TOPIC: THE FRUIT OF PEACE
READINGS:Ephesians 2:11-18
[11]Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called “uncircumcised heathens” by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts.
[12]In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope.
[13]But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.
[14]For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us.
[15]He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups.
[16]Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death.
[17]He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and peace to the Jews who were near.
[18]Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us.
Peace is the tranquility which is shed abroad in the heart by reason of one's reconciliation with God. It is the peace of God that satisfies the soul completely. It is the state of quietness, rest, repose, harmony, order and security in the midst of turmoil, strife and temptation.
At birth, our sinful nature has already declared war on God and His truth. Our heart's desire is to be separated from Him, and if we persist in this desire until death, He gives us what we desire. God's methods of warfare are not what we expected. Instead of a battle, He sends us the Prince of Peace. Jesus' goal in coming to earth was more than simply to cease hostilities; He came to bring about a full and abiding relationship of restoration and love. The cost of His peace was His life.
It is therefore important for us to appreciate the fact that, this fruit of peace goes beyond the natural. It is a sweet relationship -- Where we are called into His presence and admonish to be confident in that presence; simply because we have become His friends.
Only God can lead us to the peace the soul desires; the Holy Spirit in this sense, leads us to Jesus and His message. Once the Holy Spirit draws us, we come to the point of believing in Jesus and this encounter generates this eternal peace in us. Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.