Colossians 3:15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also you are called in one body; and be you thankful. The various reading "peace of Christ" is not only recommended by MS. authority, but has the advantage of bringing the expression into connection with the great words of our Lord, "Peace I leave you," etc. A strange legacy left at a strange moment. It was but an hour or so since He had been "troubled in spirit" as He thought of the betrayer — and in an hour more He would be beneath the olives of Gethsemane; and yet even at such a time He bestows on His friends some share in His deep repose of spirit. Surely the "peace of Christ" must mean what "My peace" meant: not only the peace which He gives, but the peace which lay like a great calm on the sea on His own deep heart, and we must not restrict it to mutual concord. When He gave us His peace He gave us some share in that meek submission of will to His Father's will, and in that stainless purity, which were its chief elements. The hearts and lives of men are made troubled not by circumstances, but by themselves. Whoever can keep his own will in harmony with God's enters into rest. Even if within and without are fightings, there may be a central peace. Christ's peace was the result of the perfect harmony of His nature. All was co-operant to one great purpose; desires and passions did not war with conscience and reason, nor did the flesh lust against the spirit. Though that complete uniting of all our inner selves is not attained on earth, yet its beginnings are given us by Christ, and in Him we may be at peace with ourselves, and have one great ruling power binding all our conflicting desires in one, as the moon draws after her the heaped waters of the sea. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. |
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