The Peace of God (3)

Thursday, August 6: Colossians 3:9 – 17

 

Verse 15 offers us an image upon which we can ponder the peace of Christ and its role in our lives, it’s an image, a paradigm, which has been part of my life for many years. But first please consider the verses leading up to verse 15.

 

What do you see in verses 9 – 11? What’s the story?

 

What do you see in verses 12 – 14? What’s the story? What’s the picture? Note that in verse 12 Paul isn’t talking to miserable worthless sinners who ought to be groveling on the ground hoping that God will love them; he is writing to “those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved”! Paul is writing to the sons and daughters of the Living God.

 

Let’s consider that if we are going to experience the peace of Christ in verse 15, that we need to live in verses 12 – 14 (note that we see “gentleness” again in verse 12). If we aren’t going to be compassionate we aren’t going to have peace, if we aren’t going to be gentle and patient with others we aren’t going to have peace, if we aren’t going to be forgiving we aren’t going to have peace – and for sure, if we aren’t going to love others we aren’t going to have peace.

 

Also, take a look at what follows verse 15 because that is part of the story too, what do you see in verses 16 and 17? How do these two verses fit into the story of our lives in Christ?

 

Okay, now let’s look at verse 15:

 

            Let the peace of Christ

                        rule in your hearts

                        to which indeed you were called in one body

            and be thankful.

 

Note the role of thanksgiving in verses 15, 16, and 17. A thankful person is likely to be a peaceful person. Thanksgiving is a key element of healthy relationships, and this is especially true of our relationship with our Father, the Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. When we live in thanksgiving to God, we become thankful for others.

 

Note that we are called to peace in one body; that is, as a family of brothers and sisters – if we are going to have peace within ourselves we need to practice peace in our relationships: marriage, family, friends, the workplace, and most certainly church.

 

Are there areas of our lives, are there relationships, in which we are not practicing the peace of Christ?

 

Paul is writing about the “peace of Christ”. This isn’t a peace that comes from positive thinking, or the latest pop culture fad, this is the peace of Christ – it is the peace that flows from the Person of God in Christ. To touch the peace of Christ is to touch the Person of Christ – it is touching the Divine and being touched by the Divine – it is an encounter with God, it is God living in us. Remember in Philippians 4 that it is the peace that surpasses all comprehension.

 

Now I’d like us to please look at one word in this verse, in the above translation (NASB) it is the word “rule”. We are to “let” or “allow” the peace of Christ to rule in our hearts. That is, we are to submit to the peace of Christ. The peace of Christ is already within the sons and daughters of the Living God, the question is whether we will submit to that peace in our hearts. In other words, the issue isn’t getting the peace of God within us, it is whether we will obey the Word of God (for example in verses 9 – 14, and in verses 16 & 17), allowing that peace to rule.

 

When Christians look for the peace of God they are, more often than not, looking for something they already have but which they refuse to submit to – it may take a while to ponder this to really begin to realize what this means – I’ve been meditating on this passage for years and I am still, by God’s grace, experiencing new depths in it.

 

The Greek word translated “rule” is βραβευέτω – it’s an imperative verb and it means “to be the judge, to control, to rule”. This is the only place in the NT where this verb occurs. The Holy Spirit through Paul is saying that we are to submit ourselves to the rule of the peace of Christ in our hearts. We are to allow the peace of Christ to control us, to be the arbiter of our hearts and lives. The word “umpire” is a pretty good word for this – the peace of Christ is to umpire our lives – telling us what are the balls and strikes, when we are out of bounds.

 

This can be a challenge when we’re surrounded by anger and violence – if we let the world around us rule our hearts, if we take our lead from the world, no matter what form it may be, we will not know what it is to have the peace of Christ ruling in our hearts. This is very much in line with our previous passage in Philippians 4.

 

Are we learning what it is to allow the peace of Christ to rule in our hearts? What does this look like in our lives? Our marriages? Our families? Our churches? Our other relationships? Our thought lives? Our emotional lives?