Advent 2021 WK 3 - Peace
Continuous Joy Through Peace
Thus from this stem meaning “joy” Paul uses the terms fifteen times. To make it emphatic Paul repeats it at the end of the sentence. He asked that they not go into hiding, but that they come out openly, avow their faith, take their stand, and rejoice as they do it.
The joy and forbearance (gentleness, 2 Cor. 10:1) which constitute part of the church’s witness to the world (vv. 4–5a) are genuinely grounded in the church’s faith.
It means an attitude that will “pardon human feelings and look … to the intention and not to the act, to the whole and not to the part, to remember good rather than evil.”
According to Jesus this attitude of mind feeds upon fear. It is basically a lack of trust, of confidence in God. “Be anxious about nothing” is a better translation than “be careful for nothing.” The meaning is, “in no case should you permit yourself to be full of care.” The NEB correctly renders it, “Have no anxiety.”
Faith is the chief corrective of worry. Anxiety debilitates; it is abrasive. It renders one less efficient. Thus anxiety feeds upon itself. The more anxiety one has, the less efficient he becomes and the greater the reason for his anxiety. The remedy then is positive. It is to commit all things to God in confidence. Paul encourages specific praying.
Prayer (proseuchē) is the “general offering up of the wishes and the desires to God.” This indicates the frame of mind of the one making the prayer.
The word supplication (deēsis) means a special petition. A listing of petitions should always be accompanied by thanksgiving.
The peace which the church can know, the sense that all is well, does not have its source within—there is dissension—nor without—there is opposition—but in God.
Guarding the heart is the consequence or the result of the praying of v. 6. Prayer is the condition, peace the consequence. There is a paradoxical quality in this peace, in the sense that it exceeds our capacity for understanding it. We can experience it and know its ingredients in part, but we cannot encompass the total.