Grace and Peace – Essentials for Right Now

Grace and peace are gifts from God that we are to share with everyone around us. But expressions of grace and peace are lacking from the church today.

We live in a time of conflict and division. Factions are publicly attacking each other. Words from the pulpit and the pew are too frequently words of condemnation and judgment instead of grace and peace. We have left the gospel of Jesus – the gospel of grace and peace – to pursue a cultural gospel of hostility towards those who don’t believe as we do. There is no biblical justification for such a departure.

What, then, are we to do?

Reexamining grace and peace

Grace

Grace is God’s favor that is freely given to those who believe and to those who do not believe. His grace is most completely expressed in the life of Jesus – and profoundly in his death and resurrection. That grace opened the door to the kingdom of heaven, where we can live and have fellowship with him.

Grace that is given to us daily is God’s continued provision for our lives for us to grow in our fellowship with him.

But like all gifts from God, they are not to be hoarded. They are to flow through our lives to the lives of those around us. Thus, just as God extended grace to us in order for us to experience his love, his forgiveness and his fellowship, we must extend grace to others. That grace is expressed in love and patience, in listening and compassion, in acceptance and understanding.

That grace is also to be extended to those who follow Jesus and those who don’t. This is exactly how God extends grace as well! Grace is not extended when we instead resort to judgmentalism, criticism, fault finding or the callous and reckless exercising of our right to speak our minds!

Peace

Peace is the absence of conflict but so much more. In fact, peace is God’s gift to us in the midst of conflict and storms! God’s peace transcends circumstances and empowers us to live in the most desperate of conditions. Peace thrives in persecution and opposition. Peace lives despite discouragement and struggle.

This peace is not just an internal condition we experience because of God’s presence in our lives, but it is also a gift that we are to use in all our relationships. So many times, we are told to be peacemakers and to live at peace with everyone.

Peaceful living means we don’t escalate conflict. Peaceful living means we seek common ground with those we disagree with. Within the church, there are many different tribes. Each one has unique ideas and perspectives which differ from the others. However, in essentials we are all the same. We are all following the same Jesus. We are Peter and John and Andrew, Paul and Apollos and Barnabas.

Not only do we seek peace within the church, but we also seek to live at peace with everyone. One way to help us live at peace with those who don’t believe or those who oppose what we believe is to remember that Jesus died for them as well. We have a ministry of reconciliation – a peace mission – to bring them into relationship with God. As with every effort of reconciliation, we don’t start with condemnation but understanding. We gain understanding not by pressing forward what we believe but by listening to what others believe.

God’s Spirit then guides us as we share the attitudes and words of grace and peace.

The last word

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 1:2 (ESV)

Grace and peace – Paul repeatedly gives this greeting. It is not random. It’s not just nice words. It is the reality of our relationship with God. Grace and peace are not just gifts to be received but gifts to be given. They reflect the nature of God and should also reflect our nature – given by God. They should flow through our lives like a never-ending stream.