He brought this Good
News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and peace to the Jews
who were near (Ephesians 2:17 NLT).
In context, this verse is about unity. The entire second chapter of Ephesians is
emphasizing the unity that Christ brings to those who come to the Father
through Him. Therefore, it is
interesting to note that the message Jesus uses when unifying these two groups
is peace. Yet peace is not the unifier,
but the result. It is the blood of
Christ that unifies, but when that unity is accomplished there will be peace.
Why is that important?
It is profoundly important, especially as we consider the times in which
we live. Jesus told us that in the end,
the love of many would grow cold. This
is not just their love for God, but for one another. The connection is in the fact that when we
truly love another person, we are at peace with that person. In fact, a lack of peace typically indicates
a lack of love. Was it not the love of
God that sent Jesus to the cross? And was
it not the cross that produced the ultimate peace between God and us? It makes complete and logical sense,
therefore, that peace would be the over-arching, tangible attitude we would
witness when people are walking in a truly loving relationship. The opposite is also unfortunately the case
as well, however. With a lack of peace,
we can easily discern the presence of a cold and uncaring heart.
This revelation requires an honest inventory. What is the prevailing attitude we have
towards the relationships in our lives?
In the instances where we can detect a lack of peace between us and
anyone else, we can quickly pinpoint the problem as a love gone cold. In light of Christ’s two great commands – to
love God with all that we are and to love one another likewise, we find a
life-giving key to the equation of peace and love in Paul’s admonition to the
believers in Rome:
If it is possible, as
much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men (Romans 12:18 NKJV).
There will definitely be times where it is impossible to
have peace with someone because they choose to be at odds with us in spite of
our best efforts to restore the relationship.
However, it must be our goal to make these the exception to the rule and
not the on-going record of casualties we are creating because of a heart gone
cold.
Today I will examine my relationships and ask the Father to
rekindle my love for those people with whom I am no longer walking in peace, so
that at least on my end I will be making every effort to keep the peace:
Make every effort to
keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:3 NIV).
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