While love and joy can be seen to be working together, today's "Fruit of the Spirit" is very obviously one that feeds off of the others and helps to instill the others as well. It's not a stand-alone quality is us as Christians.
Peace. Peace with God and with men. This one is actually easier to understand if we look at a bunch of examples of when the word is used in Scripture. There are way too many to list here, but a couple of themes caught my eye.
Paul's greetings at the beginning of his letters. Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:2, Galatians 1:3, Ephesians 1:2, Philippians 1:2, etc. - a greeting from Paul wishing peace (and often grace) to fellow believers. Praying for peace for our fellow brothers and sisters. How cool is that.
Another theme I saw was peace as part of a description or title.
Romans 10:15 - the Gospel of Peace
Romans 15:33 - the God of Peace
Romans 16:20 - the God of Peace
2 Corinthians 13:11 - The God of Love and Peace
Lastly, Ephesians 2:11-22. I just loved finding this one. This whole section is a beautiful passage about how God has brought the Gentiles (non-Jews) closer to God and brought Jews and Gentiles together in Christ. The word peace appears 4 times. Twice God is/makes peace and twice he preaches peace; once to Gentiles and once to Jews.
Praise God for how he has worked through the gospel. Man's rebellion against God that caused a division that seemed impossible to breach. Then, Christ came, died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin. Now, as Christ has left us temporarily, the Holy Spirit has come on us and we have the ability to have peace be a part of our character.
Martin Luther, in his commentary on Galatians, put it this way, "Peace towards God and men. Christians are to be peaceful and quiet. Not argumentative, not hateful, but thoughtful and patient." It's so true. In fact, looking at love and joy, you can see a mindset that will foster peace. Also, looking forward to patience, meekness, etc. you can see that the other Fruit of the Spirit also play a key role in this "peace" process.
Are we argumentative or are we, through the influence of the Spirit in our lives, finding ourselves to be more peaceful people? Do we apply love and joy to our relationships with each other and with God so that peace is another outpouring of the Spirit's work in our lives?
I planned to end there, but I just realized a false impression that I might be giving. There is an unhealthy extreme that could come from this. This does NOT mean, rollover for everything. Do I think we don't acquiesce enough? Yes. However, Jesus (in the temple) as well as Paul, Barnabus, and James (issue of circumcision being needed for salvation and the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15) all show us that there are times when a Christian should NOT back down. Should not look for peace. The link? Doctrine (or, right teaching). That's what we miss sometimes in our culture. We think we need to look like the culture to win the culture and we lose our right teachings....which is madness. So, how do we know when something should be worth fighting for or when to practice peace? Stay tuned tomorrow! :0)
Peace. Peace with God and with men. This one is actually easier to understand if we look at a bunch of examples of when the word is used in Scripture. There are way too many to list here, but a couple of themes caught my eye.
Paul's greetings at the beginning of his letters. Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:2, Galatians 1:3, Ephesians 1:2, Philippians 1:2, etc. - a greeting from Paul wishing peace (and often grace) to fellow believers. Praying for peace for our fellow brothers and sisters. How cool is that.
Another theme I saw was peace as part of a description or title.
Romans 10:15 - the Gospel of Peace
Romans 15:33 - the God of Peace
Romans 16:20 - the God of Peace
2 Corinthians 13:11 - The God of Love and Peace
Lastly, Ephesians 2:11-22. I just loved finding this one. This whole section is a beautiful passage about how God has brought the Gentiles (non-Jews) closer to God and brought Jews and Gentiles together in Christ. The word peace appears 4 times. Twice God is/makes peace and twice he preaches peace; once to Gentiles and once to Jews.
Praise God for how he has worked through the gospel. Man's rebellion against God that caused a division that seemed impossible to breach. Then, Christ came, died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin. Now, as Christ has left us temporarily, the Holy Spirit has come on us and we have the ability to have peace be a part of our character.
Martin Luther, in his commentary on Galatians, put it this way, "Peace towards God and men. Christians are to be peaceful and quiet. Not argumentative, not hateful, but thoughtful and patient." It's so true. In fact, looking at love and joy, you can see a mindset that will foster peace. Also, looking forward to patience, meekness, etc. you can see that the other Fruit of the Spirit also play a key role in this "peace" process.
Are we argumentative or are we, through the influence of the Spirit in our lives, finding ourselves to be more peaceful people? Do we apply love and joy to our relationships with each other and with God so that peace is another outpouring of the Spirit's work in our lives?
I planned to end there, but I just realized a false impression that I might be giving. There is an unhealthy extreme that could come from this. This does NOT mean, rollover for everything. Do I think we don't acquiesce enough? Yes. However, Jesus (in the temple) as well as Paul, Barnabus, and James (issue of circumcision being needed for salvation and the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15) all show us that there are times when a Christian should NOT back down. Should not look for peace. The link? Doctrine (or, right teaching). That's what we miss sometimes in our culture. We think we need to look like the culture to win the culture and we lose our right teachings....which is madness. So, how do we know when something should be worth fighting for or when to practice peace? Stay tuned tomorrow! :0)
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