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Beyond Conflict: Embracing Biblical Peace in Today's World · Relish: a Christian podcast

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  Relish pleasing or zestful flavor a quantity
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  just sufficient to flavor to be pleased or
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  gratified by enjoy we are hoping that what we bring to your table today might
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  add some spice to your life gentlemen welcome back to another episode of relish
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  i'm here with don patterson as always don how are you doing i'm doing good at
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  my swinging chair here where i go back and forth keeps life moving.
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  I'm doing all right. It's been a good summer.
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  Yeah. Good, busy summer, but it's the way we like it around here.
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  Yeah. Not a dull moment anywhere.
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  All right. So today I believe you have the third fruit of the spirit,
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  which is peace for us. Yeah.
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  And peace is, I think what peace does is, well, often in our English language, We reduce it.
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  Oh, peace, dude, you know, back down in the 70s and 80s.
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  And in reality, the biblical concept of peace goes much deeper.
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  And Paul, of all people, when he was writing the Galatians and putting together
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  these fruits of the Spirit, probably did a lot of reflection on his own cultural background in peace.
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  So the word that we see in Galatians would be arene,
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  but it's translating a word shalom from the Old Testament, which would have
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  been part of Paul's DNA, if you will, because they said shalom,
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  you know, that was their hello and shalom was their goodbye.
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  And, you know, sometimes those things that we use commonly lose their meaning over time.
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  And I think what Paul was trying to do and identifying as a fruit of the Spirit
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  is going all the way back in his cultural roots to the shalom that he would
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  have grown up with as a Jew.
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  And that understanding goes all the way back to Genesis. In a way,
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  the shalom of the Old Testament was desiring to recreate the relationships,
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  the way things were when God created the world before sin in chapter 3, Genesis.
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  So the root word of peace is,
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  while we often connect it with the absence of conflict, even between us,
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  conflict, and conflict between us and God or others,
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  It goes back to making things whole again.
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  In fact, one of the meanings of peace is, in the greeting of peace,
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  may all the brokenness in your life go away.
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  May God bless you with the wholeness he created you with.
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  May God give you a sense in your heart that things are right.
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  And that's the kind of peace that is a fruit of the Spirit.
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  And even that isn't quite getting the whole thing.
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  So we go back in the Old Testament and we see in Isaiah chapter two that,
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  you know, there's a desire in the midst of war because Isaiah is writing and
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  it's right before a major conflict.
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  And the nation of Israel is taken off and put into servitude.
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  Come, let us go to the house of the Lord, chapter two, verse three.
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  And he's looking to a time in the future, the last days in verse two.
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  The mountain of the Lord's temple will be established as chief among the mountains.
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  He'll be raised above. Then he goes, come, let us go to the mountain of the
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  Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob.
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  He will teach us his ways so that we may walk in his paths.
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  And then he goes down, he will judge between nations and settle disputes.
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  I mean, really, isn't that the main thing that takes our peace away?
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  Is we've got strife between people, we've got this.
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  And then he says, they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
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  I think part of this weight of the word peace is the fact that we can't get
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  it from each other, really.
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  The peace that we have that really is lasting peace comes from the Lord.
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  It comes either from our learning his ways and our conduct is influenced by
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  what God is doing, or because we care for each other, we're taking care of the agenda between us.
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  So if you get it uptight with me, we're going to talk about it and reestablish
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  the peace that was originally in our relationship.
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  If everybody tried to do that, wow, wouldn't it change the world?
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  It'd change our community. It would change households.
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  It would change the city politics, it would change your state politics,
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  it would change your national politics, and if we could do it across the world. The problem is we can't.
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  There's one element that is always fracturing peace, and that's sin.
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  It's the sin we do on an individual basis. It's the sin we do.
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  Between people groups, families, there's neighbors that don't get along with each other.
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  And so it continues to be eroded away.
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  What's interesting is before Jesus came, Malachi points out,
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  because I were in chapter two, because of you, I will break your descendants.
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  I will spread your faces on their faces. Awful. Do you know what that is?
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  That's like excrement.
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  Like poo-poo, okay, on your festivals. It's as if these things are going to be defiled.
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  And where's the peace piece I saw?
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  Revered in uprightness. Ah, here it is. My covenant was with him. And that's Levi.
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  My covenant of life and peace, I gave them to him.
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  This calls for reverence. He revered me, revered me, and stood in awe of my
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  name. True instructions were from his mouth.
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  He walked with me in peace and uprightness and turned many from sin.
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  So part of this peace is not only maintaining it, but bringing others to it.
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  So it's more than the absence of conflict and it flies in the face of war,
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  but it also flies in the face of, I'll have it my way.
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  Because it's, it's, it's stirring us to a time when like God walked with the
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  Adam and Eve in the garden, that tight relationship between God and his people.
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  And it's, it's major to try to maintain that on a daily basis.
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  So how does that happen? Well,
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  for me, I maintain better peace in my person if I maintain my relationship before
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  God and take care of my own sin before God, before others,
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  take time in prayer and reflection, make sure that I have got my life in order.
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  I can't expect anybody else to do what I'm not willing to do.
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  So when I walk into my house, I can't expect everything to be perfect,
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  any more perfect than I would leave it.
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  And so I walk in peace with my wife, realizing that she's got the same limitations I have.
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  And I walk in peace in my community, recognizing that between us.
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  I would nudge one more layer,
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  And Jesus is talked about in Isaiah 9 as being the prince of peace and pointing
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  people to a relationship in Jesus Christ and finding that peace with him.
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  I think probably one of the most telling times in my ministry of peace is when
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  someone has been so tormented by
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  what's going on in their life that they finally lay it all before Jesus.
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  And confess their sins, and find that forgiveness, and walk away from the altar
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  in a whole different state.
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  And that's peace. That's starting to put the broken pieces of our lives back together.
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  I can't imagine that Paul had anything less than that in his mind when he was
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  listing this out, love, and then joy, and then he puts peace.
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  And we can't really have love and joy unless we maintain peace.
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  That's part of it. And so that's why when we talk about fruits of the Spirit, it's going to be there.
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  We're going to make it there. And it's there to help maintain it.
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  Have I left out some holes? Oh, yes. I was going to say, yeah, we'll get to that.
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  What's interesting is when we talk about peace and we think about the fruit
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  that's in the front in Genesis, and we think about those two trees,
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  just remember that when we get back to chapter 22 of Revelation,
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  those trees are there again.
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  And notice that in chapter 22,
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  verse 2, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
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  There will no longer be any curse. The throne of God and the Lamb will be in
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  the city and His servants will serve Him.
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  While peace isn't in that sign in that i think
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  that's when i think of things that
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  are not peaceful i often think of war and what's going on between nations and
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  i realize that's talking about peace that in the garden one of the last things
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  that's left over from this world will be that second tree and there'll be healing
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  for the nations from those trees.
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  Yeah. One thing I was going to add was when you were talking about if there's
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  conflict between two people and building that piece up again,
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  oftentimes what prevents that,
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  what I've experienced myself or witnessed with others is like your own pride often gets in the way.
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  Like you don't admit you're wrong or you're stubborn.
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  And I have got a friend who talks about that and he said pride is actually a
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  taproot of all other sins.
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  And I believe him there's a certain amount which we will not back down and we
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  sort of you know and that that is our pride yeah it gets in a way of a lot of
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  things good point because that.
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  Part of the thing that breaks relationships is I've got to have it my way and
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  that's pride yeah or I'm right and you're wrong and I won't listen to anything
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  else besides my own point of you. That gets in the way.
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  I think one of the, just taking that one step farther is that when I live out
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  what Jesus talked about in Matthew chapter five and like going the second mile
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  in 539 and then loving my enemy.
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  Like we're going to do that easy.
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  That takes this peace thing to a deeper level because then I've got to reevaluate
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  how I'm working with people and how I think about people.
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  You've heard it said, an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth.
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  I tell you, don't resist the evil person.
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  If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to them the other also.
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  This is a heart attitude.
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  That is sort of reversing. It's sort of becoming the victim.
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  But it's becoming the victim for a purpose. Because it's saying,
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  okay, what is this you're trying to prove here? By whooping me upside the head.
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  What is this you're trying to prove here with this action?
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  And if somebody wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.
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  That is that's contrary to
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  our thinking and i think that hits what you're talking about
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  that pride because that would be going out of our way for the other person rather
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  than for ourselves i mean a cloak would have been a majorly necessary garment
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  it's not like they had a full closet full of clothes like we do,
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  and sometimes too many of those,
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  a cloak was a necessity for the cold nights of that era and in that area.
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  If someone forces you to go one mile, you go with him two. If he gives you to
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  give to the one who asks you and don't turn away the one who wants to borrow from you.
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  And then Jesus adds another layer.
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  You have heard it said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy,
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  and I tell you, love your enemies.
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  Pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.
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  It's easy to pray for the guy you know and you care for, but he's saying,
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  love, and this is not little bit love. This is agape love.
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  That's sacrificial love, like the first one, love, joy, peace.
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  Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
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  The result is that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.
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  I mean, is that our goal? Yeah. I think so. That we would be identified with the Father.
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  And when you think about that, and in terms of peace, can we move in this world
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  with the same intentions that God does?
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  That's peace. mm-hmm god once in a while has to discipline us but he disciplines
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  us so that the outcome eventually will be our wholeness.
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  And not only our wholeness, but the wholeness of others.
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  Shalom. Peace. So it's a pretty major. Yeah.
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  Major commodity. And I tell you, it is really hard to live in peace with all people all the time.
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  Yeah. There's some ornery thing. You know, there's just some ornery thing.
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  I really think this displays why Ephesians 6,
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  9 and 10 are so important, because if we make this shift like we do here with Love Your Enemies,
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  it's really displaying the fact that we're no longer battling against flesh
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  and blood, but we're understanding that this is a spiritual warfare,
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  principalities and powers of this dark world.
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  Our our battle is not
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  with each other anymore it's with the spiritual forces
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  around us and that that kind
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  of stuff pride would be one of them but it is a spiritual warfare instead of
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  being well i'm going to beat you up kind of thing you know it's different that
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  way so if we could start thinking about peace in the terms of a spiritual,
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  it's a spiritual condition on our part.
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  It's something we cultivate and maintain in our personal lives,
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  a peace that is beyond understanding.
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  We ask God for it as an anointing, if you will, and then we practice it on a
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  daily basis with everybody around us so that we're seeking the wholeness of each other,
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  Instead of, I'm going to beat you up. I'm going to get whatever I can from you.
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  And that changes our attitude. And I believe, I really believe that's at the
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  root of the cultural tradition of the Hebrews saying, shalom, my friend.
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  Either whether we're greeting each other or whether we're saying goodbye to
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  each other. Shalom, my friend.
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  Yeah. Yeah. I just have a couple things.
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  When it says love your neighbor, hate your enemy, but I tell you love your enemies
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  and pray for those who persecute you.
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  I think it's a lot harder to hate somebody if you're praying for them. It is.
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  Yeah. If you're raising them up in prayer every day, then it's awfully hard to hate them. Right.
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  And it also changed our attitude towards whatever they're doing at the time. Yeah. Towards us.
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  I remember the story of a little old lady who all of a sudden had a guy at her
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  front door with a gun and coming in the front door.
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  And she said, I love you in Jesus' name.
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  In Jesus' name, I pray for you. The story goes that the guy dropped his gun
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  and left and she prayed for him.
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  And so I don't know whether it's going to work every time somebody comes at
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  your house with a gun. but obviously it changes.
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  She immediately went to that.
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  I think what strikes me in the story is she immediately prayed for the other guy,
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  And even though the other fellow was ready to take her life,
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  if necessary, to get what he wanted. Yeah. And that was definitely aggression.
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  And she was coming at that with peace.
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  Yeah. I mean, how many of us are either, like, fight or flight there?
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  Right. And she's neither.
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  Yeah. Yeah. Unless she's in the spirit and say, I'm fighting that. Yes.
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  Get that. She's fighting at a certain level, yeah.
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  But she wasn't coming from a pride piece. Yeah. She was saying, I'm here for you.
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  And yeah, it's a neat story. But when we think about peace, if we can change
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  our understanding from that, it's absence of conflict, the absence of war,
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  peace actually goes much deeper.
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  And its roots need to be deep in our heart for us to live that fruit of the
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  spirit out in a daily way.
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  Yeah. All right. Well, I think that's all we have for you today.
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  Thank you, Don, for bringing that to us.
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  Very good. If you have questions about it, send them in. Yep.
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  Because I surely didn't exhaust that topic.
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  We'll get around to patience, which should be fun. I can't hardly wait.
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  Don will get some work on his patience before he presents the next one.
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  But yeah, we will see you next time. Lord willing.
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  Thank you for joining us for this podcast. feel free to become part of this
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  ministry by sharing with others.
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  Our goal is to help each other grow deeper in our understanding of who God is
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  and is calling to us in our daily lives.
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  Thank you again for joining us and may God bless your day.