Living At Peace

Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.   Romans 12:18

In a fallen world, it is simply not possible for things to be right in every relationship. Conflict will end when Jesus Christ returns, but that day has not yet come.

When Jesus said, “Love your enemies,” he clearly implied we’d have some enemies to love. We may wish that everything was as it should be in all of our relationships, but there are some things we don’t have the power to change. Conflict is a two-way street, and sometimes there are crazy drivers on the other side of the road.

The Bible recognizes this, and it never requires you to resolve every conflict in your life before you can experience the peace of God. But God does call you to be a peacemaker: “Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone” (Romans 12:18).

There is a wonderful insight in the Bible about how to pursue the path of peace in fraught relationships: “Let your gentleness be evident to all” (Philippians 4:5, NIV). Paul deals with pursuing peace in our relationships before he deals with finding inner peace: “Don’t worry about anything” (4:6).

This is the opposite of the popular psychology and spirituality offered on many talk shows today. The secular approach always begins with me. The idea is that I need to be at peace with myself, and then, once I have found my own peace, I can deal with relationships, and lastly, maybe I can think about God.

That’s upside down, and the Bible turns it the right way up. The Bible always begins with God. True peace begins by getting right with God through faith in Christ. There can be no peace for you when you are hiding from God. When you have that foundation, the next priority is the pursuit of peace in your relationships with others. How can you know peace in your heart if you are causing pain to others?

The peace of God is a gift enjoyed by those who have come into a right relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ, who show grace toward others, and who learn to lift their anxieties to God in prayer. This peace passes understanding because it is the gift of God.

For further reading, see Philippians 4