Not as the world gives
'Oh for a bit of peace and quiet', we may say, troubled by fractious colleagues and sardine-tin commuter trains, or by squabbling children and cold-calling salespeople. Peace perhaps equates to space, time to breathe, respite from stress.
From stress, but also from grief, from fear, from suffering. 'My heart is in anguish within me', wrote the psalmist, 'Oh, that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest.' And Keats, in his Ode to a Nightingale, grieving the death of a friend, longed to: Fade far away, dissolve and quite forget What thou among the leaves have never known, The weariness, the fever, and the fret, Here, where men sit and hear each other groan.
So is peace simply escapism? Most people would also see it as something more positive - a feeling of contentment and well-being. Sometimes even the most successful people, having achieved all their material goals, still lament that peace has eluded them.
This is closer to the biblical concept of peace. The Hebrew word shalom implies wholeness, integrity, a harmony between the internal and the external. And Jesus made it plain that the peace he offered was special: 'My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives'.
Jesus' peace is not a mere feeling. It is based on truth, and appropriated by faith. 'Being justified by faith, we have peace with God' (Rom. 5:1). The serenity of heart that the Spirit produces in us is rooted in the security of a healed relationship with God.
Unlike the world's peace, the Spirit's peace is independent of circumstances. Besieged by disappointment, grief, sickness, overwork, strife, injustice, we can daily hear the voice of Jesus: 'In this world... trouble', but 'in me, peace' (John 16:33).
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