We continue writing about the fruit of the Spirit this week with a discussion of peace. As we’ve been saying all along, fruit is the product of growth and life. Secondly, we locate the source of that growth in the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. Last week’s discussion of joy was intertwined with the concept of peace as defined by the Hebrew word shalom. Cornelius Plantinga in his book Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be gives this definition of peace: “The webbing together of God, humans, and all creation in justice, fulfillment, and delight is what the Hebrew prophets call shalom.” Plantinga’s book is wonderfully written and good for anyone who has ever wondered how to think about both the beautiful and horrible things we experience in the world as it is today. The Bible gives us a wonderful but mysterious picture of what shalom is in Isaiah 11:6-9:
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze;
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.
They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea.
It asks us to imagine the kind of world where animals that typically eat each other instead eat straw and lie down and rest beside one another. Imagine a world where little children are able to play with what are now some of the most dangerous animals found in creation. The Bible begs the question: what would the humans in this world be like? If this is how the animals and children act, how would adults engage one another? How would they drive? How would they govern themselves? How would they look when they walked down the street?
We live now in what Al Wolters calls “the overlap of the ages” in his great little book Creation Regained. We live in the age where Christ has come and given us the Spirit. His rule and reign on earth has begun, but it is not only the age of his rule. There is an overlap of the age of waiting, of creation longing for full redemption. There is still wickedness, sin, and death. But when God is at work in and through us by the Spirit we begin to glimpse the vision of a world of shalom. We have the opportunity now to taste the fruit of peace.
Most of the time our vision of peace is too small. We say we want peace when what we mean is, “I want my world to make me comfortable now,” which is so much less. For example, our desire to end an argument is motivated more by a desire to stop pain than a desire for another’s good. But what if you started with the heart and asked yourself, “What do I want for this relationship? If that’s really true, how would I act right now?” That little tip from the book Crucial Conversations is one small nibble at the fruit of peace, a peace that is wider than merely the absence of conflict. Instead it is a glimpse at what shalom can be in a very practical sense even now in this overlap of the ages.
I hope you will allow Scripture to enlarge your vision of peace and that you will pray for the peace of God to guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7) so that by His grace you can grow in this fruit of the Spirit.
In Him,
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