“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body”
(Col. 3:15).
The New Testament talks about new life in Christ using a number of different images. Jacob Preus organized these images into six categories in his book, Just Words: Understanding the Fullness of the Gospel. His six categories are creation and life images, commerce images, legal images, personal relationship images, sacrificial images, and deliverance images. For each category, he works through many biblical examples. The fullness of the gospel demands many images because language cannot hold the good news.
One powerful image of the gospel is that of peace. “I leave with you; My peace I give you” (John 14:27 ESV). Preus categorizes peace as a personal image. Peace ends the violence of war. Peace is the freedom from conflict.
The Hebrew word for peace, shalom, is also the common greeting. Paul greets churches with the phrase “grace and peace.” This combines the Hebrew greeting with a word that sounds similar to the Greek greeting.
We have external conflicts between us and our neighbors. Our tempers rise when with certain people. At other times, we feel conflict within our own selves. We cannot make sense of it. We desire peace; yet, because of sin, peace is fleeting. As soon as we think we have achieved tranquility, it is gone.
We can let our circumstances rule our lives, create discord in our emotions, and devastate our wholeness. It is easy to get anxious when the new neighbor moves in, or we don’t get the promotion at work, or changes occurring at church. Yet God is with us through these events.
The greatest conflict we face in life is from the empty threats of the unholy trinity. The old triumvirate of sin, death, and the devil war against the peace of Christ. But Jesus has declared victory in this battle. Christ is our peace. He has brought peace between God and us. For his sake, we can also be beacons of peace to the world about us.
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23 ESV)