The Price of Peace

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding,

will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7)

       Imagine wading into a river and beginning to swim. If you head upstream, you have to overcome the current. If you try to swim across the river, you will have to swim upstream to overcome the current or end up downstream from your chosen destination. If you swim downstream, you are overcoming the current as well. By swimming, you are fighting the current. It is only when you float with the river that you are at peace with the river. This is the nature of peace. You are only at peace to the extent that you agree with the other. The root Latin word from which we derived the word peace means "agree."

        It's easy to want peace and to have peace when others agree with us. The moment peace requires that we agree with others, peace becomes problematical. This is one of the reason that saying about "sometimes it's better to be at peace than be right" is such a challenge. It takes wisdom to know when it is better to submit to what is wrong than to be right. There are better answers in the fruit of the Spirit for this one, and we'll return to it.

     I have used the "S word" (submit), however; that will have tripped some internal alarms. "Submit" is a fighting word. It's a word of oppression. We don't like to submit. The truth is, without submission, there can be no peace. If you swim against the current, you are not submitting to it. You are not agreeing with it. You are not at peace with it. We must remember to keep this in its proper context. We love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We have the joy in knowing that He loves us and cares for us. And He is God, the wise designer of the universe. Is it not right that we should willingly submit to - agree with - Him and with the way that He is designed the universe to function, even if it is not the way we want it to? Then, within the context of our peace with God, we can seek peace with others; agreeing as we can without compromising our peace with God. Sometimes, in order to have peace with God, we will have to do loving battle with others.

      There is one more word to be said about peace, and that is "active." We can say that we agree with God, and that we have peace with God, but sometimes our lives do not exhibit that peace. God has designed your body to work according to certain natural laws. Do you eat the way your should? Do you get the sleep you should? Do you exercise enough? If you approach the new year with resolutions about making changes to live a healthier life, you are confessing that you have not been at peace with God because you've been out of line with His principles. That's a good confession. It's one that I make. Unfortunately, verbally agreeing is not the same as actively agreeing with and submitting to those principles and eating the right amounts of the right foods, sleeping the right number of hours or getting the right amount of exercise. Sometimes, in order to have peace with God we must do (loving) battle with ourselves.