WHERE PEACE BEGINS

 

SEPTEMBER 22, 2023 

Ephesians 2:14a

For he himself is our peace...

 

Paul starts with a definition of what true peace really is. True peace is solidarity. It is not merely the end of hostility, the absence of conflict; it means being one. Anything else is artificial and short-lived and generally rather inadequate. I believe we know this is true. At times haven’t we made “peace” on superficial terms only to find it short lived and external? For example, if we merely agree not to fight, it is not peace. We know this because regularly, in our experience, such agreements result in some new eruption of conflict. That is why “peace pacts” among nations never seem to last, because it isn't really peace. It isn't oneness at all. It is only an agreement to stop it for awhile.

In today’s reading Ephesians tells us the secret of lasting peace. The secret of solidarity is a Person: he himself is our peace, we read. When Christ Jesus makes peace, between individuals or between nations--that peace will be a satisfying, permanent, and genuine peace. If I am comprehending what Paul is saying accurately the message is that in order to live at peace, you must have peace.

Perhaps the problem is that we only try to clean up the outcome of conflict. Today the scriptures point us the truth that God never starts there; God starts with the person. He says peace is a Person, and for us to live at peace with someone else, we must be at peace with Jesus Christ. So, the place to start, the origin of peace, is the settling of any problems between ourselves and Jesus Christ.

So, we end our week of devotions, with this promise of God: He is our peace.

I wonder if the basic problem of conflict is the result of a lack of peace in ourselves. When I have been in a place of conflict, I am usually upset, angry, and emotionally troubled. And everything the other person does is colored by how I am feeling, my emotional state. Does this sound a bit familiar? All I know is that it is impossible to solve the problem, the conflict until God’s peace floods my life.

When Christ is our peace, attitudes change, once we are at peace with Christ, then we place the matter into God’s hands, we know God has a solution, and then our own heart is at peace. There is profound insight in our passage today, with the declaration that Christ is our peace. He alone!