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‘And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to the which also ye were called.’
Col_3:15 (R.V.)
I. What is meant by the peace of Christ?—It means that peace which He is (Eph_2:14); that peace which He made by the blood of the Cross (Eph_2:15); that peace which He came to preach (Eph_2:17); that peace of which He said, ‘My peace I give unto you (Joh_14:27); that perfect, uninterrupted peace which He Himself enjoyed all through a life of the greatest struggle, through peril and difficulty and opposition—the peace of Christ. This peace is something far above our natural reach. It is impossible for any one to attain to it by any effort, struggle, labour, or personal work; we are simply ‘called’ by God the Holy Ghost to let it rule. When it seems too magnificent to be possible we are to force our hearts to a realisation of the possibility by saying, ‘to the which also ye are called.’ We are called to it, therefore it must be possible.
We are called to ‘let the peace of Christ rule.’
II. This word ‘rule’ is a remarkable word.—It means to hold lawful authority, to exercise absolute force, so that authority and force are combined in the idea of actual power, which is to govern and hold sway over every faculty. The peace of Christ is to have lawful authority, is to exercise actual force, is to govern every detail of your life and your being—your heart, your mind, your soul, your spirit, your body. The peace of Christ is to rule in our hearts.
III. Have you ever taken time to consider what happens if the peace of Christ rules in a heart? There comes:—
(a) Peace in regard to sin (Rom_5:1).
(b) Peace in regard to God (Isa_26:3).
(c) Peace in relation to the world—business, home, and family troubles.
—
Rev. Prebendary Webb-Peploe.
Illustration‘ “As far as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men,” says St. Paul. Men and women often say, “I have tried my best, and I really must quarrel with him, for he is so provoking.” A lady came to me one day in great grief and anxiety about her soul; she wished very earnestly, she said, to be a Christian. I began questioning her to find out where the failure lay, and at last I learned that she was fretful and fidgety and was constantly losing her temper at home. I began to show her that to be fretful and angry was as bad as to be cursing another, and that to let her anger rise against God or man was in a sense to be guilty of murder. She looked at me and said, “Oh, Mr. Webb-Peploe, I do assure you that there is no fault whatever in my case, because I never, never lose my temper unless I am provoked—never.” No, and I do not think the devil does! Let us remember this: that to lose our temper when we are provoked shows that we are out of communion with our blessed Lord, and if the peace of Christ ruled in our hearts we could never again be provoked.’
SAFEGUARDS OF PEACE
I. Listen for God’s voice.—‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him.’ Do you ever make one earnest effort to keep silence in your heart for a moment that you may ‘hear His voice’? Do you ever truly and sincerely mean to listen for it, and expect to hear it? Is there one half-hour in all your common day which you give to calm self-recollection and thought of Him, that the peace of Christ may enter through the ‘open door,’ and take free and full possession of your being? Is it not true that from your waking hour in the morning to the closing of your eyes at night, there has been but one long succession of thoughts which only chance has guided, which you have made no effort to control? They who are content to live by chance must bid farewell for ever to the peace of God.
II. Watch against the first sign of rebellious thought.—‘Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation.’ We can discern the face of the sky and of the earth. We know how often a sudden gust, a little cloud, are the heralds of a deepening gloom, in which the heavens are black with clouds and rain. And are we so blind as not to discern the signs of coming temptation? A thought of envy, an uncharitable desire, a gust of irritation, a little cloud of a rebellious wish, has raised itself to vex and disturb the soul. We might have seen it in its beginning and crushed it, and the clear blue sky of our peace would have continued undisturbed. But we let it pass unnoticed, we never thought of being on our guard, and it strengthened and increased, and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon our habitation, and it fell. If we had let peace rule; if we had been watching round the throne of our King, and kept ourselves within hearing of His voice, the wild confusion of the spirit would have been a calm, and all the fierceness of the storm but a soft and gentle breeze.
These, then, are the two safeguards of the kingdom of our peace—to listen humbly for the voice of God within—to be suspicious of the first sign of a rebellious thought. Then alone will the peace of God suffice to bring every thought into captivity to itself.
Illustration
‘There is a peace which is not of God. There is a voice which whispers peace, peace, when there is no peace. It is the peace of this world—peace according to our common thoughts of peace: when the outer life brings nothing to harass or to vex the soul, and within there is slumber undisturbed—where there is no war being waged, no battle being fought, no watch and ward being kept over the thoughts of the heart, the words of the lips, the deeds of the hand; a stillness in which no pulse of the life of God is stirring; where habit and custom are silently moulding the unresisting character; and the soul, wrapped ever more closely in its mantle of indifference and sloth, is gliding smoothly and easily through this mortal life, to be startled at last into wakefulness by the sudden sunshine of the everlasting day. It is the peace of those who have no changes, and therefore fear not God. They who live in the light of Eternity give to it the name of death. For peace such as this no throne is set.’
THE RULE OF PEACE
I. In everything you will put ‘peace’ above pleasure.—When anything is presented to you, you will not so much ask, ‘Will it give me pleasure?’ as ‘Will it give me peace?’ This is a safe and good rule for life. Always place ‘peace’ first. Give it the preference. You will never regret a choice which makes peace of mind the determining principle. For pleasure is on the surface; ‘peace’ is deep. Pleasure passes away; ‘peace’ stays. Pleasure excites; ‘peace’ calms. Pleasure palls; ‘peace’ grows. Pleasure reacts to indolence; ‘peace’ makes action. Pleasure is human; ‘peace’ is Divine. Pleasure may be of man; ‘peace’ is always from God.
II. ‘Peace’ is the keeper of the soul.—It is one of St. Paul’s loving words to the Philippians—‘And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.’ There is a sense in which we keep peace; but in a much higher sense ‘peace’ keeps us. And unquestionably it is a fact. ‘Peace’—a tranquil mind—the quiet of true religion—a heart right with God, and with its own conscience, is a wonderful guard. Give ‘peace’ the charge. Make it garrison your heart. Look to ‘peace’ to ‘keep’ it. It will be a blessed ‘rule’—for nothing ‘keeps’ as ‘peace’ ‘keeps.’
III. Let ‘peace’ settle all the quarrels.—Give it back its own privilege and its own right. The expression of the text is literal. Let ‘peace’ be the arbiter of the empire in your hearts. Let it make the decision. Remember how you got your ‘peace.’ It was the Injured One Who began.
Illustration
‘You, who are the subjects of “peace,” do all that in you lies—in these critical days—to preserve “peace” among the nations. Oh! that it might be the motto on the banner of every country in Europe. Oh! that it might be the guide to every congress and every council of nations. “Let peace rule!” ’
‘Be ye thankful.’
Col_3:15
I. Thanksgiving is difficult, and yet it is a very simple and elementary thing; it comes naturally, we see, where there is any real religion at all. When you receive something, you feel, if you have any heart in you, inclined to thank somebody, and it is only the same feeling carried higher which, when good comes to us, prompts us to thank God.
II. Thankfulness is to be expected of all.—It is natural for a nation to be thankful when peace comes after war, when a king is raised up from a great sickness or a great danger, or when he is crowned upon his throne. So it is natural to many of us in the simpler matter of our own lives. In the Old Testament we notice that when the people thank God for the greater blessings they do not forget the simpler ones, and the Psalms praise God for all the good things of earth and sky, they tell out His works with gladness. And so we come to the thankfulness of Christians; and the great key and source and centre of it is that it begins with the greatest of all blessings—that is with Christ, God’s gift to man, with what He did for us, the Light that shone, the death that He died, the mercy that He brought and won, the love that through Him was made known. ‘Thanks be to God,’ exclaims the Apostle, ‘for His unspeakable gift.’ This tunes the Christian heart to thankfulness.
III. The thankful heart finds reasons for thankfulness in all about it—in all smaller blessings, the little happinesses of life, in thinking good thoughts, ‘for this is the will of Christ Jesus concerning you.’ Yes, in everything. Not in the happinesses only, but the troubles too, the losses and disappointments and sufferings. These have become reasons for thankfulness; for in view of the Cross and the glory that followed it men learn to be thankful when they suffer, even because they suffer. So the great thankfulness seems to wake echoes of itself in all the little thankfulnesses of every day. It is to this, it seems to me, that this our Eucharist, our service of thanksgiving, answers so well.
IV. The gladness of Christ’s Eucharist, though it has in it the glory of the Resurrection and the power of His endless love, is a joy into which is woven (let the service speak and tell you so) the remembrance of sin forgiven, the commemoration of suffering borne, of the discipline of death accepted, of the utter loss which turned to perfect gain. And so here the sad and sorrowful, the disappointed and lonely, and those who feel that worst trouble of their own besetting sin, may draw up and join in their note, not the less true and pure though it may be in the minor key, in the Church’s Eucharist, offered through her gracious, patient, and redeeming Lord, to the Father Whose Love He reveals.
Bishop E. S. Talbot.
Illustration‘The value of the smaller blessings rests on the value of the one great blessing in Christ. The deep and pure happiness of love granted to us but a few hours or years have in themselves the scent of death.
The noblest troth
Dies here to dust.
The poet has bidden us take—
This test for love: in every kiss sealed fast
To feel the first kiss, and forbode the last.
But from Christ Jesus there enters into them a savour of life, and they gain sureness and worth as they are known in His light, for they are gleams, and signs, and instruments of that great love from which they come, and into which they will be gathered to be found again.