Human Peace, Inhuman Peace

For me, the whole atheist-to-Christian thing was more of a what-fell-out-of-the-box kind of musing than anything.

I learned things just in the process of getting it down–about why people have the arguments they do, and why they say the things they do. I’m familiar with the debate over assigned moral values, over morality from emotional and/or societal basis versus morality inherent and whether the ideas have relationships or even exist in the real world.

I laughed. I cried. It moved me, Bob.

~Larry the Cucumber

So when I went to dive back into Philippians, the first thing I noticed was the nature of peace–not just as a sentiment or sensation, nor a state of intellectual quietude, nor merely a declarative spiritual condition. (Working my way through Philippians repeatedly, using the Galatians fruit as a study angle. Joy is back here.)

From my notes:

1:2 Peace is directly from God.

1:14 Peace causes fearless behaviour.

1:19 Peace causes confidence in God, regardless of how things go wrong.

1:19-20 Peace leads to blamelessness.

1:28 Peace causes steadfastness in suffering.

1:30 Peace and internal conflict can co-exist.

2:5-11 FOR HE HIMSELF IS OUR PEACE. (Eph. 2:14)

2:14 Peace radiates into relationships.

3:8-14 Peace co-exists with suffering and striving.

4:2 Peace shouldn’t be forgotten simply because of suffering and striving.

4:6-7 Peace is found in honesty with God.

4:7 Peace guards us. We don’t guard it.

4:9 Peace connects us to the God who defines and provides it.

4:11-12 Peace is independent of circumstance, and produces emotional contentedness.

And I’m thinking, the only thing that really defines this “peace,” as described here, is a moral state. A state of cleanness from sin. A state of uninhibited access to God due to His Spirit’s working of regeneracy. A state of certainty in and with the Creator.

Something completely different from the human sensibility of peace.

Good thing for us broken machines.