The Fruit of Peace

In our crazy world today, there sure doesn't seem to be much peace. We are living in times of political, social, religious and global unrest. There are crisis it seems around every corner. Crisis at the boarder, crisis with Covid related issues, from vaccine mandates being pushed on free Americans to people leaving their jobs due to those mandates.

So you tell me, where is the peace. Can one even have peace in these trying and uncertain times in which we live?

So we go to the Bible and ask what does the Bible have to say about peace? Well actually it say a lot about it.

Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit: Growing in Christlikeness Watch a video from Chris about peace at ivpress.com/cultivating-peace.

In the Old Testament it is that beautiful and complex word shalom—all-round well-being, freedom from fear and want, and contentment in relationship with God, others, and creation. Peace in the storm is God’s gift to his people (Ps 29:11).

There are two aspects about Peace that I want us to explore this morning. The first is The Peace that God Made and second The Peace that God Gives.

But first let us read the text from Gal. 5:22-23

Galatians 5:22–23 NKJV

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

THE PEACE THAT GOD MADE

Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit: Growing in Christlikeness Watch a video from Chris about peace at ivpress.com/cultivating-peace.

At times Paul talks about peace as something that God, and only God, has accomplished. That means the peace that is the result of the great work of atonement that God accomplished through Jesus Christ in his cross and resurrection. One of the clearest explanations of this is in Ephesians 2.

Turn with me to Eph 2:11-18

Ephesians 2:11–18 NKJV

11 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands— 12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, 16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. 17 And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. 18 For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.

Notice how Paul uses peace three times.

First, Christ “is our peace”—that is, whatever peace we have as reconciled enemies, we have in Christ.

And that can only be true because, second, he “made peace” by abolishing, through the cross, the barrier of enmity that divided Gentiles and Jews.

And then, third, through the preaching of the apostles, Christ came and “preached peace” to those who had once been far away.

Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit: Growing in Christlikeness Watch a video from Chris about peace at ivpress.com/cultivating-peace.

So in this context, Paul is talking about the “once-for-all” peace achieved by God’s work though Christ at the cross. It’s something that God did for us. It’s not the peace that is the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. Peace as the fruit of the Spirit has to do with our character here and now, rather than God’s action back then. So, although this aspect of peace—the peace that God made—is absolutely fundamental to the gospel, it is probably not what Paul means by peace as the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5.

THE PEACE THAT GOD GIVES

In Galatians 5:22 where Paul is speaking of the Fruit of the Spirit and mentions Peace as being one of those fruits, he had in mind the peace that God Gives.

And that comes in TWO dimensions. There is Peace with God and there is Peace of God.

Peace with God

Peace of God

Peace with God. This is the much-loved statement of Paul at the start of Romans 5:1-2

Romans 5:1–2 NKJV

1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

When we put our trust in Jesus, who died for our sins, then we know that we come into a right relationship with God, which gives us peace.

Peace with God means peace of heart and conscience, the absence of guilt and fear.

We no longer need to be anxious about God’s verdict on the last day. In Christ we are declared to be among the righteous, those who belong to God’s family.

And it is all because of God’s grace. That is a wonderful thing and is perhaps a bit closer to the meaning of peace as the fruit of the Spirit.

For unless we are at peace with God through faith, the Spirit of God is not at work in our lives. But once our relationship with God is settled, then the Spirit of God pours his new life into our lives and that life of God begins to bear fruit.

Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit: Growing in Christlikeness Watch a video from Chris about peace at ivpress.com/cultivating-peace.

But the peace that God gives is not only peace with God, but also the peace of God. That means peace of mind, freedom from anxiety and panic. Jesus told us not to be worried but to trust our Heavenly Father. His words describe a quality of peace that reflects the presence of God’s Spirit:

Matthew 6:25–34 NKJV

25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? 28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit: Growing in Christlikeness Watch a video from Chris about peace at ivpress.com/cultivating-peace.

Paul echoes Jesus’ teaching, and explicitly links it to the peace that God gives:

Philippians 4:6–7 NKJV

6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

This kind of peace has nothing to do with what this outside world can give or offer. Circumstances change, troubles come and go, gains and loses are always moments away, BUT the peace God gives has nothing to do with in the direction this world is going.

The question goes back to where we started, can we have peace in this world? Can we have peace in the midst of all the stresses of life here and now, in the workplace or home?

The answer is YES.

God made peace available to all through His Son. It is only through His Son that peace can be experienced.

Jesus said, in John 14:27

John 14:27 NKJV

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 heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

If you are without peace, Christ is the answer. When your heart and life is filled with Christ, His Love, Joy and Peace....Are the fruits of His spirit being produced in your life.