25. PERFECT PEACE
In Philippians 4:6, the apostle Paul tells us to pray, which helps us to conquer worry. Then in Philippians 4:7, Paul adds this:
And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. --PHILIPPIANS 4:7
The word translated “peace” can also be translated “tranquility,” “harmony,” “concord,” “security,” “safety,” “prosperity,” and “felicity.” Worry cannot survive in this kind of atmosphere. Just as worry involves “dividing the mind,” so peace involves “uniting the mind” –fastening it upon worthwhile goals and stimulating it with worthwhile motives.
God is the Author of this peace. It is “the peace of God.” And God does not confuse us. “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints” (1 Corinthians 14:33). And in the Word of God peace and unity go together, for Christians are to endeavor “to keepthe unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (Ephesians 4:3). This is a genuine peace begotten of God.
The peace is not possessed by the hedonist. Such a person takes everything lightly.---snaps his fingers, whistles, and sings. This fellow is a heedless, foolish, light-headed, and light-heeled person who for a little may dance and sing. He simply postpones his sorrow. The day will come swiftly and with a vengeance.
This peace is not possessed by the stoic. The stoic braces his nerves. He will be shaken and moved by nothing. Run a knife into him. He feels the pain, but he will not show it. Despite all manner of knocks and blows in the rough-and-tumble world, he has set his face to the windand will endure without complaining. This may commendable, but it is not peace.
This peace is not possessed by the epicurean. The epicurean chortles out “Let us eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” These are not steel-nerved stoics. They live it up, but they know their long-term prospects are poor.
The peace of God is deep-seated and based upon fact. It is not a self-manufactured hallucination designed to color the facts. This peace is based upon the fact of God's all-sufficiency. It is also based upon our willingness to cast ourselves in self-confessed helplessness upon Him—in response to which He lives through us His own life, bringing harmony, purpose, meaning, and poise.
Peace with God, and the peace of God
This distinction is important. "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1). But not every child of God has the peace of Go d. No one can enjoy the peace of God who does not have peace with God. On the other hand, it is possible, as witnessed by the experience of multitudes of Christians, to have peace with God and fail to appropriate the peace of God.
This peace of God has its foundation in the fact that God doeth all things well. It has its source in the fact that Jesus "will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5). Do you remember the story in Mark 4 of our Lord's trip across the Sea of Galilee? He was asleep in the bottom of the boat. The winds became furious. The waves sprang higher and higher in the air. Soon a tempestuous storm was raging. The little boat was perched perilously aloft the crest one moment only to be dashed into the vortex the next. The terrified disciples cried out, "Lord, save us. We perish!" Jesus was asleep! What peace.
When Jesus arose and subdued the storm, He turned to the disciples and said, "Oh, ye of little faith. Why are ye so fearful?" I can hear them muttering, "Little faith? Little faith? We are veteran seamen. We have never seen a storm like this, and you call it little faith!" Ah, yes. You see, Jesus didn't say, "Let us go out in the middle of the sea and get drowned." He said, "Let us pass over unto the other side" (Mark 4:35).
Now, when you have invited Christ into your life and you have turned the helm over to His control and you have heard His words of assurance, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5), then there is made available to you a peace the world cannot give and the world cannot take away.
The Peace of God
The peace of God is beyond understanding
This may be interpreted in two ways.
First, it may be interpreted as meaning that God's peace is beyond the scope of human comprehension. It is deeper, broader, sweeter, and more heavenly than the joyful Christian himself can explain. He enjoys what he cannot understand.
Second, it may be interpreted as meaning that God's peace exceeds in effectiveness any merely human means of reducing stress. Here is a man who worries. He tries through the efforts of his own understanding to resolve his worries. He fails. He fails miserably. He may resort to stoicism or epicureanism or the power of positive thinking, but he fails. This man comes to God's Word. He responds affirmatively to God's commands. Having entered into peace with God, he now utilizes that formula which gives the peace of God: praise plus poise plus prayer equals peace. Perfect peace is his privileged possession. In this sense, it surpasses understanding in that it far exceeds in effectiveness any strategy devised by human science.
The peace of God is indestructible
It "shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:7). Paul here brings into union the conceptions of peace and of war, for he employs a distinctly military word to express the office of this divine peace. That word, translated "shall keep," is the same word used in another of his letters and translated "kept . . . with a garrison" (2 Corinthians 11:32).
This peace of God takes upon itself militaristic functions. It garrisons the heart and mind. The peace of God garrisons and guards the whole person in the full scope of that person's thinking, feeling, willing, desiring, and acting. This divine peace can be enjoyed even in the midst of conflict.
This is an indestructible peace that guards and garrisons you against all care, anxiety, change, suffering, and misfortune. It gives unalterable rest in God.
Deep in the bosom of the ocean, beneath the region where winds howl and billows break, there is calm, but the calm is not stagnation. Each drop in the fathomless abyss may be raised to the surface by the power of the sunbeams, expanded there by their heat, and sent on some beneficent mission across the world. Even so, deep in our hearts beneath the storm, beneath the raging winds and the lashing waves, this peace forms a central, life-sustaining, and refreshing calm.
Drops of this calm may be raised to the surface of our behavior by the power of the Son of Righteousness—Jesus Christ, the Light of the World—and expanded there by the heat of the Holy Spirit and sent on beneficent service across the world.
The peace of God is perpetual
The tense used here in the Greek text is future indicative, and the context makes it clear that the peace of God will proceed in continuous and unabated action.
Stop perpetually worrying. Perpetually let your requests be made known unto God. And you will have the assurance that perpetual peace will garrison and guard your mind and heart through Christ Jesus. What an antidote to worry!
The assurance of this peace is conditional upon no outside circumstance, for this peace is possible only through Christ. A life without Christ is a life without peace. Without Him you may have excitement, worldly success, fulfilled dreams, fun, and gratified passions—but you will never have peace!
Horatio G. Spafford was a successful lawyer in Chicago and a member of the Fullerton Avenue Presbyterian Church in that city. In the financial crisis of 1873 he lost most of his property. In the stress and strain of the times, he prevailed on his wife and four daughters to take a trip to France to get as far away from the scene of worry as possible. He booked a passage for them on the Ville de Havre. They set sail November 15.
The trip was uneventful, and its hundreds of passengers were enjoying the restful bliss of an ocean voyage. That is, until the night of November 22.
Shortly after midnight the Loch Earn, bound for New York, collided with the Ville de Havre. In a few minutes, the French ocean liner sank beneath the waves. The Loch Earn, which was not damaged by the collision, rescued as many survivors as could be found. Of the 226 passengers on the Ville de Havre, only 87 survived.
Mrs. Spafford was among the survivors, but the four daughters perished. As soon as Mrs. Spafford reached land, she telegraphed from France to her husband: "Saved alone. Children lost. What shall I do?"
The Chicago attorney left immediately to join his wife and bring her back to Chicago. It was in the depths of their bereavement that he wrote his one and only hymn, "It Is Well with My Soul." The grief of his terrible loss and the peace he experienced as he and his wife submitted their lives to God's providential dealings are described in the four stanzas of the hymn:
When peace like a river attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
"It is well, it is well with my soul."
Though Satan should buffet, tho' trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
My sin, O, the bliss of this glorious thought,
My sin not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
And, Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll,
The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend,
"Even so," it is well with my soul.
Christian friend, before you were saved you had no peace, did you? The Christless heart is like a troubled sea that cannot rest. There is no peace for it. Now you are a Christian. The Lord has brought you peace with respect to your relationship with Him and with respect to your outlook on eternity. However, if you are to enjoy the peace of God over daily worries and cares and anxieties, small though they be—"the little foxes spoil the vines"—you must fix your mind upon Him, "looking unto Jesus" (Hebrews 12:2).
Keep your mind "stayed" on Him. This will enable you to fulfill the biblical formula of praise, poise, and prayer. Praise and poise and prayer together will bring you peace, in the grace of God. As Christ lives in you "your peace shall be as a river, and your righteousness as the waves of the sea."