Peace is, first of all, a reconciled relationship with God through Christ, and second, a life lived in continual dependence on God in the power of the Spirit. In the spirit of Paul’s words to the Galatians, we can lead our people in living in an orbit of grace, freedom, and loving service: “You were called to freedom, brothers. … through love serve one another” (5:13).

Our world is full of strife yet desperate for peace. There are volatile international conflicts. There are student protests, political dissensions, and challenges in our churches and families. Is there any way out? “But the fruit of the Spirit is … peace” (Gal. 5:22).

Strife in Galatia

Slightly earlier in the Galatian letter, Paul exhorts, “But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. But I say, walk by the Spirit …” (5:15).

The apostle pens the entire letter in the context of strife and division. He starts out, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel” (1:6) and twice calls down a curse on his opponents (1:8, 9).

He even recounts a sharp conflict with Peter, whom he “opposed … to his face, because he stood condemned,” having briefly followed that other gospel (2:11).

Paul, for his part, asserts that he lives “by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” and does not “nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose” (2:20–21).

Any effort at self-justification—any human striving and moral living apart from the enabling grace of God and the power of the Spirit—will miserably fail. Such a misguided disposition can lead only to strife and division.

The fruit of the Spirit, on the other hand, is peace.

Peace Comes Only through the Gospel

As pastors, we have the privilege of extolling the radical and liberating message of the gospel. Without any contribution on our part, Jesus died on the cross for our sins so that God can justify us—declare us righteous—on the basis of what Jesus, the Son of God, did for us.

The answer to all global, local, and internal conflict lies only in the gospel.

Read More