Years ago a visitor returning from Dublin told of how he put
MacDuncan, the village fool, to the test. He poured the contents of
his purse out on the ground, and told him to take any coin he
wished. MacDuncan's eyes lit up, and the people of the village
gathered around for another demonstration of his consistent idiocy.
He would brush the dust from each coin and study it with indecision
and puzzlement. They roared with laughter after he again flung
aside the gold and silver, and selected the shiniest copper to keep as
his own.
A native told the visitor that he always takes the big coin of small
value, and that he never learns. Before the visitor left Dublin he got
alone with MacDuncan. He said to him, "People say when they offer
you sixpence or a penny you always choose the penny. Do you not
know the difference in their value?" "Certainly," replied the
so-called fool." The difference I know, but if I took the sixpence do
ye think they would try me again?" The village fool was really a
very clever beggar who made fools out of the rest of the villagers by
keeping them convinced he was a fool. His wisdom consisted in his
ability to see that the slow but consistent flow of small income would
bring him out ahead in the long run. He was not short sighted. He
knew that success depended on keeping a good thing going.
This is essential not only for village fools, but for all those who
would be fools for Christ. One of the toughest tests all of us need to
pass is that of perseverance. We need to keep on going for Christ.
Many make a good start for everyone who can endure to the end,
and cross the finish line. It is not easy to keep a good things going.
We are often tempted to grab the gold that glitters in the immediate
present, and snatch the silver coin of sin, and cut off the consistent
slow growth in Christlikeness.
In verse 9 Peter warns Christians that if they lack the virtues he
lists here, they will be blind, shortsighted, and in danger of falling.
As Christians we must be interested about a consistent Christian life
of climbing. We must see far ahead, and live for the long run. It is
not enough to own a plane. It must be maintained for continuous
flying. If faith is the runway from which we launch into the higher
Christian life, and grace is the fuel that empowers us for the flight,
then in this analogy, peace represents the oil that keeps us going.
Peace is the lubricant that keeps a good thing going. It keeps us
in flight, and protects us from the heat of frustration, and the wear
and tare of worry and tension that can cause us to lose altitude, and
even crash. No flight will keep going long without oil, and no
Christian will climb far without the lubricant of peace. That is why
Peter is concerned that Christians have peace multiplied to them
along with grace. A solid runway of faith, and a full tank of grace
with a low supply of peace can mean serious trouble. Grace and
peace must be together, and must be multiplied.
A Kansas cyclone hit a farm house just before dawn. It lifted the
roof off; picked up the bed on which the farmer and his wife slept,
and set them down gently in a nearby field. The wife began to cry.
"Don't be scared," her husband said, "We are not hurt." "I'm not
scared," she sobbed, "I'm just happy. This is the first time in 14
years we have been out together." Some partners need a cyclone to
get them together, but not grace and peace. They are always
together, and this is a necessity. They are as close to each other as
gas and oil. They are found together all through the New
Testament. God is a God of grace, and a God of peace. All three
persons of the Godhead are connected with peace.
Paul says of God the Father in I Thess. 5:23, "And the very God
of peace sanctify you wholly." Rom. 16:20 says "And the God of
peace shall bruise Satan under your feet.." God the Son is called the
Prince of Peace, and Paul says of Jesus in Eph. 2:14, "For He is our
peace..." One of the fruits of the spirit is peace, and Paul in Rom.
14:17 says, "..the kingdom of God is not meat and drink but
righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." Paul refers to
the whole of the good news in Christ several times as the Gospel of
peace. If we had time to quote all references to peace, you would
recognize it to be a fundamental Christian word inseparably united
with grace. Like love and marriage, horse and carriage, gas and oil,
so grace and peace go together.
Peace is both freedom from outward disturbance and a lack of
disturbance within. Both are great values, but Peter and the rest of
the New Testament uses the word primarily to refer to the inner
peace of the soul. Even a pagan recognizes the distinction between
external and internal peace. Epictetus, the ancient philosopher,
wrote, "You see that Caesar seems to provide us with great peace;
no longer are there campaigns, battles, great gangs of robbers, and
pirates; one can travel whenever he pleases and sail from East to
West. But can Caesar provide us with peace from fever too...from
love..craving? He cannot. From sorrow? He cannot. From envy?
No, he cannot secure us against anyone of these at all. Only the
inward peace of a philosopher's mind.....renders the world a place of
peace."
The peace of mind cults are nothing new. For many centuries
men have recognized the power of the mind to produce tranquility.
Do not laugh at the principles of the peace of mind cults, for they are
sound, and they do work, even in the lives of unbelievers. They are
simply using the principles of Scripture, but they substitute some
other value in the place of God. Biblical peace is a matter of the
mind being focused on God and His sufficiency, and not on the dark
facts of life. Scripture says, "Thou will keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on Thee." Jesus said that so much lack of
peace is due to focusing our minds upon the needs of tomorrow
when we should be concentrating on our adequacy for today in
Christ. Christian peace, like the philosophical peace of those outside
of Christ, is largely a matter of the mind, but the major difference is
the object on which the mind is focused. The philosopher finds his
peace in reason, but the Christian finds his peace in the author of
reason, which is God.
The Hebrew word for peace is Shalom. It is a comprehensive
word, and it expresses the ideal state of life. It is the life of
completeness, wholeness, health, and harmony. One can only have
such a life when one is secure in the knowledge that he has a life in
harmony with God. To know God is the essence of peace, as it is the
essence of grace. Both multiply, as Peter says, through the
knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. In Job 22:21 we read,
"Aquaint thyself now with God, and be at peace..." To be aware of
a personal God who cares for us in this infinite universe is the
beginning of biblical peace.
At peace with God! How great the blessing
In fellowship with Him to be,
And from all stains of sin set free,
How rich am I such wealth possessing.
The Roman year formerly began in March because Romulus so
appointed it because he loved Mars, the god of war. But Pompilius
changed it to January in honor of Janus, the peaceful god of the
door and new beginnings. Jesus did more than this for peace. He
was, and is, the door to new life in peace with God. Jesus instituted
a new age of peace in which God and man are reconciled through
His death upon the cross.
By Christ on the cross, peace was made;
My debt by His death was all paid;
No other foundation is laid For peace, the gift of God's love.
The Gospel begins as a message of peace. When John the Baptist
was born, his father, filled with the Holy Spirit, proclaimed his
ministry would be one of peace. In Luke 1:77-79 we read of how he
is to prepare the way for the coming Prince of Peace. "To give
knowledge of salvation unto His people by the remission of their sin,
through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the dayspring from
on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and
in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace." The
Christian way is the way of peace, for Christ is our Way, and Christ
is our Peace.
The message of the angels in Luke 2:13 is, "Glory to God in the
highest and peace on earth for men whom He favors." Let us not
forget the distinction between external and internal peace, for Jesus
says He did not come to bring external peace. On the contrary, His
coming brought much trial and tribulation into the lives of His
followers. The peace that can be ours is peace with God, and the
peace of God. Peace with God is a matter of salvation, and the peace
of God is a matter of sanctification. The latter is the peace that
Peter has in mind for multiplication in the Christian life.
Peace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin,
The blood of Jesus whispers, peace within.
Herbert Lockyer says, "Alas, not all who are at peace with God,
have peace within! They have the title to it, but fail to enjoy their
inheritance." Christians almost always try and operate with an
inadequate supply of the oil of peace, and because of this there is no
smooth steady climb, but a constant stopping for repairs. F. B.
Meyer said, "If we allow worries, anxieties, careworn questions to
brood in our hearts, they will soon break up our peace, as swarms of
tiny gnats will make a paradise uninhabitable."
But how can we exterminate the gnats that ruin our peace in a
world so full of trouble, and real things to worry about? How can
peace be multiplied when the facts of life subtract it at a frightening
rate? How can anyone have inner peace in this world of wickedness
and war? The question is easier asked than answered, and easier
answered than applied, but the committed Christian has no
alternative but to seek to gain more and more of the oil of peace that
he might keep navigating higher and higher into the pure white
clouds of Christlikeness.
First let's be honest and recognize that the burning up of the oil
of peace in the heat of anxiety is not helpful but harmful. Herbert
Gray in his book The Secret Of Inward Peace writes, "I once heard
a man say to another, 'how can you keep so calm and unruffled
while all these terrible things are happening...bombs on our dear
country; ruin falling on our houses; women and children being
maimed and killed; whole nations enslaved; and our very existence
as a nation threatened? Don't you know these things? Have you no
feelings?' Gray says this would be his answer: 'Well, if you can
prove to me that by being all "het up" and running around
emotionally distressed I shall make things any better, I will take to
such courses. But if by so doing I shall only make things worse for
others and let my own person be weakened, I will try to keep my
inward peace." He will trying to obey Jesus and be the light of the
world, and not the heat.
There is always the danger of a false peace which arises because
of ignorance and indifference. This is not the peace of Christ, for He
knew the full story of evil, and the pathetic state of man, and yet in
calmness and compassion He did all in His power to be the answer,
and He succeeded. Jesus experienced life just as we do with all of its
positive and negative aspects. Yet in the midst of the negatives Jesus
had peace because His life and mind were focused on the positive.
There is no other way to gain the oil of peace and inner security but
by having a mind centered on Christ and His will. Paul says in
Rom. 8:6, "To be spiritually minded is life and peace." Peace is a
matter of the mind, and the subjects the mind consistently considers.
The carnal mind is focused on things, and like a motor with no oil
they burn up with the friction of frustration. The spiritually minded
person is receptive to the things of God, and meditates on the truth,
hopes, and promises of God, and thereby the oil of peace is
multiplied, and so they keep on enduring to the end.
Thomas a Kempis wrote, "All men desire peace, but very few
desire those things that make for peace." Oil is only found by
digging, and so also with the oil of peace. If you want to strike oil,
you have to go deep. If you are unwilling to dig deep into God's
Word, and think deeply about all of its implications for life, then you
have no one to blame but yourself if the frictions of life cause a
breakdown, and you lose attitude in your flight. God will keep you
in perfect peace when your mind is stayed on Him. May God grant
you the wisdom to maintain an adequate supply of the oil of peace
by keeping your mind focused on Him and His Word. This was
secret of the peace of Christ. "Let this mind be in you which was
also in Christ Jesus." It is by having His mind that we will always
have a supply of the oil of peace.
