“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.” John 14:27
“But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven…”
Matthew 5:44-45
The basis of Christian peace is single-hearted, joyous, and intelligent trust in God’s goodness, and acceptance of His will. We hope for a living peace, not a dead one. It is that kind of honorable peace which Christ offers us. ‘My peace,’ He said. Think for a moment of the circumstances in which the offer was made. He was at the very storm-center of a world seething with hatred and unrest. Black tempests were gathering around Him. He was facing the ordeal of His cross. And yet it was out of that very maelstrom which was sucking Him down to death that He spoke of His peace.
When we are in accord with God, we find peace. How can a man be at peace whose being is out of tune with the nature of things, whose will is at cross purposes with God? Our lives need to be linked on to God. We are born to take our part in the movement which is far larger than ourselves. While our lives are moving in the orbit of selfishness there is sure to be confusion. There was no shadow between Christ and God. There was perfect understanding between Him and His Father, and where there are no shadows between a man and God, no earthly troubles can break this deep and final peace of the spirit; and out of that peace comes power to meet whatever life may bring.
Another way in which Christ’s peace showed itself was in His relation to men, a relation which sprang from His oneness with God. Much of our dispeace comes from a wrong attitude to others. The dark heart of the world’s unrest today is full of such things as hatred, suspicion, jealousy, spite, contempt of man for man. There is no peace in any heart till it is emptied of these or lifted above their reach. It is not a pleasant thing to be hated, but the dispeace comes when that hatred is allowed to stir the dust of our own passion. We lose our peace —not when others hate us, if there is no lurking suspicion that it has been deserved, but when we hate others. To hate or suspect or despise another spoils our own spirit, and it opens that door to a perfect storm of unrest. That was, in part, what Christ meant when He spoke of loving our enemies. He knew that there is nothing so fatal to peace as the spirit of hatred and revenge. Taunts and criticism drew from Him nothing but compassion. The worse people were, the more they were in need of God. The more they hated the more they were in need of love and guiding. Part of the secret of peace in this loving attitude towards others, ‘Fret not thyself about evil-doers’—do not let the wrongs of others overthrow the balance of your own soul. All the big souls have had this love, this forbearing outlook on others, and it has kept them strong amid a thousand peering littlenesses.
Peace comes from surrender and response to the love of God in all its challenge and all its security. And the love of God is a challenging thing. ‘My peace,’ said Christ, ‘I give to you.’ What lives the disciples led after that gift! This peace calls us to battle. There is no peace we can accept for ourselves so long as the world is full of the sin and suffering which makes the lives of others unhealthy and unholy. There is no rest from mortal fight for any of us so long as our hearts are tainted with selfishness and pride. For the man who loves with the love of Jesus, and who enters into an alliance with Him, there is no languorous ease, no sheltered garden where he can slink out of the dust and heat.
But it means moving out, too, in response to the assurance of God’s love. In giving us peace Christ gives us Himself. So He will never see us beaten. We shall be equal to every situation into which love may bring us. It is the peace of the full river, glorious, unresting yet unhurried. It is the deep assurance that love will conquer in the end, and already, through the victory of Christ, the situation is in the control of those pierced hands.
JAMES HASTINGS
The Speaker’s Bible -John
The story is told that once a patron sent for two artists and invited each of them to set out on canvas his idea of peace. One of them painted a moorland scene, quiet, lonely, with no living thing in sight, and in the center a lake, still, unruffled, desolate. That is the peace of stagnation and of death. The other chose a roaring tumbling waterfall. Across the face of it was a spray of mountain ash, and on the spay a robin singing quietly. That was much nearer to the peace of Christ.
A.A. DAVID
Our Father
Photo Credit: Debbie Heyer
