I decided to write this article to help Christians everywhere to have peace in their lives. This article is for those who simply want to learn what the Bible says about peace and it is also for those who desire to conduct a Bible study on peace with the groups that they are a part of.
Hope you enjoy this article and that it assists you in your walk with Him!
Peace with God
The first step to peace is to have peace with God. Without peace with God, we cannot have peace in ourselves or with other people. We will constantly be emotionally unstable and we will constantly be struggling to maintain good relationships with others.
Now you may not know, but if you are not a follower of Jesus Christ then you are an enemy of God (Ephesians 2:1-3 & Romans 8:7-8).
The Bible says that all of us have gone astray and that all of us have walked away from God and rejected Him.
“There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.” (Romans 3:10-12)
Our sin has caused a gap between us and God. There is no peace between us. By choosing to be partakers of sin we have waged a war against God.
We who were created to be close to God and to bear His image across the whole earth have become His separated enemies and instead of bearing the image of God on the earth we have bore the image of sin.
But God had a plan to send Jesus through the womb of a woman, to fulfill what we failed, and to pay the penalty for our sins so that He could remove sin off of us so that we can be restored back to a relationship with the Father.
That is the whole goal of Jesus dying on the cross for us and raising from the dead. He did it so that we could be restored back to what we were created to be in the beginning; children of God who are made in His image (Genesis 1:26 & Colossians 3:10).
Now we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ! We can now access Him by faith and have a relationship with Him.
Jesus didn’t just save us from hell so that we could get to heaven. He saved us from sin so that we could get back to the Father.
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)
Through Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection He has made available a complete restoration of the relationship between us and God. And through our repentance and faith, we receive this wonderful gift.
[Related article: What is the Gospel?].
Peace in yourself
Once we have peace with God through receiving the work of Christ, then we receive the peace of God on the inside of us through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.
It is this peace that is imparted to us through the Holy Spirit that gives us constant internal peace as we draw near to Him (Galatians 5:22).
The Bible is filled with mentions of this peace and how it works in our lives.
“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
In this verse, Jesus is telling his disciples that the peace He will give them will not be a peace that is dictated by circumstances and natural situations, but it will be that even in the midst of tribulation they will have peace.
This is why Paul said that this kind of peace is beyond natural reasoning.
“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7)
Notice, this peace only comes if we give everything to God through prayer, supplication, and thanksgiving. It is only through our communion with Him that are we then able to receive this peace that Jesus and Paul both spoke of.
The apostle Peter referred to something very similar when He said, “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord” (2 Peter 1:2).
Grace is God’s mercy and empowerment being applied to us. Peace is God’s emotional stability being given to us for every need. And Peter says here that we can only access these two things through knowing God and Jesus our Lord. [Related article: How to start knowing God (Step by Step)].
So as we grow in our relationship with God His peace will begin to multiply in our life and it will eventually guard our heart and mind through Christ Jesus.
Peace with the saints
“I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace“ (Ephesians 4:1-3).
“And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.” (Colossians 3:15)
Both of these passages are in the context of the Church maintaining peace and unity with one another. We are to endeavor to keep unity with one another and we are to let the peace of God rule in our hearts toward one another.
Peace should be our priority with other brothers and sisters in Christ as long as it is not at the cost of truth. And in that case, we speak the truth in love with the motivation to edify and not to tear down (Ephesians 4:15-16).
Many people use the latter verse to teach about hearing God’s voice. They say that if you feel peace about a direction that you’re considering you should go in that direction for that is God leading you.
Now I don’t have doubts that God can lead you through experiencing His presence, but I do struggle to see that application in this verse.
The whole context is holy conduct for the body of Christ. In fact, in the latter part of that verse, Paul even says, “To which also you were called in one body.”
So we are to have the peace of God rule our hearts toward the body of Christ, which means our goal is always to reconcile and to unify, never to tear down.
Peace toward the world
Jesus promised us that we would have tribulation in this world.
“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
There is no promise of peace with the world found anywhere in scripture. In fact, the Bible says that if we make ourselves a friend of the world then we are enemies of God (James 4:4), and it also promises us that we will suffer persecution if we desire to live Godly (2 Timothy 3:12).
Now obviously, we should be kind and patient to all people, but we should not desire friends who are of the world. We have one job with those who are unbelievers and that is to show the love of Christ to them through our deeds and through our words. But don’t be surprised if you get persecuted for following Jesus. It is a promise from scripture that it will happen.
The only place a Christian has a right to desire peace from is in Christ. If we seek anywhere else it is idolatry.
I hope you enjoyed this article and that it assisted you in your walk with God.
Also, here is another Bible study that I wrote. I hope you enjoy it!
