Colossians 3:15
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.
CONSIDER THIS
Question for you: What is the “peace of Christ”? What on earth does this mean? Like many of you, I’ve been in a lot of church services where people walk around saying “Peace,” to one another and shaking hands. Surely that can’t be it! It’s another one of those motions disconnected from the movement. Is the peace of Christ a feeling or a mood or a soft sentiment or is it something more firm and tangible?
On the night before Jesus gave himself up for us, he said this to his disciples:
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14:27)
We hear a lot these days about “peace through strength.” I think they heard it a lot back in those days too. It was called the Pax Romana—the Peace of Rome. The Peace of Christ was something altogether different.
The lordship of Caesar guaranteed the Peace of Rome through the strength of military might. The lordship of Jesus stood in direct contrast, a crucified king raised from the dead. The peace of Christ is an unshakable peace that comes through apparent weakness, won through death and resurrection. It is the bond formed in a group of people who have given up on the kingdoms of this world and taken up the way of the cross. The peace of Christ is the peace of the cross, a place of unbridled chaos and unutterable pain intersected with the complete reverse of resurrection.
Peace through weakness. It’s what a lot of us need right now, because our strength has failed. We need to lean into a community of peace; people who get the mysterious reality of death and resurrection because they have lived through it. We need the kind of peace the world can’t give us. We need the peace of Christ. We don’t need someone speaking mindless religious words to us. We need someone to embrace us, chaos and all, and not let go when the embrace is over.
The peace of Christ be with you.
And also with you.
It better be more than that, church.
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.
Real Peace. Domino #3/15 will be our sign.
THE PRAYER
Abba Father, we thank you for your Son, Jesus, who is our peace. In the midst of the complex chaos that swirls in my life, where solutions are nonexistent, I desperately need the peace of Jesus. I need this peace to rule in my heart. Come, Holy Spirit, and fill me with this peace, and make me a bearer of it to others. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
THE QUESTIONS
- Have you ever wondered what the peace of Christ is? How do you describe it?
- Is your heart troubled by the chaos swarming around you? What would peace look and feel like to you?
- What does your synthetic or artificial or counterfeit peace look like? What do you turn to instead of the peace of Christ?
P.S. Join Our Holy Spirit Summer Book Club
So this summer, like every summer, we bring a full court focus to learning and growing in relationship with the Holy Spirit. We are gearing up for our annual Book Club Experience. This year we will read LiveStream: Learning to Minister in the Power of the Holy Spirit, by my friend, Ivan Filby. This book is powerful and practical. I was honored to write the foreword. I want to encourage you to join us. Brett Heintzman will be our guide and Ivan will also be joining in. ALL THE DETAILS HERE. PLEASE JOIN US.
For the Awakening,
J.D. Walt
Sower-in-Chief
seedbed.com
3 Responses
From my reading of Scriptures, I’ve come to think that the “peace of Christ “ is the assurance that because of what Christ Jesus has done for me on the cross, I have been reconciled to God the Father. It is more than just lack of God’s wrath towards me; it is now the perfect restoration of what existed in the Garden prior to the fall. I believe the Hebrew word for it is shalom. Love has replaced judgement.
I am concerned about the chaos and darkness all around us. What concerns me most is the thought that as the church here in America, we are no way prepared for the problems coming our way. It’s like witnessing a group of folks sound asleep in a house on fire. The “peace of Christ “ in this scenario would be for the Spirit of Christ to arrive as the fireman to awaken and rescue those in danger, by following him out of the house on fire.
The false “peace of Christ “ in my opinion, is the expectation that some how God will suddenly end all the suffering and allow us as the church to return to business as usual. Let the good times roll. A return to the happy days of some previous era.
1) Before coming to your blog, I posted this definition of “the peace of Christ” on Facebook: “Life’s like bowling. A pinsetter keeps setting up pins–negative thoughts, tormenting emotions, & destructive desires. Our job’s to keep knocking them down.” Jesus said: ““Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” The way to experience His peace and not be troubled is to use the spiritual weapons that He has freely gives us and knock down the devil’s pins that constantly try to disrupt our inner peace. Doing that we can refuse to let our heart to be troubled.
2) My heart is frequently tempted to be troubled, but I use God’s spiritual weapons to resist and knock down the pins of trouble. I use weapons like continual prayer, brokenness, humility, resistance to all things demonic, faith, honesty, confession, repentance, staying focused on the risen Jesus, daily heart-felt Bible reading, praying with other people, asking people to pray for me, thinking on godly things, pursuing holiness and God’s kingdom, frequently reading anointed Christian writers (most of them already in Heaven), speaking in tongues, refusing to watch or listen to sinful media, taking communion, listening to and worshiping with powerful praise music, telling Jesus I love Him, listening to Jesus and doing what He tells me to, etc.
3) Counterfeit peace consists of the mere distraction of our attention away from our anxiety and/or various attempts to deny or medicate our angst. I sometimes turn to various types of clean entertainment in a futile attempt to find peace. However, it never gives me anything but temporary distraction.
The peace of Christ is being comfortable, resisting in Him, when a life’s storms are swirling around us and a tsunami is thrashing inside of us. The disciples were exhausted trying to save themselves during a hurricane-type storm while crossing to the other side of the lake. Jesus was stoozing. While there are many teaching moments for this scripture, Luke 8:22-56, Mark 4:35-41, the unobvious is that Jesus said at the beginning, “Let’s go to the other side of the lake.” No matter what happened between shorelines, they would land on the other side. During their storm, they forgot who was with them and that God’s word (promise) is true and factual because He is faithful. He can’t be any other way. It is HIS natural nature. The disciples didn’t seek Jesus until fear overwhelmed their self-confidence.
Sounds a lot like all people.
God’s promises never go vold (Joshua 21:45, 1 Kings 8:56, Hebrews 10:23. And many more). As committed believers of Christ as Lord, maybe we can experience and life in HIS peace by remembering who HE is and standing firm on HIS promise that no matter what the world and life throw at us, one day we’ll land on the other side of the lake, the promised land of Heaven. Knowing this makes life’s struggles superficial compared to God’s glory land. There is internal peace in Christ when we remember HIS peace when trials and tribulations attack. James lived and understood this so he could write, “consider all trials joy… ”
Lord, remind us of this as we face all schemes of the evil one who wants us to forget your promises by snagging us in his web of earthly temptations. Let’s not forget whose we are. YOURS!
Amen.