Let the Peace of Christ Rule in Your Hearts

By Hayley Boud

 

Colossians 3:12-15New International Version (NIV)

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved,

clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  

And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.   

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,

since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful”.

 

Colossians 3:12-15New American Standard Bible (NASB)

^“So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved,

put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience;

bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.

Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,

to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful”.

 

God has given us a gift of peace that this world doesn’t have.  It’s a gift that only God can give us but we can choose to let it rule in our hearts or we can choose to not let it rule. 

 

What does it mean to rule?

1.      One of a set of explicit or understood regulations or principles governing conduct or procedure within a particular area of activity.

2.      Exercise ultimate power or authority over (an area and its people).

3.      An accepted principal/instruction that states the way things are or should be donean ​ and tells you what you are allowed and not allowed to do.

 

We have the Word of God that is our accepted instruction that states the way things are and states the way we should do things and helps us to understand what we are allowed and not allowed to do.  Reading verses 12-14 helps us to see what these instructions are.  We have to let these have the ultimate power and authority over us. 

 

These instructions are to put on:

1.      A heart of compassion

2.      Kindness

3.      Humility

4.      Gentleness

5.      Patience

6.      Forgiveness

7.      Love

8.      Thankfulness

 

So, if we want peace in our lives, then we have to put on all of these.  When someone hurts you, put on compassion.  When someone annoys you, put on kindness.  When someone disappoints you, put on forgiveness.  When someone angers you, put on patience and gentleness.  When someone discourages you, put on love and thankfulness.  Not always easy but this is how to have peace ruling in our lives. 

What does it mean to be compassionate?

1.      Sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others. 

2.      A response to the sufferings of others that motivates a desire to go out of your way to help

 

On Sunday, Odon talked about Colleen and a dream he had regarding her ex-boss.  Colleen was treated badly by this woman but in Odon’s dream, this lady had to come to Colleen and ask for a job.  What awesome revenge!  How good would that feel?  If it were me, I would take my revenge and make her feel worse.  But, if we are to let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts, we have to be compassionate.  We have to go out of our way to help the person, even though they have hurt us.  Seems like that would make me lose peace not keep peace.  Yet, the truth is, when we are compassionate towards others, we gain peace and when we are cruel, we lose peace.

 

What does it mean to be kind?

1.      Wine mellowed with age is the same word used to describe kindness

When someone makes us angry, do we also rise up with anger and answer back with anger?  Or are we mellow like an old wine that has mellowed with age?  It’s hard to be kind when people are so unkind to us but if we want to keep the peace that God has given to us, we have to be kind.  We have to be extra, extra kind sometimes.  People can be rude for no reason but if we answer back rudely, we will lose our peace.  If we answer with extra kindness, we will keep our peace and that person will learn how to be kind also. 

 

Humility

Can you give examples of when pride took over, or when pride started to take a place and then you humbled yourself (or someone/thing humbled you). 

Last week, my boss told me to write a letter and he dictated a sentence which I added to the letter.  When he reviewed the letter, he told me to remove a particular word from that sentence (that he had dictated) saying the word was too emotive.  Then, he added that very word to another sentence later in the letter in writing.  I went back and made the amendments to the letter.  He reviewed it one more time and said, “remove that word, it’s too emotive”.  The word that he had dictated and then wrote down.  I felt like saying, “you’re the one who wrote it” but then decided it was best to be humble and accept to be wrong – even though it wasn’t me who was wrong.  I didn’t want to start an argument or make my boss think I don’t respect him, so I took the blame on me to keep the peace.

 

Sometimes, we will face that, we have to accept others to accuse us and we feel the pride rising up and we want to defend ourselves, but it’s better just to keep quiet.  Sometimes we can say something, if it is with a good tone and attitude but sometimes it is better just to accept to be wrong, even when we are right.

 

A good verse to remember when we feel pride rising up is, “humble yourself, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He might exalt you at the proper time” 1 Peter 5:6.

If only I could do that every time.  Two days after thinking I was awesome for not letting pride get the better of me with my boss, I let myself down at home.  Odon was doing the dishes and I was very grateful so I said thank you very much for doing them.  He said, “you should thank Bertila for vacuuming”.  Pride rose up because I don’t need to be reminded like a child to thank people, of course I know how to thank people and of course I would thank Bertila.  Instead of being humble and saying, “definitely, I will, I’m very grateful to Bertila for her help”, I said, “You don’t have to tell me how to thank people, I always say thank you but no one ever says thank you to me” and then I went on and listed all the things I do without getting thanked.  Shame on me!  After I finished talking, I felt so ashamed of myself.  Where was my humility?

 

It wasn’t that I expect to be thanked, I just thought that if Odon is reminding me to say thank you, then he should remind the kids to say thank you to me for everything I do.  On one hand, that is probably true – we all need to be thanked and appreciated but on the other hand, I should be humble and wait for the mighty hand of God to exalt me at that the proper time. 

So, the moral of the story…let’s remember that we don’t always have to be right or acknowledged.  If we are humble, we won’t mind if people blame us or say things we know are not correct – we will just wait for God to exalt us at the right time.

 

The verse also says to keep peace ruling in our hearts, we also need to be gentle, patient, forgiving, loving and thankful.  Let's keep this in mind when we feel we are losing peace.  We usually feel that it's someone else's fault when we lose our peace (someone offends us or doesn't do what they promised to do or they annoy us). Let's be patient with one another and answer with gentle kind words, forgiving each other and let's be thankful for one another.