The God of Peace
In working on my sermon this morning, I have been searching out the biblical idea of "peace," in preparation to deal with Hebrews 12:14, "Pursue peace with all people." I went to my trusty BibleWorks software and put the word in the search engine and was astounded at how pervasive this idea is in Scripture. In the Bible "peace" is meantioned so often and in so many ways, that I feel safe in labeling it a neglected non-negotiable.
God is called the God of peace with regularity (Judges 6:24, Romans 16:20, II Thessalonians 3:16), His city is called "Foundations of peace" or Jerusalem, Jesus Christ Himself is called the "Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6), the Sabbath Rest is seen as peaceful, peace comes from God (Psalm 29:10-11, and just about every epistle begins with "grace and peace to you from God"), and peace is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23, II Timothy 2:22) that is to be pursued (Hebrews 12:14, Romans 12:18).
This is the short list - the very short list. There are literaly hundreds of references to peace in the Scriptures. As I studied this morning, it began to dawn on me that the pursuit of peace, with God and with others, is under empahsized in our teaching. Our pulpits, Sunday School classes, and education centers should be ringing with the truth that God is a peaceful God and thus so should His people be.
When it comes to the discipline of apologetics there is a certain pride in being polemical and indeed there is a necessary validity to this, for part of the discipline is in building arguments. But I feel a certain weight of conviction this morning as I encounter the Word of God and the characterisitics of peace, gentleness, meekness, and kindness that I am commanded to conduct all of life with, even my encounters on an apologetic level. Even the keynote apologetic text, I Peter 3:15, brings to the spotlight the idea of engaging in the task with "love and gentleness," or "gentleness and respect."
Because of human pride, leading to high expectations of others, peace between people is truly hard to achieve, but it must be our priority, both in the church and with unbelievers. Of course, the Bible does not paint a naive picture of peace, as if there was no such thing as sin, hate, violence, war, greed, and lust. These things are a reality that destroy many pursuits of peace, as the current situation in the city of peace demonstrates clearly. The Bible does, however, instruct the people of God to do everything within our power to reflect the peace of God, which He has granted to us through the cross of Christ Jesus (Romans 5:1), to all of those who live around us.
This means there must be continual death to self and our unrealistic expactation of others, there must be firm attempts to build bridges of connection and communication, and we need a sincere desire to work out problems that arise between us. When Jesus was born, the angels sang, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men" (Luke 2:14). May we His people propel His glory forward by demonstrating that peace among ourselves and with the world.
God is called the God of peace with regularity (Judges 6:24, Romans 16:20, II Thessalonians 3:16), His city is called "Foundations of peace" or Jerusalem, Jesus Christ Himself is called the "Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6), the Sabbath Rest is seen as peaceful, peace comes from God (Psalm 29:10-11, and just about every epistle begins with "grace and peace to you from God"), and peace is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23, II Timothy 2:22) that is to be pursued (Hebrews 12:14, Romans 12:18).
This is the short list - the very short list. There are literaly hundreds of references to peace in the Scriptures. As I studied this morning, it began to dawn on me that the pursuit of peace, with God and with others, is under empahsized in our teaching. Our pulpits, Sunday School classes, and education centers should be ringing with the truth that God is a peaceful God and thus so should His people be.
When it comes to the discipline of apologetics there is a certain pride in being polemical and indeed there is a necessary validity to this, for part of the discipline is in building arguments. But I feel a certain weight of conviction this morning as I encounter the Word of God and the characterisitics of peace, gentleness, meekness, and kindness that I am commanded to conduct all of life with, even my encounters on an apologetic level. Even the keynote apologetic text, I Peter 3:15, brings to the spotlight the idea of engaging in the task with "love and gentleness," or "gentleness and respect."
Because of human pride, leading to high expectations of others, peace between people is truly hard to achieve, but it must be our priority, both in the church and with unbelievers. Of course, the Bible does not paint a naive picture of peace, as if there was no such thing as sin, hate, violence, war, greed, and lust. These things are a reality that destroy many pursuits of peace, as the current situation in the city of peace demonstrates clearly. The Bible does, however, instruct the people of God to do everything within our power to reflect the peace of God, which He has granted to us through the cross of Christ Jesus (Romans 5:1), to all of those who live around us.
This means there must be continual death to self and our unrealistic expactation of others, there must be firm attempts to build bridges of connection and communication, and we need a sincere desire to work out problems that arise between us. When Jesus was born, the angels sang, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men" (Luke 2:14). May we His people propel His glory forward by demonstrating that peace among ourselves and with the world.
2 Comments:
god of peace?? well heres what the BIBLE says about your god of PEACE
GE 4:15, DT 32:4, IS 34:8 God is a vengeful god.
EX 15:3, IS 42:13, HE 12:29 God is a warrior. God is a consuming fire.
EX 20:5, 34:14, DT 4:24, 5:9, 6:15, 29:20, 32:21 God is a jealous god.
LE 26:7-8, NU 31:17-18, DT 20:16-17, JS 10:40, JG 14:19, EZ 9:5-7 The Spirit of God is (sometimes) murder and killing.
NU 25:3-4, DT 6:15, 9:7-8, 29:20, 32:21, PS 7:11, 78:49, JE 4:8, 17:4, 32:30-31, ZP 2:2 God is angry. His anger is sometimes fierce.
2SA 22:7-8 (KJV) "I called to the Lord; ... he heard my voice; ... The earth trembled and quaked, ... because he was angry. Smoke came from his nostrils. Consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it."
EZ 6:12, NA 1:2, 6 God is jealous and furious
AND YOU WORSHIP THIS " CREATURE"?? ? EWWWWWWW. NO WONDER WHY CHRISTIANS ARE SO FILLED WITH HATE AND SELF RIGHTEOUSNESS. CHRIST WAS COOL . ITS HIS FOLLLOWERS THAT BELIEVE THAT GARBAGE THAT WAS WRITTEN BY MAN IN THAT BOOK OF FABLES AND MYTHS YOU CALL A BIBLE, THAT ONE HAS TO BE WEARY OF.
RESPONSE to Sprocketsandspokes
1) You are very right. God is angry with people because we have offended His holy glory. He is the most glorious being in the universe and requires perfect obedience, but humans are bent on being our own god(s) and doing things our own way. We have dug our own wells instead of coming to the fountain of living water, an offense that deserves eternity in hell.
2) The scriptures you quoted are unbalanced - that is, you went to the ones that show God's anger - and HE is Angry. But there are thousands of texts that also show His love and desire for humanity. He hates us as sinners, but "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life" (Jn. 3:16). Thus, the Bible is a book of redemption, God making peace with us, appeasing His anger, through the work of Christ on the cross. Sprockets has committed the ultimate error of Bible study - taking certain texts out of their context and making God out to be something He is not.
3) Your comment "Christ was cool" I think must have been said in ignorance of who Christ was. He kept saying in the Gospels that He and the Father are One, and He cleansed the Temple, throwing out the hypocritical money changers and so on. In other words, Jesus was just as mad at sin as His Father. Either He was a lunatic (deranged person saying He was God), a liar, or He actually was the Lord.
4) You are right about the followers of Christ, we often fail horribly in our desire to be like Christ. The Bible says He is making us holy, and that this is a process. We war with our own flesh in order to find our satisfaction only in Him, but it is hard. When He returns He will correct the problem (I Corinthians 15) by bringing to culmination the salvation process.
Thanks for your comments and hope this response helps all our readers.
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