gives us peace with himself. He gives us internal peace that passes understanding. But he does this so that we can pursue Shalom — peace — in all our relationships — if it is possible and as much as it depends on you.
When Jesus sent out the 72, he told them to stay in the homes of “people of peace”. People of Peace.
Are you a person of peace? Better yet, Who are you becoming?
Are you becoming a person of peace?
The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. (Romans 8:6 NIV)