III. All true spiritual peace is supernatural in its origin. To grant this deep and abiding peace is the prerogative of the Divine Saviour. Friends may leave us houses, lands, gold, but only Christ can give us peace (John xiv. 27). “My peace!” What is Christ’s peace? Not the peace of reconciliation, for with God He never was at variance (Heb. iv. 15; 1 Pet. ii. 22). “My peace” could only mean that mental peace which flows from perfect harmony with the Divine will. Such peace can come to us only through the educational power of Christ. The more we obey the Master, the more implicit will be our submission to God, and the deeper our peace. Only then shall we know “perfect peace.” Such peace, like every Christian grace and holy virtue, being beyond the reach of nature, is supernatural (James i. 17). The child of God, calm amid a tempest of trouble, often excites the wonder of the world. Such quietness of soul is not the result of temperament or of training. It is God’s work: “Thou wilt keep,” &c.
IV. All true spiritual peace is practical in its results. Though in its Divine creation it is “past finding out,” it is not a mystical rapture, a thing in the clouds; it is a reality, a living principle arousing itself for the battle, and standing on the watchtower amid the struggles and trials of daily life (Phil. iv. 7; R. V.) As a garrison seizes and retains a stronghold, so “the peace of God” takes military possession of the soul, and beats off all outside assailants. It has an active as well as a passive side, like a staff which we can draw forth for a fight as well as lean on for rest. 1. It protects the mind. Sceptical thoughts, atheistic objects, may invade the mind and perplex the reason, but then we fall back on this peace. We know that we are never so calm and strong as when we obey the will of God, and keep conscience on our side. Rectitude bringing peace, is an evidence of the divinity of our religion stronger than any sceptical objection that can be brought against it. 2. It protects the heart. Affection allures it; joy and sorrow, hope and fear assail it; but the Christian can withstand these assaults, because he opposes higher things to lower; Divine pleasures to human, riches to riches, honours to honours. He can realise the meaning of the Master’s words (Matt. xix. 29). Resting on such promises as these, he is “kept in perfect peace.”—G. R. Miall.
I. Peace is at once a blessing, and a mother of blessings. How many spring from her! How the poets have sung of her! Peace is needed by every man; every man is conscious of disturbing influences without and within. Peace is earnestly sought by most men. What sanguinary wars have been waged to obtain peace!
II. The idea of “perfect peace,” presented in the text, seems to most men at the most a beautiful dream; in proportion to their experience of life is their disbelief that it can be theirs. But it is declared here that God bestows it on every man whose mind is stayed on Him.
What interpretation are we to put upon this declaration? The experience of God’s people must be our guide in answering this question. This makes it abundantly clear that the peace which God secures for His people does not consist in freedom from assault. This is sometimes vouchsafed them; their foes are scattered, and songs of triumph are given them, such as this chapter. But their experience, taken as a whole, may be said to be a continuous verification of our Saviour’s declaration: “In the world ye have tribulation.”
Instead of caring to secure for His people freedom from assault, He seems rather often to prefer to expose them to it (Matt. iii. 16; iv. 1). He prefers rather to teach them to fight and to conquer; to develop and discipline their virtues by struggles in which they are tried up to the very last point of endurance. For this end, He turns a deaf ear to their prayer, “Lead us not into temptation;” and lets loose upon the foes bent upon their destruction.
Notwithstanding, they may have “perfect peace.” “In the world ye have tribulation: in Me ye have peace.” Not merely that the peace is to succeed the tribulation; the two may co-exist. It is quite possible for peace to dwell in the heart of the chief ruler of a nation waging a terrible war;[2] or in the heart of the captain of a vessel storm-driven; or in the heart of a merchant in the midst of a commercial panic, because he knows that the struggle will for him end in victory. So in the midst of all the conflicts of life, a Christian may have “perfect peace.”
III. A Christian; he, and no other! Not every profound peace is “perfect peace.” The contemporaries of Noah and of Lot; Belshazzar and his court were in “perfect peace,” as far as their feelings were concerned, in the very hour that destruction came upon them. But however much the feelings may be soothed, there is no “perfect peace” that has not a sure basis of fact. For the peace of the wicked there can be no such basis; God and all the forces of the universe are arrayed against the wicked, and their ultimate destruction is sure (Isa. xlviii. 22; Rom. ii. 8, 9). Repentance and reconciliation with God through Christ are the essential preliminary conditions of “perfect peace.”
IV. But is “perfect peace” the possession of all who have complied with these conditions? No. Why? Because they have not yet learned to stay their minds on God. They have faith, but it is yet in the germ, and they have not yet been trained in the exercise (Matt. xiv. 31; xvi. 8). Not upon God exclusively are their hopes set (Ps. xlii. 5); it is but seldom that they do look up to Him, and hence their faith is imperfect and intermittent. It remains in the power of their foes to distress them; anxieties as to their temporal necessities, and forebodings as to their external welfare, harass and weaken them. (For other reasons, see preceding outlines.)
But there are those who have passed through and beyond these elementary stages of Christian experience, and, steadily pursuing the paths of righteousness, they have “perfect peace.” Their circumstances may be adverse and threatening, but they possess a tranquillity of soul that is undisturbable (2 Cor. iv. 8–10); nay, is even triumphant (Rom. v. 3; Acts xvi. 25; Hab. iii. 17–19).