Living the Peace We Are Given

Scripture — Philippians 1:3-11 (NRSV)

I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God’s grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.

Devotion

There is a humorous scene at the start of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit when Bilbo Baggins offers an innocent greeting of “Good morning” to a passing wizard named Gandalf. Gandalf, who always pays careful attention to words, questions what Bilbo means: “Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?” A little later when Bilbo says ‘Good morning” again, this time as a way of ending their uncomfortable conversation, Gandalf replies, “What a lot of things you do use Good morning for! Now you mean that you want to get rid of me, and that it won’t be good till I move off.”

In his letter to the Philippians, Paul also opens with a greeting: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil 1:2). Paul isn’t just telling the Philippian church that it is a day to feel peaceful on, or that life is already peaceful whether they want peace or not. Although we could spend a long time pondering the meaning of “peace,” one thing is clear: the peace he speaks of is not a matter of wishful thinking, nor is it something he hopes the Philippian Christians will be able to create by their own effort. He knows that true peace comes only from God. True peace within the world is only possible when we first have peace with God, which itself is only possible because of what Christ accomplished through his life, death, and resurrection—something we ought to reflect on at Advent when we ponder the incarnation. And as Paul pointed out to the Galatian church (Gal 5:23-23), the character of peace is fruit born in us of the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives. Thus Paul’s words are both a prayer of blessing and also a reminder.

In the passage that follows this greeting—our lectionary reading for today in this second week of Advent—Paul offers another blessing, and this time he is explicit in stating it as a prayer:  “And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.” Paul could have worded his opening blessing (verse 2) in a similar way: _And this is my prayer, that you may know and experience the grace and peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. _

Mark Roberts, in past Life for Leaders devotions, has written deeply and thoughtfully about the Biblical concept of peace. In a devotion titled “Peace Is So Much More” (published on October 9, 2022), he wrote, “Biblical shalom is a life being fully and rightly ordered according to God’s master plan. As theologian Cornelius Plantinga observes, biblical peace is ‘the webbing together of God, humans, and all creation in justice, fulfillment, and delight.’” Yet even as Paul makes it clear that such peace only comes from God and is not something we can manufacture on our own, it is also not something God forces on us; as with all aspects of our spiritual growth, to truly experience and practice peace we must participate in the Holy Spirit’s transforming work in our lives. Peace is a gift that must be both received and nurtured. It is like a seed God plants. We can neither create that seed nor can we make it grow, but we are called to cultivate the soil of our lives and communities to provide fertile ground. Though today’s reading does not explicitly mention peace, I believe it contains some important principles for how we cultivate the gift that Christ offers so that we are both recipients and vehicles for peace.

The first principle is given by example. Paul opens the body of his letter—as he does repeatedly in his epistles—with words of thanksgiving. He first offers thanks for what God has already done in and through the believers in Philippi: their “sharing in the gospel from the first day until now.” He then offers thanks in advance for what he is confident God will do in the future: continuing the good work already begun and “bring[ing] it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.” The practice of gratitude is an important antidote to greed or a sense of entitlement. When we think we deserve or have earned the good things that come our way or the good things that God has done, it easily leads to grumbling and dissatisfaction because we think we should be getting more. The person who believes they have good stuff coming to them will not be content with what they have. And contentment is one of the foundations of peace. To be discontent is to lack peace. The intentional practice of thankfulness is a step that opens our hearts and minds more fully to the peace the Holy Spirit seeks to develop in us.

The second principle relates to Paul’s explicit prayer: that the love of the Philippian believers “may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight.” Paul says that such love and insight leads to righteousness, and that righteousness will bear a harvest. I believe that peace—both inner peace, and peace with others—is part of that very harvest of righteousness. We might surmise this from the fact that this passage follows Paul’s implicit prayer for the blessing of peace. We could also directly connect the metaphor of a harvest to the metaphor of fruit in Galatians 5:22-23, and note that peace is part of the fruit (or harvest) of the Holy Spirit in our lives. But I think the third connection might be the most direct. What is it that destroys peace? It is our sin. Human sin has broken our peace with God, our peace with one another, and our peace with creation. When we continue to sin, we continue to wage war and to destroy peace. Love restores the peace that sin destroys. If we truly want that most famous Christmas blessing of peace spoken to the shepherds by the heavenly hosts (Luke 2:14), we must practice love. Indeed, in the words of Paul, let us overflow with love.

Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project. Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: The One Who Began a Good Work Among You Will Bring it to Completion (Philippians 1:1–26).