The Fruit of the Peace: Bringing Peace To The World
by Daniel Burton
Through the Holy Spirit in us, peace is expressed through us to the world. God grants peace not only as a gift for those whose faith is in Him to soothe the soul but also to impact the tumultuous world around us. For the Spirit-filled Christian, we are at constant odds with the world. The Spirit inside of us intends to bring peace to the world, through what we think, what we say, and what we do. The world, however, intends to further the descent into sin. While we bring peace, it stands in opposition to the world. People tend to think that peace and passivity are interchangeable, that if we simply do not call a person out or hold them accountable, that we will be peaceful. As we see from our past two articles in this series, nothing could be further from the truth. Peace is forged in the flames of discipleship and holiness. To be a peacemaker is to be one who bears witness to the source of our peace. For the Christian, we give a taste of the everlasting and eternal promise and home that God offers to all people. This is the expression of the peace that Spirit expresses through us.
“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
The Eternal Peace
Peace, similar to joy, is an internal gift that is expressed outward. 
Furthermore, it is not something that we will be able to fully experience apart from the eternity of our everlasting home. Peace will remain elusive until we arrive in our eternal home that God has prepared in advance for us. The world is at conflict with God, and God’s Kingdom is the restoration of all creation and how it was first intended to be. Even from the dawn of creation, mankind was meant to live in paradise and peace, with no conflict with creation as we saw in the garden of Eden. It was only through the introduction of sin that chaos and anxiety spread and irreparably shattered creation. God’s plan, however, would not be thwarted and peace would not be forever gone. There is a peace that resides in eternity from God who is everlasting.
When we arrive at eternity, we will be greeted with an overwhelming sense of peace that we have never felt before. We will stand in the perfection of how life was intended to be and even our souls will find their peace and rest. Sickness, pain, war, and anxiety will one day be distant memories as we reside in the perfection of eternity. Peace will reign victorious in the hearts of mankind and in the world God has given as a gift. When we rest in the fullness of the presence of God, there will be a great peace. Where sin and darkness attempted to plunge the world into chaos and despair, light and love paved a path for eternal and everlasting peace.
Giving a Taste of Peace
Our role, then, remains to give people a taste of the peace of a future Kingdom that has already been secured in eternity. After His resurrection, Jesus greeted the disciples by exclaiming “Peace be with you!” Paul’s letter start off with a greeting of peace for most of those he writes. There is a sense that wherever the presence of God revealed Himself, peace became the natural effect. God remains the source of our peace through the victory of Jesus Christ and we as the ambassadors of God represent that peace in the world. It breaks through, shattering the chaos of the world and delivering the peace of God. It is both a blessing and a prophesy of the Kingdom that is soon coming and we are honored to serve as the vessels of this peace.
When the world sees those who follow Christ, the peace of God should flow through our very actions and demeanor giving others a taste of peace that is to come. The world provides ample opportunity to descend into anxiety and chaos. But the Spirit-filled Christian stands firm against this decay. We speak peace when it would be easier to speak hate. We seek unity when division seems like the only answer. We provide peace when it seems that only war is imminent. This is the fruit of peace, not that peace will be achieved in this world, but that a Kingdom is coming and is already here, that will be the restoration of peace for all creation.
For more in this series, check out The Fruit of the Spirit
