TRANSCENDENT PEACE

I have a hazy memory of a song we sang at church when I was growing up—or it might have been how this verse was quoted from an older translation by a longtime church member who knew it so well. It talked about the “peace of God which passeth all understanding” (KJV), and I remember trying to work out how peace could pass—or give—understanding to us. It was a language puzzle for my young mind. Only when I read it for myself and in a more contemporary translation did the meaning of the older language click into place.

Paul was not talking about ordinary peace, but peace that comes from God and surpasses our understanding, or “which exceeds anything we can understand” (Philippians 4:7, NLT). In one sense, Paul was actually describing peace that we would be unable to understand, peace that would make no sense if we were to look only at our context or circumstances. For Paul, writing from imprisonment in Rome, God was the source of peace to whom he could commit his worries, to whom he could pray, and in whom he could rejoice (see Philippians 4:6). And this was what he hoped for the Philippian believers to whom he was writing.

But, in another sense, perhaps my youthful misunderstanding was not so wrong. Paul explained to his readers that this peace of God would guard their hearts and minds in Jesus. Rather than being overwhelmed by the worries and fears that would be pushed at them from life and the world around them, the peace of God would allow them to think and understand, love and serve with strength and courage. God’s peace will allow us to live without being afraid, overwhelmed, or anxious; it will help us make sense of our lives in new ways.