And let the peace of Christ preside in your hearts, to which also ye have been called in one body, and be thankful.
Paul has just told the Colossians to put on compassion, forgiveness and love. Now he names what should rule the heart underneath it all: the peace of Christ, given to a people called as one body.
Whose peace
Older English versions read "the peace of God" here. Commentators point instead to the best manuscripts, and add that "the peace of Christ" fits the whole letter.
Colossians 3:15 — Here it is the peace, not of God as such, but of Christ. All critics of note allow this, on the authority of the best manuscripts and versions. The general strain of the letter, and of this verse, is in its favour.
The difference matters. Writers separate three things Scripture calls peace: peace with God, the peace of Christ, and the peace of God.
The first concerns the conscience, the second the heart, and the third is to guard the heart. The first, peace with God, the believer has as a result of being justified by faith... The second, the peace of Christ, is Christ's gift to His people (John 14:27). It is what He enjoyed on earth, in the middle of all He passed through in His testimony for God. And it is to rule in our hearts.
The peace He lived in
So this peace is more than a settled conscience. It is the calm Jesus Himself lived in as a man, and it runs deeper than any storm on the surface.
How easily we can meet every difficulty if we have the peace of Christ in our hearts! Go down to your shores when the storm is blowing and the winds are raging. See the waves crashing and breaking on the surface. But go far down below that troubled surface, and everything is perfectly calm. It is the same with the Christian while he passes through the storms here.
One writer names what produced that calm in Him:
It was that rest of heart and mind which comes from perfect confidence in the Father's love and perfect submission to the Father's will.
Let it rule
Some translations render the word as "preside". In practice, this peace settles disputed matters inside us.
Notice: the word of Christ dwells where the peace of Christ rules. This last one decides all questions. It is the umpire or court under which the heart rests.
Notice too the wording of the command. We are not asked to produce this peace, only to stop blocking it.
It is the peace of Him who is now raised from the dead, in calm, tranquil triumph over all things. We are not told to make peace rule, but let it rule, for the only hindrance to this is an unsubmissive will.
Called in one body
The middle of the verse stops this from being a private calm. God's call came to us as one body, and that shapes how we treat each other.
The peace is not only to preside in our hearts. We are to enjoy it together in the Christian company, for to this we have been "called in one body". The oneness of the body needs peace between the members if it is to grow with the increase of God.
It also rules out one common reflex: pulling away when other believers trouble us.
So it is peace, but not an isolated spirit — not as having finished with one another, but on the contrary clinging to everyone, despite everything. Suppose something painful troubled me about someone in fellowship. Should I let it trouble me so much that I stay away from the Lord's table? That would be adding wrong to wrong. I am never allowed to give in to trouble about such matters. I have the right to let the peace of Christ rule in my heart.
And be thankful
The verse ends with three words that are easy to skip. Yet thankfulness grows from the same broken will that lets this peace rule.
"Be thankful," for I receive everything from God. I cannot be thankful for everything if my will is not broken. But the moment I look to God as the One who counts the hairs of my head, I glory in tribulation. I count every trial and exercise as all joy.
Summary
- Whose — Christ's own peace, the calm He lived in as a man. It is not the same as peace with God, which settles the conscience.
- Given — it is His gift, not our achievement. The command is let. The one thing that blocks it is a will still insisting on its own way.
- Ruling — this peace acts as umpire in the heart, deciding disputed questions. Where it rules, the word of Christ makes its home.
- Shared — God called us to this peace in one body, so we enjoy it together. Trouble with another believer is no reason to stay away.
- Thankful — a will surrendered to God receives everything from His hand, so even trials become reasons to give thanks.