It would be a strange thing for a mother to set her daughter loose in a mud pit, but warn her that she must not let her clothes get dirty. It would be a strange thing for a father to instruct his son to ford a river, but warn him that he must not let his feet get wet. Yet when we come to God in repentance and faith, when we joyfully surrender our lives to him, he gives us that kind of challenge.

God asks us to live in a chaotic and tumultuous world, but to have hearts that are peaceful and calm. Having found peace with God, we are to be at peace with our fellow man. And not only that, we are to spread that peace—to leave behind us a trail of love and goodness and kindness. “Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way,” says Paul, and “let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.” With that peace reigning within, we are to “strive for peace with everyone,” for “God has called us to peace”—to always and ever “pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.”
This is no small challenge. This is no small challenge because every day we encounter situations that threaten to rob us of our peace, contexts in which the uproar around us threatens to cause an uproar within. We see people behaving badly and long to respond in kind. We have people turn on us and feel the longing to retaliate. We grieve, we suffer, we face trial and persecution, and through it all find temptations toward despondency, despair, discord.
Yet the Christ who cried out to the storm and bid it cease its raging is the same Christ who whispers to our very souls to say, “Peace, be still.” As the storm had no right to rage when Christ had told it to be calm, our hearts have no right to rage when he has spoken his words of peace. As Christ had the power to command the storm, he has the power to command his people. He has the power to command you and me.
So let your heart and mind be always calm and submissive before God, always content in his providence. As God’s people were to allow no chore to interrupt the peace of their day of rest, you must allow no tumult to interrupt the peace within your heart. As Jesus was meek before God and man, so must you be.
When your heart is at peace, so too can be your hands, your feet, and your mouth. In times of difficulty, then, display in your outward demeanor the peace that rules within. In even the most taxing of all circumstances, let there be a serenity upon your face, a forbearing tone to your voice, a gentleness to your touch. Be more willing to suffer wrong than to break peace, more willing to endure long trials with meekness than to shorten trials through sinfulness. Tread softly through the world, speaking kindly and gently, never expressing the least note of cantankerousness or irritability. Pursue peace with friends and enemy alike.
You can do all of this and more when the peace of Christ is ruling you from within. At the close of each day, you can rest content in God, casting all your cares and anxieties upon him and resting in his sweet comfort. Then, when you awaken, you can once again embark on the very same God-given mission. And in that way, day by day and bit by bit, you will blanket the sorrows and troubles of this earth with the precious peace of God. You will be at peace, thus proving that the God of love and peace is with you and in you.

Inspired by Blessed Are Ye by F.B. Meyer

This week the blog is sponsored by Zondervan Reflective.
This excerpt from The NIV Application Commentary on the Bible: One-Volume Edition explains the original meaning of Paul’s words in Romans 8:31-39 and shows how his message can apply to our lives today. We begin with words from the Apostle Paul:
31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”[a]
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[b] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:31-39, New International Version)
Original Meaning
The Work of God for Us in Christ (8:31–34). Paul here launches into a new direction with a question. “These things” (v. 31) refers to the many reasons for our confidence that Paul has rehearsed in chapters 5–8. All those reasons can be neatly summed up in one statement: God is “for us” (v. 31). Who, then, Paul rightly asks, can be “against us?” Of course, we know many people and things still oppose us. But Paul’s point is that with God on our side, none of this opposition ultimately matters.
Christ not only defends us but loves us and enters into relationship with us, and nothing will ever separate us from that love.Share
Verse 32 reinforces Paul’s point. God’s being “for us” is seen climactically in his giving of his beloved Son. If he has done that, we can be certain he will also give us “all things”—or, to put it in the terms of verse 31, nothing can ultimately oppose us.
“Bring [a] charge” (v. 33) is the first of several judicial terms. Again, Paul’s point is not that nothing will ever try to prosecute us in the court of God’s justice. But the prosecution will be unsuccessful, for God has chosen us to be his and has justified us already. Paul alludes at this point to Isaiah 50:8–9.
Verse 34 provides more evidence for the same point. No one can successfully condemn us because Christ has died for us and has been raised to life to be our intercessor before the Father. With such a defense attorney, it is no wonder the prosecution loses its case!
The Love of God for Us in Christ (8:35–39). The question at the beginning of verse 35 sets the tone for verses 35–39 by introducing Christ’s love into the picture. Christ not only defends us but loves us and enters into relationship with us, and nothing will ever separate us from that love. To make sure we get the point, Paul specifies some threats at the end of verse 35. As a comparison with 2 Corinthians 11:26–27 and 12:10 reveals, Paul himself has gone through most of these. He has learned by experience that they cannot disrupt his relationship with Christ.
The quotation of Psalm 44:22 in verse 36 is a bit of a detour in the logic of Paul’s argument. But the detour reveals two of his key concerns: to remind us that suffering is a natural and expected part of the Christian life, and to root the experiences of Christians in the experience of God’s old-covenant people.
With verse 37, Paul returns to the main line of his teaching in verse 35. In all the varied difficulties of life, we are “more than conquerors.” Paul concludes his celebration of God’s love for us in Christ with his own personal testimony: “I am convinced . . .” (vv. 38–39). There is nothing in all the world—whether we are dead or alive, whether they are things we now face or things we will face in the future, whether they are above us or below us—that can separate us from the “love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (v. 39). As the chapter began with “no condemnation” (8:1), so it ends with the bookends of “no separation” (8:35, 39).
Application. Paul’s emphatic assertion that no spiritual being can separate us from Christ is needed in the church today. We need to recognize and proclaim that God in Christ has won a victory over the “powers and authorities” (Col 2:15) and that they have no power to keep us from inheriting the salvation God has promised to all who love him. Nothing on earth can separate us from God’s love for us in Christ, and neither can anything in heaven.
Read more like this in the The NIV Application Commentary on the Bible, a masterful blend of content written by today’s top academics in a way that is compelling and easy to understand for anyone–no formal training or seminary degree required. Now on sale!

May the Lord be with you and bless you today.
(Yesterday on the blog: Who’s Afraid of the Teenage Years?)

I have been intrigued by Rhys Laverty’s writing on providing a pastor a “family wage.” I continue to think through whether or not I agree with him (and perhaps especially so in a location as expensive as Toronto). But am glad to have the opportunity to ponder it.

Is Satan bound or is Satan the ruler of this world? It’s a great question and Derek Thomas, W. Robert Godfrey, and Sinclair Ferguson all answer in slightly different ways in this video from Ligonier.

“I think about heaven a lot. When I’m sad because I’m watching a loved one’s body break down, or because human impact on the environment brings destruction and death, I look to what I know about heaven. In heaven, we will be given new bodies and will inhabit a new earth. One thing will not be made new? Our marriages. The cliché is, ‘it’s a match made in heaven.’ However, in reality, every match made on earth will be unmade in heaven.”

There are few passages more difficult than “she will be saved through childbearing.” Mitch Chase takes it on here and offers a good interpretation. “Peter once wrote that there are ‘some things’ in Paul’s letters “that are hard to understand” (2 Pet. 3:16), and 1 Timothy 2:15 would surely be among ‘some things.’ Paul’s words in 1 Timothy 2:15 comprise one of the most difficult verses in the whole New Testament.” Indeed.

Samuel James explains why many common arguments against using pornography may not help much as the industry inevitably migrates to the heavy use of AI. (I still think those arguments are good and important, but he’s right that they will need to change alongside the technology.)

“Expressing gratitude is a joy-producing practice. As Christians, we can start by acknowledging that everything we have and are, from each breath we take to our salvation in Christ and every blessing in between, big or small, are gifts from our gracious heavenly Father (Ephesians 1:3). Then, we can be intentional about recognizing the good gifts others give us, both the material and relational, tangible and intangible.”

Paul Grimmond…lays out seven features of our modern Western context that impact dating in profound ways.

I flee for shelter to the blood of Jesus. I will live to Him; I will die to Him. I take heaven and earth to witness that all I am and all I have are His.
—Ebenezer Erskine