The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ—He is Lord of all—Acts 10:36

The gospel is the supreme message of peace! And yet it is based on a peace that the world has no ability to comprehend. The world seeks a peace which is fundamentally personal and individual. It is a peace defined and understood as a cessation of hostility, discomfort, and inconvenience. This is a peace that no one has ever had, has, or will have in this life. Why? Because as Jesus said, “In this world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33). Or as it says in Job 5:7, “Yet man is born to trouble, As the sparks fly upward.”

This peace-that-doesn’t-exist (in this world) insists that no one can be sick, as though mortals who will all one day die must be hermetically insulated from illness. It insists that if anything happens to me that I do not like, I must sue somebody (regardless of whether that person(s) is responsible or not). It even goes so far as to say that if anyone says (or even thinks) anything that makes me feel uncomfortable, that person must not be allowed to say (or think) such things. Oh, and by the way, if my hyper-sensitivity makes others feel uncomfortable, they are wrong. There is no peace, nor will there ever be peace, in this line of thinking.

The peace that comes through Christ is not personal individual peace at the expense of others. It is peace with God. It is a peace won for us by Jesus Christ who laid down His rights for those who are wrong. We experience this peace, not by demanding our rights, but by acknowledging that before God we have no rights! Then, upon receiving Christ, we lay aside our rights and commit to loving Him who is always right, as well as loving our enemies, no matter how right or wrong they are.

That’s peace.