Peace be with you

let this peace rule in your heart

Photo by Andraz Lazic on Unsplash

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. - Colossians 3:12-15

For those who attend a liturgical church, you may be familiar with the exchanging of the peace portion of the service. I’ll confess, growing up in the Episcopal church, that for many years exchanging the peace served as something of a ‘7th inning stretch’ in the service (especially since the church announcements were usually around this point) and a chance to say hello to the people seated around us.

But in the back of my mind, I always wondered about it: “Peace be with you.” We generally see it in the Bible analogous to “don’t be afraid” but surely we’re not so frightening to each other on Sunday mornings to lend it that meaning. But, today’s reading in Colossians 3 moved me a little closer to the intention.

What is the peace of Christ? I originally looked into Matthew Henry’s commentary because I was curious about the next portion of the verse “And be thankful.” But what I found was a treasure of information on the ways God’s peace manifests itself:

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, that is, God's being at peace with you, and the comfortable sense of his acceptance and favour: or, a disposition to peace among yourselves, a peaceable spirit, that keeps the peace, and makes peace. This is called the peace of God, because it is of his working in all who are his. The kingdom of God is righteousness and peace, Rom. 14:17. "Let this peace rule in your heart-prevail and govern there, or as an umpire decide all matters of difference among you."-To which you are called in one body. We are called to this peace, to peace with God as our privilege and peace with our brethren as our duty. Being united in one body, we are called to be at peace one with another, as the members of the natural body; for we are the body of Christ, and members in particular, 1 Co. 12:27.

I feel like the world around us is no longer predisposed to peace. I’m sure it never was, but it certainly felt like people used to try. But still we are called to work toward peace with one another. And before anyone tries to say that peace is the ‘easy way out’ - to be at true peace requires a lot of work, a lot of negotiations, and a lot of restoration due to former hurts and harms. True peace requires vulnerability, purposefully seeing each other, and forgiveness. True peace is not silencing another person or people or ignoring the undercurrent of tension and pretending that all is well or holding on to past hurts (or holding them over someone) as a way of controlling another. It requires give and take on both sides. It’s hard work and can be difficult to maintain because we are always fighting against our sinful nature, but it’s work that we are called by God to do.

So we work toward peace with each other and seek peace with God. By leaning into our relationship with God we find a sense of his acceptance and favor. It’s there we feel the depth of his love and find God being at peace with us.

And, being thankful does have its place in peace. The world around us is finding that gratitude is an antidote to stress, but for those who are peacemakers, it’s also the ultimate catalyst to maintaining peace. Being thankful keeps our attitude pleasant, which means we’re less likely to give little barbs or mind them. Hopefully we’re assuming the best intentions of others instead of being predisposed to assuming others are trying to offend us.

To preserve in us this peaceable disposition, we must be thankful. The work of thanksgiving to God is such a sweet and pleasant work that it will help to make us sweet and pleasant towards all men. "Instead of envying one another upon account of any particular favours and excellence, be thankful for his mercies, which are common to all of you."

And it’s not just a general gratitude - but note that it’s specifically thanksgiving to God. He is the provider of all good things and the worker of all things to good.

So tomorrow in church, as we exchange the peace with each other, “Peace be with you” now has more meaning, a blessing: May God grant you a peaceable spirit. May you find God’s acceptance and favor. May you have the strength from God to do the hard work of peacemaking. May you feel God at peace with you in your relationship with him. Amen.