The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. There is no law against those things. Galatians 5:22-23
Peace. We’re two weeks away from Christmas. You know at Christmas, everyone talks about peace. The angels sang to the shepherds, glory to God in highest heaven, and on earth, peace to those who have His favor (Luke 2:14). Jesus’ birth meant peace for people.
But what kind of peace? What is peace?
People often think peace means no fighting. Everything is calm, people agree on everything, and there is no arguing or fighting. True peace would mean there is no war, no murders. If we have true peace, the news on TV won’t have any bad news, it would be all good stories.
Well, Jesus was born and the angels sang “Peace on earth.” Do we have that kind of peace? No. The world is still full of bad news, wars, fighting and arguing. So what is peace?
First, peace means we have peace with God. You must understand that sin means we break God’s law. Because we break His law, we deserve punishment. There is no peace there. Imagine a man breaking into a bank. The police come and see the guy coming out the door holding a large bag of money. The robber stops and tells the police, “Peace! We’re fine! You won’t do anything to me, right?” That should never happen because the man is breaking the law. The police must arrest him and charge him with stealing.
The same, we break God’s law and that destroys peace with Him. The only way to have peace is if God forgives us, and He does! When Jesus died for us, He forgave all our sin and took away all our punishment. Romans 5:1 says, “Now that we have God’s approval by faith, we have peace with God because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done.”
So the first kind of peace we have is peace with God because He forgives our sins through Jesus.
Second, peace means we have peace in this life. You might think, I don’t feel much peace! My marriage is difficult, my kids don’t respect me, people at work pick on me. I’m behind in paying my bills. Life is hard! I’m stressed out! I don’t feel much peace!
Remember what I said last week about joy. You can experience many troubles in this world and at the same time be full of joy. It is the same with peace.
In John 16:33, Jesus said, “I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
The world will always hate Christians. And your life will always have difficulties. But you are in God’s hands, and that gives you peace.
When I was about 5 years old, my dad and I went for a walk several times down a long road next to a farm. There was a huge German shepherd at the farm. Every time we walked by the farm, the dog came and followed us and barked at us for a long distance down the road. If I had been walking alone, I would have run away from the dog screaming and crying. But my dad walked with me and I held his hand. I was still afraid, but I knew my dad would protect me and take care of me.
Isaiah 26:3 says, You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. We experience many troubles in this world, but we’re not alone. Jesus walks with us. We trust Him and our hearts and minds attend to Him. We know that in the end, He will make everything good for us. That gives us peace that the world can never take away.
The second kind of peace is that we have peace in our hearts and minds because Jesus is with us; we aren’t alone in this world.
Third, peace means we have peace with each other. Remember, this is talking about Christians. We don’t have perfect peace with unbelievers. Maybe we get along with them fine, maybe we are very good friends with unbelievers. But we don’t have God’s perfect peace with them.
But God gives us peace with other Christians. We love and forgive the same as God loves and forgives us. We welcome and accept each other the same as God accepts us.
Col. 3:14-15 says, Above all, be loving. This ties everything together perfectly. Also, let Christ’s peace control you. God has called you into this peace by bringing you into one body.
That one body means His church. When you belong to Christ, you belong to His church, and He gives you, all of you in the church, His peace.
Sometimes we don’t feel that peace. Our sin and disagreements can mean we don’t see peace. God still gives peace because He includes all believers in His church! But we need to work on living in peace.
2 Cor. 13:11 says, Finally, brothers and sisters, be joyful! Work to make things right with one another. Help one another and agree with one another. Live in peace. And the God who gives love and peace will be with you.
May God give you His true Christmas peace. Not just a good feeling for one day, but forgiveness, love, and life in Jesus and with each other, that will fill you with peace with God and with His church.
