What Is Peace? Peace is not just the absence of hostility and violence but is also quietness, rest, harmony, agreement, accord, situations where people blend together and there is friendship.
The Bible shows that God is characterised by peace. “Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep …” (Hebrews 13:20). Therefore, God’s home, heaven, is a place that is marked by peace.
When the earth was created there was peace. This included our first parents, Adam and Eve, who after they were created, they lived in the garden, that was in Eden, and perfectly enjoyed God’s supplies and each other’s company. Also God came down, probably in the later part of the day, and talked happily with them until … Adam and Eve disobeyed God.
In their peaceful and happy circumstances Adam and Eve were tempted to sin by disobeying God as seen in, “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” (Genesis 3:1)
God had been very generous to Adam and Eve. “And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” (Genesis 2:9) “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17). God was not mean in only giving them one tree out of all of the trees to eat from. God’s command was to eat as much as they like of every tree they like in the garden, except one. He also said that death would be the punishment that would come with this disobedience. There are two types of death in the Bible, which are spiritual death and physical death.
However “… when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat” (Genesis 3:6). Eve stayed near the temptation and became absorbed with this fruit with how good it was for food, how pleasant it looked and how, she was falsely promised, she would become wiser by eating it. She saw and did not think again about what God had said and so took the fruit. She eat it and gave it to her husband, who was standing right beside her. He should have stopped her from this disobedience to God’s Word, which is sin, but he did not.
The result was not as the devil falsely promised. They did not become wiser but, “… they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons” (Genesis 3:7).
“And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. v9 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, ‘Where art thou?’ v10 And he said, ‘I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself’” (Genesis 3:8-10).
So by sinning Adam and Eve immediately lost their relationship God and spiritual death came in. This resulted in physical death some years later. The bad effects were felt throughout the whole creation. This is confirmed in Romans 5:12 “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.”
The result is that today we are born without spiritual life and so are spiritually dead, “And you (Christians) hath he quickened (made alive), who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world.” (Ephesians 2:1-2a)
The results of sin are lack of peace in the world. Families, neighbourhoods and nations do not get on with one another. Deceit, lies and disruptive behaviour, crime and wars are the result. Life becomes less safe and people are less kind. People’s thinking also becomes silly because they reject God’s inspired Word, the Bible, which has good standards. The result is lack of peace and increased worry.
People even throw out what is good. At the birth of the Lord Jesus the angels said, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will (or delight) toward men” (Luke 2:14). But people rejected the Lord Jesus Christ, Who did so much good down here, and had Him crucified, “Then were there two thieves crucified with him (Jesus Christ), one on the right hand, and another on the left” (Matthew 27:38).
But out of the greatest crime of history God brought much good. “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (1Corinthians 15:3-4). So while the Lord Jesus was on the cross He took the punishment for our sins. So God can say, “Therefore being justified (made right) by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).
We have peace because Christ has paid the price for our sins. On the basis of Christ’s death and resurrection, believers in Christ, can have harmonised relationships between God and man.
If everyone was to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour then peace will come to this world. But while the world generally refuses to believe in God and Christ, the world will continue to get worse. However individuals can have peace by faith in Him.
This statement was written to those who has believed in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour. “Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:3).
“Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you” (Philippians 4:9).
Sometimes Christians do not always live correctly and so do not know the presence of God with them like they could. The apostle Paul had set the example for the Christians in Philippi and he encourages them to do the same and they would know the presence of God with them.