The translation of their words should read: “Peace on earth among men of His good pleasure.” Of those who will not accept that Saviour as God’s one way back into His favor, it is solemnly warned: “No peace, saith my God, to the wicked” (Isa. 48:22; 57:21). And as for men’s efforts to establish peace among themselves, Scripture dooms all such attempts to failure: “Even unto the end shall be war” (Dan. 9:26 K.V.). The Christian’s duty, his high calling and privilege are clear. He is placed in a world such as ours to radiate a peace which he alone possesses. Let us imagine for the moment that even darker days are ahead of us; suppose, for our purpose, that they prove to be the darkest in history. What should that mean for the Christian but his supreme opportunity? Instead of re flecting the world’s woes and fears, it will be his chance to prove the sterling worth of the Christian faith, there by commending it to his fellows. G od E xpects I t Peace is a major theme of Scripture. God has made with His people “a covenant of peace.” Every epistle to the churches bears the salutation, “Grace and peace be unto you,” as a reminder that the Christian life, rightly lived, is an experience of peace. Many are His exhortations to a life of peace; and when one fails of it, the Lord has His words of reproof for him: “O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river” (Isa. 48:18). We have every reason to believe that our failure to live in a constant, unbroken experience of unperturbed peace is a great grief to our Heavenly Father. C hrist S upplies I t It is not that we are thrown upon our own resources to attain peace: that would only insure failure. Our blessed Lord lived it, under the most devastating circumstances, and left it with us as our basic resource for true living: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.” And that we may know its practical value as an antidote to all of our feverish worry, He adds, “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27). But, someone says, “I am so situated that I cannot help being upset and troubled.” Of course you cannot; tnat is the reason Christ left you His peace—yours will not stand a single day of real testing. But His! Where was He when He said, “My peace” ? Under the shadow of the cross, with the hatred of men engulfing Him and the world’s woes descending upon Him. Tried and proven, His peace is invincible; it flourishes in the face of any circumstance. And it is ours by His bequest. But more. To make it presently and practically available, T he H oly S pirit P roduces I t The statement of our Lord that “He shall glorify me” is most revealing as to the Spirit’s ministry in our lives. If Christ wants us to live out His peace, the Holy Spirit makes it His business to see that we have it in un failing supply. “The fruit of the Spirit is . . . peace” (Gal. 5:22). As we live the abiding life, drawing our very life from Christ Himself, a relationship without which we must ever fail, the resulting fruit is flavored with His peace (John .15:5). Now, fruit is not the result of effort; it is the product of vital forces. When people say that they are trying to be calm and unworried, it is evident that they are seeking to secure peace by self-effort. In so doing they are brushing aside the divine Producer of peace. When their effort has spent itself, they are back in their old rut— worry. Self has failed them again; and they are left wondering why the Christian life does not satisfy. The truth is, they have not learned how to live it. Abiding in Him, not in self, it works. 10
M eeting a W orld N eed Undoubtedly, the persisting absence of peace is the outstanding symptom of world need. The possession of peace is the Christian’s pre-eminent equipment for supplying that necessity. The one should fully match and provide for the other. Let us ask ourselves, For what purpose is a Chris tian? Can we answer in terms of the want all about us? For what purpose is coal? Recent events bring a practi cal answer: to supply a thousand social and industrial needs. Is a Christian less useful? It is my conviction that the Christian life, rightly lived, is the most practical thing on earth for meeting human need. He has the answer: Christ’s life lived over again in him. For Chris tians to recognize peace as the world’s lack, and not to care for all that privation, is sheer, shameful selfish ness. If we are guilty, we have missed our calling. Listen to this! "And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to the which also ye were called in one body” (Col. 3:15 R.V.). The peace of Christ—the peace He left us—we are constantly to express as the ruling, dominant note of our lives. This is our calling—“in one body,” the mystical body of Christ representing (or misrepresenting) Him in the world today. Dear reader, you and I had no right to take our place in that body of believers unless We were willing to divorce our hearts from the world’s worries and confusion, that they might be reserved for Christ, as substations through which to pour His peace, relaying that peace to our modem world. To do less is treasonable to our Lord. Suppose that every Christian were true to this call ing. The world over, a Christian would be known as one who never worries. What would this do to the men of our day, those who have turned their backs upon Christ and His church? It would arouse their attention at once; they would be asking: “Where did these folks get what we so sorely lack?” Our churches would be filled with folk searching for our secret. A Christianity demonstrating its practical worth in terms of peace would be in great demand. Failing in this our testimony, having nothing to contribute to the world’s emergency, what are we good for? T he T wofold S ecret Self and the Spirit are the answer. They are con trary to each other, as we read in Galatians 5:16, 17. They are the two poles of a battery: the one is negative —it must be denied; the other is positive—it must be exalted. That which robs us of peace is the self-life. So long as we are self-centered and self-conscious, we are sub ject to all sorts of fluctuations of feeling. We want this, and we want that. We fear this will happen, or that it will not happen. The self-life is the citadel of worry. It never can be otherwise. Hence, Christian teaching unequivocally calls for its renunciation, as the root cause of our failures and defeats. Read and ponder: Luke 9:23; 14:33; Romans 6:6, 11; 2 Corinthians 5:14, 15; and Galatians 2:20; 5:24. Then the Holy Spirit, no longer resisted by self, takes over. Now He is free to produce His fruit. Now come, almost unbidden, the love, the joy, the peace of a normal, natural yet supernatural, life. Hence God is not satisfied with any child of His who stops short of His command, “Be filled with the Spirit.” When self is once for all renounced as the principle of life; when the Spirit is allowed to come to His fullness, with perfect freedom of expression, peace will be the dominant, un wavering note of the life. Why? Such an one can say, “To me to live is Christ” ; and Christ in the believer never worries. Be our life in the world ever so troubled, our life in Christ is unbroken peace. T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
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