The peace of Christ within.
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Intro
Intro
Have you ever had one of those days where everything is going on, so much craziness whirling around, especially in your own head that you just want it to stop.
We all from time to time have days, weeks, or perhaps longer when things are just plain crazy.
We are tempted to act towards or react to people in sinful ways, to get depressed, or wish that we could forget about the problems but we know that none of that actually solves the craziness.
We have choices to make, some easier than others.
Choices that have an impact on more than just ourselves.
Choices that impact the body of Christ as well.
We can throw in the towel, give in to our sinful flesh, perhaps damage our personal witness we might have with someone, or we can make the difficult choice of letting the peace of Christ rule within us.
We all desire peace, especially within ourselves and our close relationships.
The peace that Paul is speaking about here though is more that harmony in our personal relations.
It is more than an agreement between two sides that are at odds against each other.
I hope that we see today that the difference comes in that with the peace of Christ ruling in our hearts we are united as a body of believers.
Read Col. 3:12-15
Peace in our hearts.
Peace in our hearts.
Verse 15 begins
And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.
We must begin by asking the question what is the peace of Christ?
We can begin by looking back to Col. 1
20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
First of all we note that in 1:20, Christ made peace with the Father by the blood of his cross.
He removed God’s hostility towards sinners by taking it upon himself so that those who place their faith in Him would be able to be at peace with God.
Looking to the context of our passage we know that the peace Paul is speaking is rooted in love.
Love which binds everything together in perfect harmony. v 14
Paul uses the word peace frequently in the greetings of his letters including this letter if you remember with me back to 1:2
2 To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: Colossians and Philemon A. Prescript (1:1–2)
Peace” has more traditional roots, reflecting the Old Testament prophetic hope for an era of shalom, when God’s people would be delivered from their enemies and enjoy both physical and spiritual well-being. In every one of his other letters, Paul expresses his wish that his readers might enjoy “grace” and “peace” from God the Father and from Jesus Christ
Shalom, the OT word for peace refers to a state of completeness especially within a complex situation.
Job provides and example of this
24 You shall know that your tent is at peace,
and you shall inspect your fold and miss nothing.
His household was at peace because it was complete.
It can refer to our well being because life is complex.
When situations and relationships are broken or out of place, there is no peace.
The direction that Paul is going with his usage in the greetings is for the purpose of pronouncing completeness over believers.
It is the reversal of the curse of Adam. The restoration of relationship. The re-uniting of God and man.
The peace that Paul is speaking of here is the love that comes in the believers deliverance from sin.
The hope for an era of shalom that is given by the father, through the death and resurrection of the son.
This completeness, the restored relationship is to be what rules our hearts.
Let peace be the judge (arbiter).
Let peace be the judge (arbiter).
So how does the peace of Christ rule in our hearts?
To help us better understand this we will take a closer look at the word for rule.
This word is a verb that is calling us to action by telling us to do so or in essence pleading with us to do what it is saying.
The word most of refers to situations where prizes are awarded in contests.
Generally
be in control of someone’s activity by making a decision, be judge, decide, control, rule
I don’t know how many of us are familiar with baseball but most of us know that the official is called an umpire.
The role of the umpire, especially the home plate umpire is to make decisions on whether or not a pitch falls within the boundaries.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: Colossians and Philemon 3. Putting on the Practices of the “New Self” (3:12–17)
Rule” translates a Greek verb that refers to the activity of the “umpire,” who renders verdicts in contested situations.
Peace is the umpire of our heart.
The peace of Christ is to work like an umpire, a referee, a decision maker, a guide in our hearts, in our minds, in our emotions.
Remember when we see heart in scripture it most often refers to deep within ourselves, our inner selves that no other person sees, not just a physical emotion or an organ within us.
When situations occur that cause our emotions to flair up in bad ways we have a choice to make.
Do we make the choice to continue as we are with our emotions flaring out of control.
Or do we do as Paul says, let the peace of Christ rule within us.
We can, and must as followers of Jesus make the decision to have the peace of Christ rise up within us.
To allow this peace to be the judge, the umpire, the referee of our emotions, of our situations.
We must also ask and seek for this to happen.
Peace is also a fruit of the Spirit.
This peace is grown in us by the Spirit.
Peace is planted, watered, and grown.
This again is part of the great mystery. God grows it, but we are also called to act upon it.
When the divine umpire of peace steps in, it begins to call the shots rather than the things which are put off, anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk, covetousness, evil desire, passion, impurity, sexual immorality.
We might understand Col. 3:15 like this “Let the peace of God call the shots in your life, or be the umpire in your life and actions, or perhaps the referee of your emotions and decisions.
We don’t have to surrender the emotions that come when we are in difficult situations.
If we find ourselves in one of these situations, we can take a moment, stop, and deliberately set our heart and mind on Christ. Easier said than done, but we must try, we are called to make the effort.
Let peace rule continually.
Let peace rule continually.
Another aspect of the verb is that it is not a once a done thing.
The command or plea is to let peace rule continually.
Let peace, your completeness in Christ, continually be in control of your activity by allowing it to be the decisions maker.
Let it not only be the the the thing that makes our heart content, that we have inner peace. But more importantly that it is the ruler causing the heartfelt outworkings from within us.
45 The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: Colossians and Philemon 3. Putting on the Practices of the “New Self” (3:12–17)
the peace that characterizes the “new self” should be a ruling principle or virtue in our innermost being and that it should affect all our relationships—and, in this context, our relationships with one another. “The peace of Christ,” then, is “the peace that he both embodies and brings.” It was Jesus himself who said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you”
In John 14:27 Jesus had in view the heart.
He wants His followers to be continually at peace within their hearts, free from anxiety.
The peace that Jesus is referring to is more than the peace that comes from good circumstances.
More than the peace of having good health insurance, flood protection, a well funded retirement account, or labor saving devices.
Jesus continues in 14:27 Not...
27 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.
Our peace, the completeness we have in Christ, makes no sense whatsoever to the world around us.
Paul refers to this in
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Jesus brings us the peace we so desperately need to call the shots in our lives.
Jesus brings us the peace we so desperately need to live and grow as the body of Christ here and now today.
Peace in the body.
Peace in the body.
While individually yes, peace is important, that is not the purpose here.
I may burst a bubble or two by saying this, but this verse is not about independent, internal peace about decision making.
Paul finishes the verse
“to which you were called in one body. “
Called to peace.
Called to peace.
You are summoned as one body, chosen by God.
Summoned as one body under the peace that comes from Christ.
Again Paul is showing God’s gracious and powerful summon to humans by which we are transferred form the realm of sin and death in the the realm of righteousness and life.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: Colossians and Philemon 3. Putting on the Practices of the “New Self” (3:12–17)
the point is that God has chosen his people not simply to be his people but to live a certain kind of life. That life is bound up with the calling and cannot be separated from it.
“A decisive factor in how we ought to conduct ourselves in relation one to another is whether or not the peace that Christ died to achieve and impart is preserved and promoted.
When we are faced with tensions and potentially divisive decisions in the community of faith, give strong consideration to what will most effectively sustain the ‘peace of Christ’.
Why peace in the body?
Why peace in the body?
So why is this important?
Why do we need to think about peace in the body?
First and best reason of course is we are told to do so in scripture.
There has been a continued building emphasis on how we interact with each other as fellow believers 11-14
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: Colossians and Philemon 3. Putting on the Practices of the “New Self” (3:12–17)
The gospel is inescapably individual in its focus: each of us, on our own, is “called” by God and responds in faith on our own. Yet, at the same time, the gospel is inescapably corporate: we are called along with other people, with whom we make up “one body.”
Peace in the body is important.
How does it look from the outside when a church is not united together.
The unity we show reflects the image of Christ.
A church body that is not letting the peace of Christ rule is a poor and broken reflection of what Jesus intends.
We can never be perfect of course but unity within the body is maintained by how believers interact with each other.
“In making our decisions, in choosing between alternatives, in settling conflicts of will, a concern to preserve the inward and communal peace that Christ gave and gives should be our controlling principle”
“Paul is saying that in making decisions in the corporate assembly we must give consideration “in our hearts” to what will preserve and promote the peace that Christ died to achieve. It is in the realm of the “one body” (3:15b), the church, where this “peace of Christ” comes to effect and exercises its authority.”
How can we take this and promote peace in our church?
We are broken people, it is not if conflict will come but when.
But
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: Colossians and Philemon 3. Putting on the Practices of the “New Self” (3:12–17)
As Christ’s own body, the “new self,” we belong inextricably to one another, and the pursuit of peace as a reigning principle follows naturally from that corporate reality.
Some practical questions we can ask ourselves might be
How do I respond to conflict?
What are my motives? Is there sin in my attitude or behavior?
What is God’s purpose in this situation?
Am I treating my fellow members as the family that they are?
Am I remembering the work of Christ
19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
Being continually thankful.
Being continually thankful.
Finally, almost as if it is tacked on Paul writes “And be thankful.
This again is a call and plea on Paul’s part.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: Colossians and Philemon 3. Putting on the Practices of the “New Self” (3:12–17)
Believers who are full of gratitude to God for his gracious calling (v. 15a) will find it easier to extend to fellow believers the grace of love and forgiveness and to put aside petty issues that might inhibit the expression of peace in the community
A spirit of thanksgiving should be the basic attitude of the Christian because they realize just how much they have been given.
Without a doubt the themes of the previous verses are woven together, forgiveness and the love of others, the peace of Christ, and thankfulness to God, without any one of these the others are unsustainable.
With all of them together though we reflect the image of Christ brightly to the world around us.
When we are intentionally focused on each other above ourselves, as Jesus was with his disciples we will be united as the body of Christ.
Prayer
Don’t let emotions get the best of us.
Let your peace rise up and take charge within us.
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