A Scriptural Call for Renewal . . .

THE PEACE THAT CHRIST GIVES

Peace I leave with you; my own peace I give you. I do not give it to you as the world does.—John 14:27

In selecting passages from the Bible that serve as calls for renewal, as we are doing in this series, there is none more vital than those that urge upon us the peace that Christ gives. This one in John 14:27 is especially appropriate in that it shows that the peace of Christ is distinctive. The world has its peace to give, to be sure, but it cannot be the peace that Jesus gives. The heavenly peace is a peace that only He can give.

But what is that peace? The answer is partly obscured by the negative tone of the English world peace, which is a poor representation of the Greek eirene, a term very difficult indeed to translate. All little girls named Irene wear a name that is a transliteration of the Greek, but to give a suitable English equivalent, whether in a single word or a phrase, is not so simple. The idea of security, an overworked term in our time, could be embraced by eirene, but it is not a strong enough term to serve as a translation. The word tranquility is inadequate in that it comes too close to suggesting mere feeling, while eirene has reference to an actual condition or state.

Happiness would be better than either of these. “Happiness I leave with you; my own happiness I give you,” may come close to conveying the meaning, though happiness is also limited by our superficial use of the term. A phrase like “that which makes for man’s highest good” would be better still, or in a shorter form, “fulness of blessings.” Thus we have the Lord saying, “I leave with you fulness of blessings, such fulness as only I have and that only I can give.” When the Hebrews greeted each other (and also said farewell) they used the word Shalom, which is the equivalent to eirene in the Old Testament, they were saying something like “May God give you every blessing.” That is what We should understand “peace” to mean. It has reference to man’s highest good. We referred to the negative tone of the term peace, This is evident from the common idea that there is peace if there is no trouble. A nation is at peace if there is no war. Nations may have a stockpile of armaments and the entire world may be sitting on a powder keg, but so long as the guns are not firing and the bombs are not dropping, we would say that there is peace. War is not the opposite of the peace that Christ spoke of; the peace that He referred to is not the antonym of war. One may know the peace of God even amidst war, and even though there is no war in the world one may be void of the peace that Jesus speaks of.

Peace Is Totality of life

To follow theme of shalom through the Old Testament is to see that peace meant something like “totality of life.” When Joseph’s brothers revealed to him in Egypt that his father was still alive and in good health they used the word shalom. Several times it is used in reference to inquiring of one’s welfare, such as Psa. 35:27: ‘Great is the Lord, who delights in the welfare of his servant!” It also means to be well, a description Namaan gave of himself after being healed of his leprosy. It is used to describe such prosperity one has in abundant crops and material possessions, such as in Zech. 8:12.

The idea of totality of life or wholeness of personality prevails in the New Testament as well. The woman healed of her issue of blood was told by Jesus, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease” (Mk. 5:34). Here peace means to be well, to be free of disease. Paul asked the Corinthians to send Timothy to him “in peace” (1 Cor. 16:11), which has reference to Timothy being allowed to make his journey without emotional or financial strain. Paul uses eirene to refer to wholeness of the person: “May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:33). One is at peace when there is harmony between body, soul and spirit, which comes when one is ruled by God.

This is the force of the greeting which so often occurs in the scriptures, “Grace to you and peace from God.” It is to say something like God’s favor rest with you, giving you the blessing of health and prosperity. When John writes to Gaius the greeting is in different words, but the idea is the same: “Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in health; I know that it is well with your soul.” (3 John 2)

The opposite of peace, therefore, would be something like unwell or to be diseased in mind or body. Paul speaks of such opposites in 1 Cor. 14:33: “God is not a God of confusion but of peace.” Confusion can be between persons or within a person, but wherever it is God is not its author. He is not the God of disease or of poverty or of illness or of injustice. He is the God of wholeness. It is this wholeness that only Christ can give. “I have come that they might have life,” He says, “and that they might have it abundantly.” The abundant life is the peace that He offers.

To live abundantly is to live harmoniously with self and others. It is to enjoy soul growth, which can be enjoyed only in communion with others. It means to be blessed with material prosperity and spiritual health. It is to be free and happy. In Psalms 38:3 David describes the man who is without peace: “There is no soundness in my flesh because of thy indignation; there is no health in my bones because of my sin.”

Peace and the Holy Spirit

The verse with which we began our study is part of the narrative that tells of Jesus sending the Holy Spirit. He promises that He will not leave the disciples desolate or as orphans (verse 18), but that He will send the Holy Spirit as another Counselor (verse 16). The Spirit will be sent in Christ’s name and will teach the disciples all things (verse 26). It is the next verse that reads: “Peace I leave with you; my own peace I give you. I do not give it to you as the world does.”

It is evident from this that peace, which we understand to mean fulness of life or life itself, is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. The apostle says as much in Gal. 5:22: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace . . . “ Just as the world cannot receive the Spirit (John 14:17), it cannot give the peace (John 14:27). Neither is it our own work. It does not come through peace treaties or international conclaves. No king can grant it nor can any parliament or congress rule it. It is a matter of a man’s relationship with his Creator, and through Him with all other men.

Paul makes it clear that peace is in the Holy Spirit: “For the kingdom of God does not mean food and drink bur righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Rom. 14:17)

It is this that makes men one. Oneness cannot be a matter of unanimity of opinion or doctrinal agreement. As men are made one together in Christ they are created into a new humanity to live in peace together. Paul was speaking of the ugly separations that divide people when he wrote: “God has called us to peace” (1 Cor. 7:15). This means that He has summoned us from a world of hate and strife into a community of brotherhood where men are bound together by love. God has called us into a wholesome relationship with each other. And so Paul can urge: “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts” (Col. 3:15). When His peace rules, or when His life is in us rather than the carnal life, there can be no enmity between men. Factions and divisions are works of the flesh. They are sinful in that they miss the mark of God’s intention, which is a happy relationship between men.

The peacemaker, for whom God reserves special blessings, is the one who cultivates the right relationship between men who are at war with each other. When Jesus sent out the Seventy, He instructed them that upon entering a house they were to say, “Peace be to this house!” He explained that if “a son of peace” is in the house there would be a positive response and that their message would be received. A son of peace is one who desires brotherhood with his fellow man and sonship with God.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” What a blessed promise that is, and how glorious it is to make men brothers! How we should long to be sons of peace and makers of peace! This we do by yielding ourselves to His Spirit and allowing the harvest of peace to be a reality in our lives. But do we really desire to be peacemakers? Are we too zealous for our own little religious playthings to become really and truly sons of peace?

The World’s Peace

Jesus said that the peace He gives is a peace the world cannot give. This may be what Paul means in saying, “The peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:7). The world cannot give the peace that is real because it cannot understand it. It is not rationally discerned. There is no intellectual explanation for it. It is the gift of the Holy Spirit, and just as the world cannot receive the Spirit it cannot bestow the Spirit’s gift.

But, oh, how the world tries! There are all sorts of books on how to have peace of mind and a thousand recipes on how to be happy. Fortune tellers across the land operate a multimillion dollar enterprise, all in a vain effort to ease the anxieties of their distraught customers. Astrology may be an invalid science, but it attracts millions who turn to stars in a tragic search for security.

Even more tragic is modern society’s displacement of religion with secularization. It behaves as if there were no God. It seeks peace by denying the ultimate and in declaring God to be dead. Secularization has done what prison and the stake could not do in that it has rendered religion of little or no effect. Peace is measured in terms of military strength and international diplomacy. Or it is determined by the dollar or by social acceptance. All sorts of welfare plans for illness, unemployment, old age are efforts to provide security. It is all the peace that man can offer. When science fails him, all is gone. It is a poor peace.

In desperation some people turn to the churches, supposing that there at last will be peace. The disillusionment can be bitter, which helps to explain the revolts in the churches as well as on campuses and in ghettoes. Even the man in the pulpit often has an empty heart and a gnawing conscience even when the pews of his church are filled. He knows not the peace that only Christ can give.

Sometimes unity efforts, even those on a worldwide scale, are colossal failures in that they confuse means and ends.

The peace that human wisdom can. not comprehend is not for sale. It can be procured by neither gun nor purse. One cannot buy it nor can he take it by force. If a king is blessed by it, it came to him the same way it comes to the peasant. Man must learn that Christ is his only answer. Even the Church must learn that it is not the guardian of peace, but only an instrument through which men seek peace. Peace is between a man and the Christ. It is His peace and only He can bestow it.

It comes to one only through loving desire. The man who hungers and thirsts shall be filled. If a man knocks, the door will be opened. If he seeks, he will find. Are we really hungry for righteousness? Do we really desire the peace that only Christ can give? These are the questions that we must face.

The test comes in our willingness to reject the false peace that the world gives or that our own vanity creates. We must become more like that pitiful creature that wormed her way through the crowd toward Jesus, saying, “If I can but touch the hem of his garment . . .” Jesus knew when that poor soul reached out and touched Him. Power went forth from Him to her. Our experience will be the same. Jesus never fails the one who will turn his back on the false hopes of the world and reach out for the gift that only He can give. He will not fail us.

It is indeed a tragedy when His own church does not have peace, when even those who wear His name are diseased and estranged. It does not have to be. Both the Old and New Testaments give witness to the point we are making.

“He that would love life and see good days . . .

Let him seek peace and pursue it.” —the Editor