The Fruit of the Holy Spirit - What is peace?

Then comes peace. That deep, calm peace, amidst the turmoil and strife of this world; this is the fruit of the Spirit — peace that passeth all understanding, the peace of God to guard our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:7).

A word on peace. There are three statements about it, each expressing something which the believer is privileged to enjoy. 1st. Peace with God. 2nd. The peace of Christ. 3rd. The peace of God. The first concerns the conscience, the second the heart, and the third is to garrison the heart. The first, peace with God, the believer has consequent on being justified by faith, and it rests on the knowledge that every question between God and the guilty one has been settled, and settled for ever, by the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. The consciousness of guilt makes the sinner afraid of God, as Adam confessed (Gen. 3:10), "I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself." The knowledge of the Lord's resurrection for our justifying, having been first delivered for our offences, assures us that all is settled; hence, justified by faith, we have peace with God. 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 midst of all that He passed through in His testimony for God, and it is to rule in our hearts (Col. 3:15). The third, the peace of God, reminds us of the unruffled atmosphere in which He dwells. This He has promised shall guard the heart of each weak, tried, and it may be persecuted saint, who in simplicity and reality unburdens his heart to God in prayer (Phil. 4:7).

In Galatians 5 part of the fruit of the Spirit is "peace," and in Romans 8 we read "the mind of the Spirit life and peace" (New Trans.). The subject is inexhaustible! Of our blessed Lord we read- "He made peace." All that brought in confusion dealt with at Calvary. "He is our peace." The man who sought his own glory gone from our gaze. He gives us His own peace. The tranquil spirit in which He ever moved in devotion to the will of His Father.

“Love” is the first mentioned part of the “fruit of the Spirit” (notice it is fruit, not fruits. Gal. 5:22); “joy” is the second. The Apostle now goes on to the third part—“peace.” As we are established in the knowledge of God, we learn to be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving to let our requests be made known to God, and so we get His peace in the place of all our cares, which we leave with Him.

Peace inwardly, in contrast to morbid self-disappointment, the result of the "minding of the Spirit" (Rom. 8:6). It is a peace that depends not so much upon our faith in Christ as upon our daily occupation with Christ, through the Holy Ghost.

The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, &c. … Remark that the first of these fruits are love, joy, peace. The Spirit will surely produce those practical fruits which manifest the life of Christ in the sight of men, but the inward fruits, the fruits Godward, come first, the condition of soul needful for producing the others.

The Spirit also produces His own blessed fruit in the life of the believer. The first three parts: Love, joy and peace. These give the blessed consciousness the believer has in his heart of his relationship to God, which consciousness comes through the Spirit. The other six parts: "long-suffering, kindness, goodness, fidelity, meekness, self-control," witness in the believer's walk to the fact that the love, the joy and peace of God are realities in the soul. The believer who walks according to the Spirit manifests in his walk the fruit of the indwelling Spirit and against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh and its lusts. They have accepted the sentence of the cross which has put the old man with its lusts into the place of death. God declares us as dead with Christ and looks upon us thus (Colossians 3: 3). And this great truth must be lived. The believer lives in the Spirit and is called upon to walk in the Spirit so that the righteousness of the law may be fulfilled in him. "Let us not be desirous of vain-glory (the law fosters such a spirit, but grace humbles), provoking one another, envying one another"--which is the sad effect of vain-glory, provocation and envy.

We must remember that there is a vast difference between the "peace of God", and "peace with God". Romans 5:1 tells us: "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God". We were lost sinners, and enemies in our mind by wicked works: how could peace with God be made? If I believe on Christ and what He has done, then I can boldly say that for Christ's sake, even my sins are forgiven: therefore I can add: "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." The value is not in the faith, but in our Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot get the blessing without believing, but it is an answer to the worth of Christ in God's sight.

But beside this settled peace which we have through the work of Christ, there is "the peace of God, which has nothing to do with the forgiveness of our sins: though that is in one sense the foundation of all our blessing: but this, "the peace of God", is peace amidst the circumstances through which we pass day by day: and it is a peace "surpassing every mind of man". The Apostle was in prison, bound with a chain to a Roman soldier: yet he was filled with both joy and peace. And, as joy is the second, peace is the third fruit of the Spirit: and like joy it is a legacy left by our beloved Lord, before He returned to His Home in Glory: "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you." (John 14:27).

If we turn to Galatians 5:22, we find the first fruit of the Spirit is love. All the other fruits grow out of that one. If that is lacking, the rest are only like artificial fruit tied on a tree - it never grew there. Where there is love there is no effort. The next on the list is joy. Our joy will ever be in proportion to our love. This is an unfailing principle. And so it is with the next, peace. If, in all we do and say and think, we are actuated by love, we shall enjoy a peace which nothing can disturb. This does not imply a servile agreement with everybody and everything; love may sometimes have to stand almost alone, because there is so little of it in the world; but should this trying position be experienced, the mind will be in perfect peace, if only love is allowed to govern. And this will bring in, too, next long-suffering. Love will often be misunderstood. Men, and even Christians, are so accustomed to be directed by motives of self-interest and personal advantage, they misinterpret and misjudge the disinterestedness of love. And so there is need of long-suffering. This will lead to gentleness. If we confound gentleness with weakness we make a serious mistake. The great need of the hour is Christians who are gentle. It is love, and not social status, makes the true gentle man. It has been said of one of low degree that he was qualified to enter any society, and the reason was very simple - he loved everything, and "love doth not behave itself unseemly." "Goodness": love always seeks the welfare, and not the harm, of others. "Faith": love believeth all things. And then follow "meekness, temperance," and the apostle adds, "Against such there is no law." You cannot put love under law; it is its own law. It worketh no ill, only good. And "love is of God."

The peace of God is a somewhat different thought from the peace of Christ; as both differ, though flowing from, peace with God. "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you" John 14.) This is the peace which ever filled the heart of Jesus as a perfect Man of faith below. He committed everything to the Father; we are called into the same path. The peace of God is that which pervades God's own heart above, which nothing disturbs. The heavens have been corrupted, the earth ruined, Israel has failed, the Church likewise; yet nothing disturbs the peace of the Divine heart. His counsels stand, in spite of all creature failure; there God rests and there we rest also.