LIFE ON THE VINE:
CULTIVATING PEACE

Fruit of the Spirit Love Joy Peace Patience Kindness Goodness Faithfulness Gentleness Self-Control

Star Fruit, Carambola - Origin unknown, but probably native to Malaysia, Indonesia and Southern China. The star fruit has never been located in the wild.

The Rare Fruit of the Spirit: Peace
When we strive for the fruit of the spirit that is love and joy we strive for the wonderful, God-grown variety. We accept no substitutes and we are aware that there are cheapened, weakened, less wholesome varieties of love and joy that are not produced by the Holy Spirit.
However, peace is different. Peace is just simply a rare fruit. We are not accustomed to its taste or its presence. When we see it, it seems so strange and out of place. But when we taste it we know that it is good. And when we cultivate it in our life together we realize that the fruit of the spirit that is peace is truly a gift from God because it doesn’t grow naturally or “wild” in the soil of our world.

We tend to define peace as the absence of something: The absence of war, conflict, stress, fear, noise. Consider why we do that: Because we are not used to the alternative that peace is actually something positive and war, conflict, stress, fear, and noise are actually the absence of peace. But peace is more than absence of negative elements. It is the presences of something very good. It may be more accurate to say that the negative elements are the absence of peace. In the Hebrew, this present peace is known as shalom. It is something real and it involves relationships. We see it at the creation ... Creation – “It was good and very good” – But in a corrupted world we don’t recognize the “shalom of God” ...
Christ’s mission is to restore that shalom ... The world vs. Christ – John 14 – Christ gives peace, but the world gives ...
Why is it difficult to cultivate peace? [What does the world give?]

Our world and culture are fragmented: We are fragmented in so many ways.

• In order to live with one another we require rules and boundaries. “Good fences make good neighbors.” Our politics assume fragmentation and conflict. We accept so easily the reality of “us and them.” We are comfortable with “our kind of people” but concerned or fearful of “those kind of people.” So we maintain boundaries (some subtle and some obvious) that keep all kinds of people apart – we say it is to avoid conflict. The rules and boundaries we live with do not create peace - but they do limit chaos and conflict.
• We divide our lives into public and private worlds. It seems so second-nature and it is understandable that there must be boundaries to respect privacy, but what happens when these two worlds and two selves are at odds? The greater the difference between our private self and our public self, the less peace we enjoy.
• We divide our world into the religious and the secular. And we make absolutely certain that they do not overlap. Now if we believe that peace is a gift of God, and God is contained to the religious world, then how much peace will there be in the secular? Faith is privatized so we make many private choices, but we do not realize how they are connected to community or to the rule of God.

Our world and culture and polarized:
Our culture wants to force us to take extreme positions. Examples: Red States vs. Blue States. Liberal vs. Conservative. There are absolutes, but these do not demand that we are polarized from others. We are in the world though not of the world.

Our world and culture are compartmentalized: Our world and culture compartmentalizes life by setting up different expectations in different settings. This calls for different rules. One set of rules and expectations at home. One set of rules and expectations at work/school. One set of rules and expectations in church. This confusion keeps us from peace which is a result of submitting to the rule of God.
Can we recognize the problem? A compartmentalized life challenges our allegiances. Strangely, we only know peace when we are so devoted to God that our allegiance is undivided. No compromises are made in any other area of our lives.
Through history, the martyrs have peace because their allegiance is not divided. The ethics of our culture would have advised persecuted Christians in the late first century to go ahead and make an offering to the altar of the emperor. After all, it is just politics and isn’t really your faith. But they didn’t compartmentalize their lives like we do. And so many who would not worship the emperor and call him “Lord and God” where executed. Foolish? Perhaps by the standards of our culture, but that devotion was built on peace given by the true Lord and God and the martyrs gave witness to a faith that outlasted their persecutors.

How to Cultivate Peace

1. Live Under the Rule of God. Shalom, the real Peace of God is something positive not just an absence. It is more than an attitude. Shalom/peace is a way of life. Well-being, wholeness and harmony that characterizes all relationships: with one another, with the world and with God. Shalom is what we can expect when we live under the Rule of God. Because Christ is our Lord, we ought to review our structures of power (Mark 10) - We do not lord it over one another

2. Pursue peace with one another - Philippians 4:8-9. Remember that what God wants above all is for his people to live together in whole healthy relationships. We are instruments of his peace.

3. Practice Forgiveness and Accountability
   When we admonish one another and forgive one another it is not about exacting authority over them; it is about promoting well being and wholeness. When we pursue forgiveness and accountability, conflict can lead to peace!
   Accountability must always follow forgiveness. The accountability is an accountability to live worthy of our salvation and not cheapen it. All of us are both debtors and lenders in the kingdom that is what it means to be a kingdom of priests. So we are holding one another accountable. Here's a suggestion on how we proceed with accountability: Since it is just not practical for us to go around forcing others to be accountable to us, let us give others permission to examine our lives. Let’s make ourselves accountable.

4. Remember your Baptism (Romans 6:3-6) - Added to Body of Christ – we are not fragmented! We are given a foretaste of shalom in the body of Christ (Acts).

Chris Benjamin

West-Ark Church of Christ, Fort Smith, AR
Morning Sermon, 9 October 2005

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