Blessed are the Peacemakers . . .

THE GOD OF PEACE

While we do not usually see the creator and ruler of the universe as the God of peace, it was a favorite expression of the apostle Paul. At least five times in his letters he refers to “the God of peace,” and more often still he writes of the peace of God, or peace from God, or peace with God. Once (2 Thess. 3:16) he uses “the Lord of peace, and once (2 Cor. 13:11) “the God of love and peace.”

The idea is that God and only God is the source of peace. Today’s English Version chooses to translate it that way: “And God, our source of peace, will soon crush Satan under your feet” (Rom. 16:20), or in a slightly different way: “And the God who gives us peace will be with you” (Philip. 4:9).

The true believer knows better than to rely on false sources of peace. So Jesus taught his disciples: “Peace is what I leave with you; it is my own peace that I give you. I do not give it as the world gives” (In. 14:27). Not as the world gives! What does that mean? There is a peace that the world can and does give, but it is a false peace. Jesus means that the world simply does not have the peace to give that he has. The world can give wealth, prestige, position, fame, applause, and even financial security (of sorts), but not peace. It is God who gives peace, and this is far more than serenity of mind. The peace of God is God’s own presence in our lives. The essence of peace is fellowship with God.

This is why Jesus goes on to say: “I have said this to you so that in me you may have peace” (In. 16:33). Peace means that God is with us, making his home within us, through Jesus Christ. The Lord draws the contrast in his next statement: In the world you have tribulation. Then he says, “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” That is really Good News. In this world there is no way to cut it, even when we live in the world’s most blessed nation. Frustration, anxiety, boredom, and meaninglessness seek outlets in drugs, sex binges, alcoholism, and an hedonism that makes pleasure-seeking a religion. The world can provide noise but not peace. It can give anesthetics but not peace. It can retire you on a pension and Social Security but it cannot give you fellowship with God. It may in fact deny you of God’s presence in your life by its false security.

In the world you have tribulation. It is futile to expect it to be any other way. The world will give us trouble. The true believer will never quite belong because she will not accept the world’s values. Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world. This means that we do not have to look to the world and all its false values. In Jesus we have the peace that comes from God.

Part of the bill of goods that the world would sell us is that life is a struggle to hold one’s-own with our fellows, to achieve moderate comfort during a few working years, and then to retire with reasonable security ‘for the few years that remain. The fallacy led Shakespeare to say, “Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale, Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.”

Yet man feels that somewhere, somehow there is a life worth living, a life that bears fruit of lasting value. The believer sees this, not in terms of universal prosperity and general peace of mind, but in Jesus Christ, who stands before us as the embodiment of the ideal life, showing us what creative, self-giving love can be. The life worth living is the life of peace, one ruled by the ideal that Jesus provides and motivated by the dynamic that only he can give.

This life of peace, finding its source in God, will grow into greater and greater riches as it surrenders itself more and more to the likeness of Christ, living for others, serving others. This is the peace that passes all understanding, and which the world can neither know nor give.

A religion of fear and uncertainty cannot really appreciate the God of peace. It rather finds its motivation in the God of wrath, and herein lies its false security. The scriptures are replete with the wrath of God, but this applies to those who refuse to acknowledge God, while the Christian takes refuge in the assurance that he has not been appointed unto wrath (l Thess. 5:9). Our people have moved in company with the God of wrath long enough. Now that heaven has made us “sons and daughters of peace” (Lk. 10:6) let us really get acquainted with our Father who is the God of peace.

The idea of God’s wrath impressed me when I was a child. I recall getting caught in a storm, far from home, when I ran like mad, pulling my little red wagon behind me, stopping at least once to kneel and pray, imploring God to help me along to where mother was. The more the lightning flashed and the thunder peeled the faster I ran, refusing to forsake my wagon, which bounced along behind me. I was not sure whether God was with me or after me!

As we become mature in the faith we should lay aside childish ways of believing. Yet many of us behave as if God might be against us as much as he is for us. God is for man, Karl Barth used to say, believing this to be the message of the Bible. If he is for man in general, he is for the elect of God in a special way. He makes them peacemakers, envoys of the God of peace, who calls all men to peace.

God makes peace by breaking down walls, and that is how we make peace. Paul tells us all about it: “Christ himself is our peace by making Jews and Gentiles one people. With his own body he broke down the wall that separated them and kept them enemies” (Eph. 2:14).

Parties build walls. Jesus removes walls. Parties make men and women enemies. Jesus makes them friends.

If we are to be peacemakers, we may well have to choose between Christ and a party. On which side is the God of peace?—the Editor