Fruit of Peace
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November 08, 2015 |
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 Senior Pastor Dr. Jaerock Lee
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law" (Galatians 5:22-23).
If we truly believe God and love Him, we have to keep peace with spouse, parents, children, siblings, and neighbors in any kind of situation. Now let's look into how we can bear this fruit of peace which is included in the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit.
1. We must have peace with God.
The most important thing in having peace with God is that we must not have any barrier of sin between God and us. When Adam ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he couldn't see God, and so he tried to hide himself from God. It means the peace between Adam and God was broken. Before sinning, he experienced a very close relationship with God, but after sinning, he became afraid of Him and distanced himself from God.
When we act in the truth, we have peace with God and we are confident. Of course, to have perfect peace without having any barriers of sin, we must cast away all sins and become sanctified. But even though we are not perfect yet, we can still have peace with God as long as we diligently practice the truth within the measure of our faith. When we try to have peace with God, we first have to do that in the truth, maintaining peace with God.
For example, what if we were to bow down before idols or violate the Lord's Day to have peace with unbelieving family members? It may seem that we have peace for the moment, but in spirit, it is to break peace with God greatly by creating a big wall of sin before God. Finally, it will only cause trials and tests, and we cannot have true peace with family members either.
To have true peace among men, we first have to please God (Proverbs 16:7). Of course, sometimes other persons may keep on breaking peace with their evil even though we try our best in the truth. But even in these cases, if we treat them only with the truth, God will work for us.
2. We have to have peace with ourselves.
To have peace with ourselves, we also have to cast away evil and become sanctified. If we have evil remaining in us, that evil will be agitated according to situations. If hatred, anger, envy, greed, and such things come up from our heart, how uncomfortable it is! Also, if the heart of truth and the heart of untruth fight against each other, we will feel even greater affliction. But if we have firm determination and pray fervently to continually choose the truth, we will finally be able to have peace in heart.
But some people say they are pursuing peace with God acting in the truth, but they don't have peace in their own heart. It's because of their self-righteousness or wrong frameworks in the personalities that they made with the truth. Just like Job before he went through the trials, such people pray hard and try to live by the Word, but they are not really able to do it through their love for God.
Instead, they do it with a nervous heart out of the fear of possible punishment that might come if they do not practice the truth. So, at some point in time if they do not act in the truth, they become depressed thinking they may receive punishment. So, though they diligently act in the truth, they feel burdened and their faith does not grow. They can enjoy true peace to the extent that they realize the love of God.
Also, there are some people who do not have peace with themselves because of the pessimistic frameworks of their thoughts. They try to diligently act in the truth, but if they don't get the satisfactory results they expect, they blame themselves and suffer in the heart. Such people have to become spiritual children.
They may have to receive punishment according to justice, or they may temporarily be held in lower esteem. Nevertheless, when a person is certain of God's love, then punishment can be received with joy and there is a sense of certainty in believing that God loves us and makes us perfect and though we are not perfect yet, we are trying to change.
We also have to trust in God that He will lift us up when we humble ourselves before Him. We should not be nervous desiring to be acknowledged by others, but instead we have to keep on storing up the deeds of truth with truthful hearts and deeds. This way, we can have peace with ourselves and spiritual confidence.
3. We have to have peace with everybody.
To have peace with everybody, above all, we must be able to sacrifice ourselves. To have peace we should not act unbecomingly or try to flaunt and boast of ourselves. We have to humble ourselves from the heart and lift others up. We shouldn't be biased, and at the same time given choices we should be able to accept either way within the truth. We should not think with the measure of our own faith but from the viewpoint of others.
Even though our opinion is correct or better, we should follow others' opinions unless they are untruth. To accomplish such peace, we have to sacrifice ourselves for others, even to the point of sacrificing our lives.
Next, to have peace with everybody, we must not insist on our self-righteousness and frameworks. Each person has different personalities. Each of us has received a different education and we have different measures of faith. So, all have a different standard of judging what is considered right or wrong and good or bad. If a married couple insists their own opinion in something like cleaning, they can't have peace. Peace can be established only when they think from the other's viewpoint and serve each other, not thinking from their own viewpoints.
Those who have peace with God and with themselves will not break peace with others. Because they must have already cast away their greed, arrogance, pride, and self-righteousness and frameworks, so they wouldn't quarrel with anybody. Even when others are evil and they cause troubles, these people would sacrifice themselves to finally make peace.
But during the process of accomplishing peace in this way, we can realize a couple of things. Sometimes, you do things that give them reasons for them to break peace, but you just don't realize it. Because of words or an inconsiderate act, you may unknowingly hurt the feelings of other people. Another thing you should think about is that true peace must be accomplished within the heart.
For example, if the other person does not serve you or recognize you, you feel resentful, but you may not express it outwardly. In some way you may reveal your sense of being persecuted. You just close your mouth fearing that you may have quarrels if you go on arguing. You just stop talking to that person looking down on that person thinking, "He is evil and so self-insistent that I cannot talk with him."
This way, you do not break peace outwardly, but you don't have good feelings towards that person. You cannot agree to his opinions, and you may even feel you don't want to be around him. You might even complain about him by talking to others about his shortcomings. Of course, it is better not to break peace in this way than to directly break peace.
But in order to have true peace, you have to serve others from the heart. You should not suppress it and still want to be served. You should have the willingness to serve and to seek the benefit of others. Only then can the Holy Spirit work. And they will be moved in heart and change.
Those who have peace with God, with themselves, and with everyone, have the authority to drive away darkness. As written in Matthew 5:9, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God," they have the authority of the children of God, the authority of the Light. For example, if you are a church leader, you can help the believers to bear the fruit of peace. Namely, you can feed them with the word of truth having authority and power, so they can depart from sins and break down their self-righteousness and frameworks. When synagogues of Satan are created that alienate people from one another, you can destroy them with the power of your word. This way, you can cause peace to be made among different persons.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus sacrificed Himself and died like a grain of wheat and bore countless fruits (John 12:24). Anyone can lead numerous souls to God if they resemble Jesus and sacrifice and serve to the point of death like He did.
I pray in the name of the Lord that you, as God's children who received the Holy Spirit, will bear the perfect fruit of peace, enjoy spiritual authority on the earth, and become precious persons in Heaven.
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