Peace with God // Peace with Others
Everyone’s talking about “peace” this time of year. People are singing songs about it (“peace on earth and mercy mild…“), watching movies about it (“It’s Christmas Eve. It’s the one night of the year when we all act a little nicer, we smile a little easier, we cheer a little more. For a couple of hours out of the whole year we are the people that we always hoped we would be“), and hoping that they have it in their home as their extended family invades! Thankfully, Paul writes us a prescription for peace. Actually, he tells us how we can experience God’s peach with others! In Philippians 4, Euodia and Syntyche weren’t getting along. They were in some kind of disagreement that was disrupting the peace in their own lives, and could possibly disrupt the peace in this church. Paul wants them to agree, to be at peace, and here’s how he tells them to go about it:
Rejoice
Philippians 4:4 says, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.” Paul just keeps bring this up (all of chapter 1, 2:17, 3:1). He’s really concerned about people finding their joy in God. Now, this doesn’t mean to be happy just when God works everything out in our lives. Remember, Paul was writing these words from a jail cell! Paul says to find our joy in God even if our circumstances aren’t favorable or even enjoyable. This is a deep, deep joy that can cause you to rejoice when your life is unenjoyable. It’s a deep, deep joy that only comes from knowing what God has done in the past, knowing what He’s doing right now, and what He’s promised to do in the future. This is so crucial to our lives, that we’ll be doing a 8 week series called “Enjoying God” as we start 2017 to explore how we can grow in finding our joy in God.
Be Reasonable/Gentle
Philippians 4:5 says, “Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.” Gentleness and reasonableness usually aren’t qualities that we admire in others, especially for guys. We tend to admire toughness, confidence, or charisma. And honestly, when I think of Jesus I typically think of him as confident (standing up to the religious leaders), or tough (wrecking those jokers trying to profit at the temple) or having the charisma to draw huge crowds. But listen to how he describes himself in Matthew 11, “Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, because I am gentle and lowly in heart.” Jesus saw his own gentleness as a reason that people should come to him and learn from him. Gentleness and reasonableness are crucial for what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
Fight Anxiety…
Philippians 4:6 begins, “Do not be anxious about anything…” Anything! Man, how tough is this? If you’re like me, you probably battle with being anxious about everything that you don’t have complete control over. Will you get that job? Who will be elected? Will you be able to pay that bill? Will you find a parking spot at Costco on a Saturday (no)? The problem with anxiety is that when we’re anxious, it means that we don’t believe that there’s someone greater than ourselves to trust our lives to. We think about our situation from every angle, chewing on the details and options, but we think that it all starts and ends with ourselves. That’s why Paul told us to combat anxiety…
…with Prayer
Philippians 4:6 ends, “…but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Prayer is the acknowledgement that there is someone greater to trust our lives to. Of all times that we’d expect Jesus to be anxious, you’d think it’d be right before his arrest, trial, torture, and death. He was definitely emotional. He felt the weight of the situation. But instead of being anxious, Jesus prayed, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” He trusted his situation, he trusted his life, to God. What anxiety do you need to go to God in prayer about?
Right after all of this, Paul says that the peace of God will guard our hearts and minds in Christ. This is the path to experiencing the peace of God! Rejoice in the Lord; be gentle; fight anxiety; pray to God. He may not answer your prayers exactly the way you want (Paul was still in prison when he wrote this!), but he will give you His peace. And someone who displays His peace in difficult situations is a powerful witness to His goodness and care.
Here’s the thing though: we won’t have the peace of God until we’re at peace with God. Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Christmas is only joyous, only a time to celebrate, if we first recognize that we made ourselves God’s enemies. We rebelled and sinned against Him. We brought war into our relationship with Him. The good news about the birth of Jesus is that he came to bring us back to peace with God. And we have this peace with God through faith in Jesus. If you are at peace with God, you can rejoice, and start that prescription above of being at peace with others.