The Peace of God in Christ
So stand fast IN the Lord, my clearly beloved.” — Phil. iv. i. I beseech Euodias, and beseech SjTityche, that they be of the same mind IN the Lord.” — Phil. iv. 2. ’ Rejoice in the Lord ahvay: and again I say, Rejoice.” — Phil. iv. 4. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding,’, shall keep your hearts and minds IN Christ Jesus.” — Phil. iv. 7.
THEEE is a wonderful reiteration of the Apostle’s favourite monogram and its equivalents, in this concluding chapter of his Epistle to the Philippians. Though already alluded to in an earlier page, we need make no apology in recurring to these more fully now: and the above four mottoverses, which we may profitably link together, do not, as we shall afterwards find, exhaust the list. In the last of these verses, by that same unaccountable departure from the ordinary rendering previously referred to, the preposition {ev) has been translated in our authorised version ’ through ‘Christ, instead of, as elsewhere, in ‘Christ. A similar unnecessary divergence, as we shall note in a subsequent meditation, occurs both in verses 1 3 and 1 9.
The transition, in the opening of the chapter, is a marked and beautiful one from the immediately preceding context, where we have the strange and unwonted reference to Paul in tears (chap. iii. 1 8). His heroic soul could willingly bear any personal suffering and degradation; but at the manifestation of hostility or disloyalty to his dear Lord, covert or open, his magnanimity gave way. He could not refrain from weeping, when he thought of “the enemies of the cross of Christ; “— those who, professing outwardly the tenets of the Gospel, remained empty formalists — utter strangers to its spiritualising power; nay, dishonouring its pure and elevated morality with shameless and corrupted lives, — absorbed in earthly things.’ He turns with a feeling of relief and gladness to the members of his much-loved Church in Philippi, who (different from many other communities he had planted) he knew were faithful to their Great Master. Their” citizenship was in heaven.” They were the chartered heirs and denizens of a nobler commonwealth than “the present evil world; “they were looking and longing for their Lord’s second coming (chap. iii. 20), when body as well as spirit would be transformed into a blessed resemblance with His own glorious and glorified body (ver. 21). They had already proved to him on earth, and would, in a nobler and loftier sense prove in heaven,” a royal diadem in the hand of his
God.” Heaping one endearing epithet on another, — with a yearning, loving tenderness, the outpouring of a full heart that has no parallel in his other letters, — he exhorts his “brethren, dearly beloved and longed for;” his “joy and crown,” to “stand fast in the Lord.” Stand fast: a military term; and not the cnly one, as we shall presently see, employed by him in this chapter. Christ is represented as a glorious Tortress — “The Tower of David, builded for an armoury” (Sol. Song iv. 4), the true City of Refuge. The Apostle entreats his loved Philippian disciples to permit nothing to entice from its walls, and thus imperil their safety and peace. He exhorts them, as sentries, to stand firm at the post of duty: or, as a regiment, to stand fast in the day of battle in loyal devotion to the Great Captain of Salvation. Through their exceptionally cordial acceptance of the Gospel message, he felt as if a laurel- wreath or oaken garland, better than that of the successful athlete of Isthmia or Corinth, had been put around his brow. But, lest any breath of sin or apostacy might threaten to mar its beauty, or soil its verdure; — lest some moment of un vigilance should lull them to sleep and indifference; — or worse, lead them to stray from the watch-tower and parley with the foe; the exhortation just quoted is employed. “Look not to me,” he seems to say, “or to any human instrument: stand fast in the Lord!” It recalls a passage in which, with a still deeper emphasis, the same phrase is used. Here he speaks of their steadfastness being his joy: there he calls it his very life, “Now we live, if ye standfast in the Lord” (i Thess. iii. 8). Similarly in another Epistle — “Finally, my brethren, be strong in theJLord, and in the power of His might. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand” (Eph. vi. 10, 13).
In the Church, however, which, of all he had founded, had given him least cause for disquietude and trouble (on the contrary, which had all along afforded the most indubitable proofs of affection and esteem), there was one darkening cloud in its otherwise bright sky. Two female members (whose services, moreover, in aiding him to spread the Gospel he gratefully recognises in Phil. iv. 3) had been involved in one of those unhappy estrangements, which so often mar the beauty and harmony of the imperfect fellowships below. We are not informed what the cause of disagreement was, nor from what it had arisen. Perhaps from the too common one of rivalry and partisanship; some miserable question about precedence, and its usual accompaniment — a lack of generous forbearance. Very possibly an allusion to the cause is referred to in Phil. ii. 3: — “Let nothing be done through strife or vain-glory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves;” and where, as the best counteractive to such an unworthy spirit, there is held up the peerless example of Him who stooped to a servant’s place, and was willing to become the lowliest of the lowly: — “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. ii. 5). The Apostle would seek to effect the needed reconciliation. How does he endeavour to repair this unseemly breach? Again his monogram is enlisted in the office of peacemaker. He makes a personal appeal: — “I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord.” After all, this he fondly hoped was only a passing cloud; and again he returns to the jubilant term employed in the beginning of chapter iii., coupled with a reduplication of his favourite word — “Rejoice IN THE Lord alway, and again I say, BejoicG” (Phil. iv. 4). “In the Lord,” was the secret of the alway rejoicing; the source of its reality, its intensity, and permanence. It was joy resultant from a living union with a living Saviour. Hence not a fitful spasmodic joy, but deep, lasting, continuous. Not the ripple of the shallow brook gurgling over its pebbly bed, but the calm, steady, silent flow of the river in its well-worn channel, too deep to be noisy. Paul had been himself the partaker and recipient of that joy, a joy in the Lord ’ alway; ’ — the habitually realised presence and fellowship of his Redeemer; a growing
‘Rejoice’: ‘Joy be with you.’ It is the same Greek word employed by the Saviour in His own memorable Resurrection-greeting — ‘All haill’ (Matt, xxviii. 9). So that the Apostle’s “Rejoice in the Lord,” was in one sense only a translation and echo of his great Master’s Easter salutation.
consciousness of the reality and security of that divine fortress within whose walls he had fled for safety. With this glowing and growing assurance of personal tranquillity and gladness of heart, he would have
others share the inner sunshine — “Again I say, Rejoice.”
Two exhortations follow, which, as they have no immediate connection with his monogram, we need not dwell upon: viz., the avoidance of feverish carefulness on the one hand, and the cultivation of abundant prayerfulness on the other. But as he sums up, the familiar term once more occurs as the culminating expression of the paragraph: — “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep” (as a citadel or garrison is kept and defended by a military guard) “your hearts and minds IN Christ Jesus” (Phil. iv. 7). Here again, observe it is the warrior or sentinel symbol which is employed: — a somewhat singular application of the metaphor as applied to “Peace.” The heart, the mind, the will, the thoughts, the feelings, the affections, are “IN Christ;” shut up as in a fortress; and God’s own ‘Peace ’ — the gentlest of sentries — keeps watch and ward at the gates of this all-glorious stronghold. Paul, when he wrote the words, had, as we recently noted, his hand fastened by a chain to the soldier at his side; thereby ensuring his
V safe custody. May not this possibly have suggested the simile? ‘The peace of God ’ (personified) says he, ’ like that guardsman from Osesar’s barracks, will hold you in safe keeping, — only the golden fetters of God’s sweet peace will be substituted for the iron ones of man’s galling and cruel power ‘!
And what a peace must this be “m Christ Jesus,” which the Apostle here describes as “passing all understanding “! Let us for a moment go round about this fortress thus garrisoned and sentinelled, and mark its bulwarks. As its foundation there is, as we found in the preceding chapter, the assurance of pardon: “In WHOM we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins.” In Him the mighty, aUmomentous question of our soul’s everlasting interests is settled and adjusted for ever: so that once within these walls, we are eternally safe. Then, even as regards the present, — that union with Jesus enables us to repose in the gladdening conviction, that our path of life is meted out for us and appointed; that it is not an arbitrary destiny, but a plan of God. We have the bliss of that Saviour’s unseen but real fellowship on earth; — His unseen, but real advocacy in heaven; the pledge that no true evil can befall us; that the sting has been extracted from trial, and the last enemy robbed of his victory. No wonder then, with these as its leading characteristics, that the Apostle should call it a peace which baffles finite comprehension. No plummet-line can fathom it, no tempest can assail it, no time can destroy it: “Its foundations are in the Holy mountains.” Away, then, with all disquietudes, all misgivings and forebodings. “Thou wilt keep him,” 0 Saviour God, “in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed ON Thee, because he trusteth in Thee” (Isa. XX vi. 3).
Yes, “IN Christ Jesus.” Hear how the Divine Redeemer, in bequeathing that peace, does Himself, so to speak, anticipate the monogram of this greatest Apostle — *’ Peace I leave with you, my peace I^ give unto you: not as the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid “(John xiv. 27); “These things I have spoken unto you that IN Me ye might have peace” (John xvi. 33). No wonder that in wandering through the Roman Catacombs, the eye should fall on the Christian’s expressive trilogy — spes pax tibi (Hope Peace To thee).