PEACE
There are two kinds of peace:
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Peace in the heart is the kind of peace that is mostly in view in the Bible because peace is a symbolic term to represent God’s spoken word. This truth is especially noticeable in many New Testament epistles that begin with “grace and peace to you.” Knowing that grace is also a symbolic term to represent God’s word, these salutations are powerful statements that anticipate the expression of God’s word to readers. In effect, these statements say:
Here in writing is God’s spoken word for you. Read what I have written and listen to God’s voice for understanding.”
Understanding of peace as God’s word is also made clear in the following examples:
John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.
COMMENTARY: This verse could be rightly rewritten as follows:
God’s word I leave with you. God’s word I give to you. I do not give the kind of peace that the world of religion identifies as peace, but I give you God’s word. When you have God’s word in your heart, your heart will not be troubled or fearful.
Deuteronomy 20:10 “When you approach a city to fight against it, you shall offer it terms of peace.
COMMENTARY: See Cities, Kingdoms and Nations for understanding of city as a religious place. New Covenant disciples are at war with religious cities. The weapons of their warfare are God’s spoken word because God’s word has power. Thus the term of peace offered to religious people is God’s word. People who accept God’s word will have peace (i.e. God’s word) in their hearts. People who do not accept God’s word will continue to be God’s enemies.
Luke 24:36 While they were telling these things, He Himself stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be to you.”
COMMENTARY: Jesus’ ministry was to speak God’s words to religious people. So, when he said “peace be to you, he was not just greeting people with a salutation. He was effectively saying “I am here to speak God’s words to you.”
John 16:33 “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
COMMENTARY: Since Jesus’ ministry was to speak God’s words to people, this verse can be rephrased as follows:
I speak to you so that through my words you may have God’s words in your hearts. As long as you are religious, you will have tribulation. Do not worry about leaving your religious friends and family. When you have God’s words in your hearts, you will overcome the world of religion that now oppresses you and wants to keep you enslaved to it.
John 20:21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”
COMMENTARY: Peace be with you expresses Jesus’ desire that people would have God’s words in their hearts. He says that God sent him to speak his words to your hearts, and he sends them to speak God’s words to others who do not hear God’s voice.
Jude 1:2 May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you. 2 Thessalonians 1:2 Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
COMMENTARY: Mercy, love and grace are words that symbolically represent God’s words. Peace is included in the context of mercy, love and grace because peace is also a word that symbolically represents God’s word.
Matthew 10:32-39: So every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; 33 but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. 34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
COMMENTARY: Jesus did not come to bring peace between men. That is the kind of messiah for which the Jews were looking. Jesus came to bring peace to the hearts of individual persons.
The sword that Jesus brings is the sword of God’s spoken word. God’s word divides between soul and spirit. That means that it exposes defiled, soulish religion and differentiates it from pure religion. Then, when religious people understand the difference between the two types of religion, they are challenged to make a choice about which religion they will practice.
35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; 36 and a man’s foes will be those of his own household. 37 He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38 and he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it.
COMMENTARY: When people choose to listen to God’s spoken word rather than practice religion, they find themselves in conflict with their religious friends and family. See Religion is the Enemy, Gods at War and Sibling Conflict.
Luke 12:49-53: “I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled! 50 I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how I am constrained until it is accomplished! 51 Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division; 52 for henceforth in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three; 53 they will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against her mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”
COMMENTARY: See this link for a detailed discussion of conflict and division.
God’s word is symbolized as consuming fire and a refining fire. It’s purpose is to consume (i.e. destroy) religion. See God is Calling People Out of Religion, How God Sees Religion, Model Warriors, and Jesus and the Money-Changers in the Temple.
Conflict and division develops between religious people and New Covenant disciples when people who know how to hear God’s spoken voice decide to quit being religious while their friends and family remain religious. Symbolically speaking, they have heard peace (i.e. God’s word) in their hearts.
This kind of conflict results in a death to relationships for those who choose to listen to God’s voice. Elsewhere this conflict is called tribulation. But, even though New Covenant disciples do not have peace within their relationships, they have peace (i.e. God’s word) in their hearts.
This conflict is found throughout the Bible as the war between good and evil. See the following links for more understanding: Religion is the Enemy, Gods at War, Sibling Conflict.
The conflict becomes a motivator for those who have left religion to teach those who remain religious. They know that their friends and family are in bondage to religion and that they are living in a kind of hell. This fact gives them boldness to lay down their lives for their friends. If their friends listen to the words of those who speak for God, they will be friends. If they do not listen, they will remain enemies.