PEACE On Earth

Biblical PEACE is about wholeness or completeness, brought to our world in Jesus, the Prince of Peace.

Photo by Bekky Bekks on Unsplash

We hear a lot about PEACE in our world.

Middle East PEACE talks…

PEACEkeeping missions…

Getting your piece of the pie…oh, wait…different kind of piece.

But pie…yum.

Jesus is called the Prince of PEACE.

But there doesn’t seem to be an abundance of PEACE in our world today.

What’s the deal?

To get us started, let’s begin again with a great video from BibleProject.com —

In the Bible, PEACE can refer to a lack of conflict (the way we most often think of the word in English), but it can also point to something much deeper. Rather than simply indicating the absence of something, PEACE in the Bible can point to the presence of something that takes the place of conflict.

In your life, what kinds of situations foster PEACEfulness?

The Old Testament word for PEACE is shalom; in the New Testament, it’s eirene. Shalom refers to something complex, with many pieces, that is found in a state of completeness or wholeness. Like shalom, eirene can refer to the absence of conflict but also points to the reconciliation of a relationship or restoring wholeness to something broken.

I am reminded of the lyrics of the third verse of O Holy Night, one of my favorite advent songs:

Truly, He taught us to love one another,
His law is love, and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother,
And in His name, all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
Let all within us praise His holy name.

Shalom in the Old Testament

Shalom can refer to a person’s well-being, as when David visits his brothers on the battlefield and asks about their shalom (1 Sam 17:22-23). Life is busy, complex, and always moving from one thing to the next.

Do you feel sometimes like life is a little bit too busy, too much, and too fast?

Our shalom is broken when any part of our complex lives is out of alignment or lacking altogether. It’s not whole. It’s not as it was intended to be. We need restoration, reconciliation, and renewal.

Shalom, when used as a verb, means this very thing. Soloman shaloms the temple by finishing its construction (1 Kings 9:1). When I ate my roommate’s box of cereal, I shalomed him by buying a new box.

Are there relationships in your life that are broken and in need of shalom-ing?

Is there wholeness lacking in some areas of your life? Where?

Is there anything that you can do to help bring shalom into these relationships?

When the prophet Isaiah talks about the coming of a future king, his vision is of a Prince of Shalom. A king whose reign would begin unending shalom, making right all that was wrong and bringing restoration, reconciliation, and renewal (Isaiah 9).

He is the song for the suffering
He is Messiah, the Prince of Peace
Has come, He has come
Emmanuel

—Lauren Daigle, “Light of the World”

Eirene comes in the New Testament

When the angels in Luke 2 announce Jesus’ birth, they sing the words,

 Glory to God in heaven, and on earth PEACE among those whom he favors.

—Luke 2:14 (CEB)

Later, Jesus offers this same eirene to his followers,

Eirene I leave with you. My eirene I give you. I give to you not as the world gives. Don’t be troubled or afraid.

—John 14:27 (CEB)

In time—it wasn’t immediate—those who followed Jesus came to understand that Jesus had come to bring eirene to the relationship between God and the royally messed up human beings that God had created. The death and resurrection of Jesus are all about bringing wholeness—restoration, reconciliation, and renewal.

Jesus is the full, complete human being—the kind of human you and I were created to be (but have failed miserably at being). But, in an act of extreme humility and self-surrender, Jesus gave his life to us as a great gift of grace. Jesus, writes Paul, is our PEACE (Eph 2:14a). Because Jesus has given us his life, then we are also called to carry PEACE into our world—not only passively resisting conflict, but actively pursuing restoration, reconciliation, and renewal of ourselves, our families, our churches, our communities, and our world!

This requires humility and patience. It requires self-surrender and self-giving love. It involves forgiveness, mercy, and grace. It requires all the things Jesus gave us…the way Jesus showed us how to live.

Where has God placed you as a “carrier of PEACE” in your family, church, and community?

Where is God asking you to show humility, patience, self-giving love, forgiveness, mercy, and grace?

Happy [blessed] are people who make PEACE, because they will be called God’s children.

—Matthew 5:9 (CEB)

PEACE-making is hard work.

It’s taking what is broken and restoring it to wholeness in our lives, relationships, and world. We can’t do it alone and only in our own power, but we are responsible for putting our faith into action. As God’s people, we bring shalom and eirene to our world.

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