“DOING AND PEACE”
Every Christian should enjoy the blessings that are in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). We often lift up our voices with the words, “blessed assurance”. The assurance we have in Christ Jesus should by all means bring joy to our hearts as find purpose in life by serving Him. The law of the Spirit is of life in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:2). That life is an abundance of life promised to us by Jesus, Himself (John 10:10). Men already enjoyed physical life. The Lord came to bring us to an abundance of life as to meaning. So many will live out their lives and never find the purpose or the meaning of life.
The assurance we have from God is that all things will work together for good (Romans 8:28). It is not a promise without conditions. The truth here is not that every single thing in life will always turn out the way we want it to. Rather the truth is that when this life is finished that all faithful Christians will enjoy eternity with God. The last part of verse twenty-eight speaks about those who are the called according to His purpose. The person arises from baptism being taught to seek those things that are above (Colossians 3:1). Life has purpose and it has meaning. My life finds both purpose and meaning in the person of Jesus the Christ.
Paul told the brethren at Philippi about areas wherein they had received instruction about the living of life (Philippians 4:9). He begins by saying the things which they had learned, received, had seen in him. If we reverse the order, they observed Paul’s life. They received what he had taught them and hence they learned about how to conduct their lives day by day. No matter how correct the teaching or how effective the teacher, at some point the student must accept what he is being taught. After having explained how they received all these things through these different avenues, Paul concludes by saying, “do”. It becomes the test of whether or not the faith of Jesus the Christ really works or not. If we do it, then we affirm by such actions that God’s way is right.
The person who hears what Jesus teaches and then refuses to so act, builds their life on “sinking sand” (Matthew 7:25,26). Luke began his work on the book of Acts by referring to all that Jesus began both to do and to teach (Acts 1:1). Those who are not willing to practice the will of God will find themselves sadly lacking in receiving the blessings that God intended for us to have. They, in effect, short change or short circuit the will of God and God ‘s desire to bless. James warns against the idea of being just a hearer and not a doer (James 1:22). Jesus in His explanation of the parable of the sower speaks of one kind of heart in which their failure to understand meant that Satan would come and steal the Word out of their heart before they could obey it (Matthew 13:19).
Those who receive the seed and cultivate it will reap the grand harvest of the blessings of God. Our Lord endured the shame of the cross by the joy that was set before Him (Hebrews 12:2). When we spend time, through study and application, to cultivate the Word our hearts receive the blessing. The writer of Hebrews declares that the Word of God is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart (Hebrews 4:12). We bring our hearts on a continual basis and allow our minds to stare into the perfect law of liberty (James 1:25). That law discerns what is taking place in our hearts as we apply it.
Here was one of the great blessings that Paul had revealed through inspiration. The blessing, according to the Philippians passage was that the God of peace would be with us. God promises us that He will never leave nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). The God of peace then will remain with us, no matter what the trial may be. If God is there, peace is there. How much money does the world spend daily in search of peace?
When we spend our lives doing the will of God then we have the assurance from God that He will be with us. When we do the will of God, peace is the blessing that flows from God to us. Many will never find peace. They want a religion that does not “do” but allows them to do what they want. Such actions may be many but it will never yield the fruit of peace. Peace comes when we do the will of God, daily.