A Definition:
Peace
The Hebrew word shalom has usually been translated into English as “peace.” But the meaning of shalom goes far beyond the narrow attributes Webster gives to this word. He describes peace as a state of tranquility, freedom from civil disturbances and harmony in personal relations. James Metzler’s definition of shalom goes much further:
- Saying shalom purposefully means to offer a peace treaty, a pledge to live for the other’s well-being, a covenant to desire and seek the good life of God’s favor together.
So peace, as translated from the biblical shalom, is not merely an absence of civil disturbances but an active pursuit of the well-being of others. It finds its expression in a sharing and caring community.
It's Source or Origin:
The source for Shalom is God (Jehovah Shalom) Himself. It enters human consciousness and experience through our communion or interaction with God Himself. Like love, it must be learned through the experience of receiving it solely on the basis of grace (freely & without merit), and because of the benevolence of the Father and the legal basis of the Son's atoning blood.
You cannot love absolutely until you have experienced unconditional absolute love. Neither can you live in Shalom with yourself or others until peace has been established between your heart and your source of origin, who is God. All sin and injustice is a lack of Shalom. Shalom is harmony, wholeness, completeness, because fear has been surrendered to love.
"He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near." - Eph.2:17 -
I. In Is.53:4-9 we are given a portrait of the ministry of Christ to realize Shalom on earth in
human hearts.
Isaiah 53:4-9 (New King James Version)
Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. 4 Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment,
And who will declare His generation?
For He was cut off from the land of the living;
For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.
9 And they[a] made His grave with the wicked—
But with the rich at His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was any deceit in His mouth.
Footnotes: Isaiah 53:9 Literally he or He
This parallels the life a believer in Christ is called to.
1 Peter 2:20-22 (New King James Version)
20 For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. 21 For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps:22 “ Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth”.
A) The Believer is called to the same Way or Walk, and to carry the same Cross as Jesus did.
This is the nature of conversion & discipleship. To gain His inner life and quality of
relationship towards the Father, we must embrace the Way of Life that He embraced.
Anything less is self-delusion!
B) The Way of Christ is the Way of Shalom or wholeness through the receiving and giveing of love
as revealed in the Old and New Testaments. We receive love and are commanded to love as
we have been loved. Shalom also communicates the concept of Wholeness, both personal,
relational, and social. It is expressed as interconnectedness or "Body" or Koinonea /
fellowship (Community in communion).
II. What does the Cross mean in the call to Discipleship?
A) There are at least four types of suffering in life.
1. The suffering that results from the violation of the Law of Sowing and Reaping. The
consequence of our actual belief system and actions. We harvest what we sow. If you wish to change the future, you must therefore change what you sow in the present.
2. Suffering is also experienced by all because we live as mortals in a non-utopian or fallen Creation. This suffering
might include sickness, tragedy, natural disasters etc. There is no "blame" or direct responsibility here. However human history and collective experience witnesses to the reality that healing, protection, and provision may be accessed on a far more real level by humanity theough a trusting living relationship with God.
3. Suffering for righteousness sake. Justice, and the voice calling for justice, will always
draw the persecution of those who stand to gain from injustice. Here, especially at the conclusin of the beatitudes in Matt.5, Jesus promises persecution as His people clash with the status quo values and seek to change them.
4. Suffering because of Divine Judgment. Though offensive to our modern sensibilities,
Jesus revealed a God who does judge rightly. Therefore either in this life or the next we
will experience judgment. Such an experience is not always guaranteed to be pleasant.
Even the shattering of our most prized illusions, will cause us sorrow, even though such
action is meant for our enlightenment and healing. One description of Heaven speaks of God drying every tear there. This implies that we will weep as we enter the revelation of all truth and reality. However it is our illusions which most wound us!
B) What the Cross meant for Jesus.
1. It was the cost of obedient love to the Father's will in a rebellious and illusionary world.
2. It meant suffering for doing what is right, for loving where others hated, for representing
in the flesh the forgiveness and righteousness of God in a world less forgiving or righteous.
3. The Cross represents God's method of overcoming evil with good.
4. "Taking up the Cross" implies learning His Way of obedience to the Father.
C) The "Cross" liberates us to become another life yielded to the Father's Word /Will.
1. The True Self can only emerge where the False Self dies.
2. The Cross represents the choice of love over fear.
3. Choice of Brotherhood & Community over individualism.
4. Choice of obedient service over private ambition.
5. Choice of laying down life to cosmically defeat evil. Evil is overcome by the presence of
good Matt.5:39-45.
Matthew 5:39-45 (New King James Version)
40 If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also.
41 And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two.
42 Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.
Love Your Enemies
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’
44But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,
45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.
III. Christian Community is the visible sign of the invisible Kingdom in human hearts. It is in the words of Moltman, " The presence of the Future".
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