Thoughts on the Spiritual Life - XXIV - H. C. G. Moule

Chapter vi continued, Part II.

The Christian’s Peace

As we turn to this delightful branch of the subject, let us read again the language of Phil. iv. 7: “The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep (lit., shall garrison) your hearts and minds, in Christ Jesus.” The harmony in contrast, of which I spoke in the first words of the chapter, is suggested, is explained, by that quotation. We have just been contemplating a battle-field, and its critical point, held by the Christian, assailed by his spiritual foes. We look at it, so to speak, from the outside, and it is a fort, an entrenchment, surrounded by a tide of battle. Here we are given a view of the interior, and we see its defender, its maintainer, amidst that angry tide, nevertheless in peace, kept in peace, garrisoned and sentinelled with peace. Occupying a position in its nature impregnable, and using weapons in their nature impenetrable and infallible, he stands, he resists, he engages the foe with the sword, yet in the strong tranquillity of the possession of advantage and the certainty of victory. Like Elisha in Dothan, he sees the Syrians, and knows that they are no vision of a dream, but formidable invaders, bent upon his mischief. But he sees also, with the eye of faith, a living circle of fortification and garrison between him and them; chariots and horses of fire; the peace of God, the God of peace.

To lay aside the military imagery, suggested probably in both places to St. Paul by the Roman soldiery with whom he was so long familiar – he was actually chained to a Pretorian when he wrote these words – the Philippian passage reminds us that the believer’s triumph in daily life over temptation, over the power of the enemy, is intended, in the plan of God, to be an experience full of peace. Fluctuations in success there may be. Nay, in the mysterious fact of our imperfection here, our imperfection of reception, there not only may but must be a falling “short of the glory of God,” occasions very many for profound and tender confession of sin. But this is no part of the plan of God. From the point of view of His provision, there is planned for us and offered to us nothing less than a continuous deliverance, a calm unbroken standing on the hill of victory, a long experience of peace passing understanding, keeping the heart and mind in Christ Jesus. “Change” in these things is not “our portion here,” in the sense of an allotment from above. What the external Shepherd prepares, apportions, and allots, is “a table, in the presence of our enemies.”

One of the most tranquil and happy deaths of which I have ever heard was that of a young English officer in one of the battles of the Soudan. He was struck by an Arab shot, and expired in the midst of the square, walled in by his men, while the savage assailants beat upon their ranks in vain; yielding up his soul there in the deliberate calm of faith to the Lord of Life. Some parable we may see in this of what may be the quiet intercourse with Jesus Christ enjoyed by the inmost heart of the Christian while temptation flies thickest around him, so that he meets it in and with the Lord. This chapter of the Epistle to the Philippians is full of suggestions in that direction. “In the Lord” is its key-note also, as well as that of the message to the Ephesians. “Stand fast in the Lord”; “be of the same mind in the Lord”; “rejoice in the Lord”; “the peace of God shall keep you in Christ Jesus.”