Peace With God and Mankind

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Audio Transcript:

WB = Wendy Blight

EG = Eric Gagnon

Wendy Blight: Hey, First 5 friend. What a gift to be back with you again this week to study God’s Word as we enter into the first week of our Keep Holding On: 30 Promises From God You Can Cling to Right Now study. It’s especially fun for me today because we have my teammate, resident theologian but most of all friend, Eric Gagnon, with us today. Eric, you’re teaching on the true meaning behind what Jesus and the New Testament writers mean when they talk about peace – as I told you this morning – is fascinating and so insightful. You share specific definitions and distinctions I’ve never learned before. So I can’t wait for you to start so our First 5 friends can hear it.

Eric Gagnon: Thank you, Wendy, for that intro. It’s such an honor to be able to be asked to share my thoughts today, and I’m always amazed to be able to be asked back to teach again. So this week, we’ve been looking at God’s promises to us about peace, and our writers have done an amazing job. So let’s talk real quick about this familiar word: “peace.” According to the Oxford Dictionary, the first definition of peace is this: freedom from disturbance, and then there’s a semicolon: tranquility. The second definition is this: a state or period in which there is no war, or a war has ended.

So these definitions are largely what I think our world has accepted about what it means to have peace. In fact, when I think about peace, I often just think about the absence of anxiety in my life. And so I identify closely with the part of the definition that mentions tranquility. And my idea of having peace has me thinking of sitting in a comfy chair with a book by a fire, maybe, with nothing on my calendar. And for others listening, maybe it’s sitting by the ocean with a nice tea or maybe just a good nap on a lazy Sunday afternoon, free from worry. How about you, Wendy? What’s your idea of tranquility or maybe, you know, peace?

WB: Yeah, it came so easy. It’s like this deep and abiding calm that is just down inside my soul so that no matter what’s going on around me, I can just be centered in that calm and that tranquility.

EG: Yeah, that’s good. And that’s a good thing. And I think, you know, a lot of us have varying ideas about what peace is, and I think, partly because it’s a very wide subject. And today, I’d like to suggest that peace, according to God’s Word, is even more comprehensive than our definitions of peace, because the biblical concept of peace also includes our relationships with both God and each other. And I want to argue today that – well, I don’t want to argue, but I want to defend maybe the position that – the way we gain more peace is by loving God and by loving others.

Notice how the above definitions from Oxford [Dictionary] are largely selfish, really, if you think about it. The definition included the phrase “freedom from disturbance.” So according to Oxford [Dictionary], it’s considered peaceful if nobody’s disturbing me. So, for example, in the movie, What About Bob, which I’m fond of, partly because its setting is supposedly New Hampshire even though I think it was filmed elsewhere, but Dr. Marvin in the movie isn’t getting any sleep because his patient, Bob Wiley, and his son Siggy are up all night making noise in his house. And then in a rage, Dr. Marvin tells them all he wants is some peace and quiet. After which Bob Wiley says, “OK, I’ll be Quiet.” And then Siggy says, “I’ll be Peace,” and they both burst out into laughter. Now, it’s just a funny illustration to point out how we often think about peace. We just think of it as a lack of disturbance – quiet.

OK, now let’s listen to Jesus’ words, as recorded in John 14:27. And this is really what my entire teaching is based on today, we’ll look carefully through these words today. He says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14:27).

So the first observation I’d like to make about this verse is that it’s apparent here that the peace Jesus is referring to is twice differentiated from our normal cultural definition of the word. And I say twice because He calls it His peace. And then He states: It’s not from the world; it’s out of this world.

So the second observation I’d like to make is that there does seem to be an association with the presence of peace and then the absence of being troubled. We see that here in the verse, so we’re not wrong to associate peace with the absence of anxiety. In fact, elsewhere in Scripture, we see this connection again to peace and its ability to dispel anxiety, particularly by prayer. So listen to Philippians 4:6-7; it just says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7).

Also, in 1 Peter 5:6-7, it says, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:6-7). So both of those are talking about casting our anxieties on Him through prayer. And many of us have heard the verse where Jesus said, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious …” (Matthew 6:33-34a).

Wendy, you wrote a wonderful book called Rest for Your Soul, which I actually had the privilege of reviewing. You taught a lot on these verses, and I actually learned a lot from you, and I thought I would just pause here and ask you if you had anything to add so far?

WB: I don’t really – it’s not so much to add but maybe to just expand on it. Sometimes even though we have that peace that’s been given to us by God through the fruit of the Spirit – you know, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness and all the rest – I think in this world we live in, we have to reset, like, we just have to reset our minds and our hearts and our bodies, and slow down and spend time with God. And when we do that, then we can sort of get a refreshing refilling of that peace that’s ours in Jesus.

EG: Yeah, that’s great, Wendy. Yeah, sometimes I think, Oh, I just have to reset once. But it’s amazing how we have to sort of continue to do that. In these verses, I’m glad that we’re given an alternative to worrying. We’re not simply told, “Stop worrying. That’s sinful; just don’t do it.” But we’re actually told how to stop worrying. I don’t know about you, but I have been told a lot simply to stop worrying, and that’s never been helpful to me. Sort of like me, telling my kids to stop being hungry but never actually showing them proper eating habits. And by the way, my two girls who are 9 and 7, lately, they’ve been getting really hungry after they go to bed, and then they’re up complaining about being hungry. And sometimes we’ve given them some milk or some other snack to help them go back to sleep. But at the same time, we’re also trying to teach them to make sure to eat all their dinner, for example. And also that it’s actually not so good to eat right before going to sleep all the time. And that maybe being a little hungry sometimes might be OK. But just telling them to stop it doesn’t help anything, right?

So not only are we given alternatives to worry, but it’s also really fascinating that the very thing Jesus says not to do when He says “Let not your hearts be troubled” (John 14:27) is actually the very thing He does twice in John. So in John 12:27, He says, “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour‘?” (John 12:27a-b). And, then in John 13:21, He says, it reads: “After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit, and testified, “Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me” (John 13:21). And as we know, Jesus didn’t sin. So while I agree that we are encouraged not to be troubled, we also don’t need to think of it as always unquestionably sinful, like, God is always displeased with us if we’re troubled. Certainly, it can become sinful, and as sinners, you know, unlike Jesus, we tend toward sin. But it’s encouraging to know that Jesus said, “Let not your hearts be troubled” and He Himself was troubled. So certainly He was troubled so we wouldn’t have to be.

But also I think having sorrow is somewhat normal for the people of God, who follow the man of sorrows, our leader, Jesus, who’s well acquainted with grief. And as Christians who follow Jesus, we seek wisdom. But Scripture tells us that as we increase in wisdom, we often increase in sorrow. It reminds me of the wisdom from Solomon in Ecclesiastes, where he says, “What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun? All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest” (Ecclesiastes 2:22-23a, NIV). And then he says elsewhere, “For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow” (Ecclesiastes 1:18). And unless we think Solomon was wrong about saying this, God’s Word says about Solomon’s words, in Ecclesiastes 12:10, that “… uprightly he wrote words of truth” (Ecclesiastes 12:10). And then even Apostle Paul, who’s Scripture says as an example for us, wrote about his love for his kinsmen, in Romans 9:2, when he says, “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart” (Romans 9:2). And in his letters to the church he planted in Corinth, he writes to them that “there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches” (2 Corinthians 11:28).

So I share all of this, not to say that we shouldn’t seek freedom from anxiety and healing and peace in our minds and hearts; we can and we should do that. And I don’t want anyone to become resolved that they will just always have grief and worry. We can continue to seek increasing joy, increasing contentment and peace. At the same time, I think we can see our grief sometimes and have shame and guilt because of it. Being stressed or anxious, I think, sometimes is stigmatized as being weak or not having enough faith. And I think these verses at least help to show us that we’re not alone.

But there’s an even deeper meaning of this word “peace” that Jesus used and that He gives to us. And the Greek word used in John here is eirene, and some have pointed out the differences between this word and the Hebrew word for peace, which is shalom. However, D. A. Carson points out that peace reflects the Hebrew of shalom, the customary Jewish greeting and word of farewell. So it reflects it; even though it’s a Greek word, it reflects the Hebrew word shalom.

In other words, in Scripture where someone actually says shalom in real life, John and the other Gospel writers wrote for us the Greek equivalent, which is eirene. So listen to G. Walter Hansen’s commentary on this word, and this is a large quote, but here we go. He says that “the peace of God in a larger and deeper sense is more than the absence of anxiety. Peace in the Hebraic sense of shalom means “well-being,” especially well-being in terms of health and harmony in personal relationships. Shalom seldom if ever denotes the spiritual attitude of inward peace. It is not something concealed and inward; it manifests itself in the form of external well-being. Shalom is an emphatically social concept. In Paul’s letters, it refers to the relationship of peace with God – that’s in Romans 5:1 – and the relationship of peace with one another.” That’s the end of the quote.

So I think this has a profound implication for us today; the answer to having more peace in our lives and in the world, in addition to silence, meditation, making requests to God and personal inner peace, which are all good things, is to consider first and foremost our relationship with God. And if we’ve put our trust in Christ, then we have peace with God now and forever. I mean, our sins are wiped away. He welcomes us as if we’re perfect, because the sacrifice of Christ on the cross was perfect, and it was sufficient. So, Believer, you are forgiven. Now we walk in that forgiveness. You’re loved. And now walk in that love.

So that’s about our relationship with God, and to continue applying this definition of peace, let’s think about peace with one another. When it comes to peace, we can consider our relationship with our fellow humans. For example, what’s your attitude like when you’re in the grocery store or driving through a parking lot? Is it impatient? Is it hostile? Is it angry with the people you encounter? I mean, I have to confess: Too many times I’ve been in such a hurry that instead of seeing every moment as being an opportunity to be generous and kind to those who are rude and unkind to me in public, I just continue on. But I can’t share about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus if I’m annoyed with the person who maybe just cut me in line or something.

In our places of work, for example, are we making it our aim to just be a blessing in every way possible? To be a servant, to love the many people who see things so differently than we do? As I’ve thought more about this, I’ve realized that thinking of worry as something that only happens in my head really is a lie because most of the worries I think we have have to do with relationships. I mean, if we have fear or have anxiety, it’s because we fear people. You might say, Well, I don’t … I just fear my finances or my student-loan bill. Well, if there weren’t people to demand the payment, we wouldn’t care about paying bills. We fret about whether we do enough for our kids, our parents or our friends, and we unnecessarily dwell on shame for rude things that we’ve said or we’ve done to people. And all those things have to do with relationships; it’s not inanimate objects or lack of a quiet room or just a state of mind.

The peace of God, our shalom, has its basis first in our relationship with God and second in our relationship with others. And it seems then that loving God and loving others, just as Jesus taught, really is the answer to peace. So let’s be faithful, right? And let’s be loving today – faithful and loving to God, faithful and loving to others. And I believe that those things go a long way in bringing us peace.

One question I thought I would leave with us today is: As your love for God and others increases, have you ever noticed more peace in your heart and mind? I have certainly seen it in my own life. And part of it, I think, is simply seeking to look for ways that I can help others succeed, instead of just looking out for myself at work, at home or in the community. It’s amazing, I think, how just focusing on being a help and a resource to others really, truly helps us more than if we were to only seek to help ourselves. Looking for ways to be a blessing, it just … it takes the eyes off ourselves and sometimes allows us to have peace without that even really being our main focus. So, Wendy, that’s all I have today; I hope that blessed someone.

WB: Oh, I’m sure it did. I know it blessed me enough; I shared it in our team time this morning. So thank you … I really appreciated your differences between those two Hebrew words for peace and that there’s a larger definition not spoken of that peace goes beyond a spiritual attitude of inward peace. But that inward peace that – and God gave me this word – manifests itself in a way that we then want to just have peace with others. And that our peace should move us to want it, instill and pass it on during the day. And isn’t it so much better, Eric, not to be the grumpy one? But when someone’s not nice to you, be nice back and maybe just make them take a step back and like, Wow, OK, you know? You would bless them instead of sort of stirring their anger up even more. So I loved it. Thank you so much. I’ll close us in prayer.

Father, You sent Jesus to be our Prince of Peace. And He died on the cross and rose again so that we could have the fruit of Your Spirit. And that fruit is ours, Lord; it’s ours. And just help us to live fully and freely in the peace that is ours in Jesus. Daily remind us that it’s ours. And may we do as Eric invited us to personally live it but also experience it. And when we do that, personally, it’ll be in such rich and full ways that it can’t help but overflow and spill out into the lives of those around us. So for anyone feeling restless, unsettled and anxious, Father, will You just fall fresh on them in this very moment? I pray that they would just literally feel You consume them from head to toe with Your peace in ways that they physically feel it down to the marrow of their bones. Father, Eric and I want them to know that You are alive in them.

And then for those of us who are walking in Your peace, will You just open doors, Father, for us to be a blessing? Put people across our paths these next few days and give us the courage to walk through those doors and just fill our mouths with kind words, the blessed words of encouragement, whatever they need to bring Your love and peace into the life of another today. That’s what we want. We want to be a light for You. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.