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And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:7
Reflect
One of the names for Jesus is the “Prince of Peace,” and the term is commonly used by people in their efforts to pursue peace in the world. After all, if Jesus is all about peace then he definitely wants people to be at peace with one another, right?
So often, we make the mistake of assigning our human definitions to spiritual terms and situations. This is one of those times. God definitely wants peace, but He wants it on His terms. Peace among men ultimately comes when mankind is also at peace with God. And that explains why there isn’t more peace in the world. Look around and you’ll definitely notice that the world wants peace on its terms and not on God’s.
There is perhaps no better example of this than an exchange that began to take place on this day in 1938. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, concerned about the unraveling situation in Europe, wrote to German Chancellor Adolf Hitler to encourage him to pursue a peaceful resolution with Czechoslovakia. Hitler was threatening to invade the country as part of the Sudetenland, seeing it as part of Germany’s historic lands. Hitler implied that once he restored Germany’s historic territory, he would be finished. And he assured Roosevelt that he had no desire to pursue another war in Europe.
Clearly, Hitler was not telling the truth. Shunning the world’s hopes for peace, within six months, Germany invaded Czechoslovakia and followed with an invasion of Poland in September 1939. It was almost a modern fulfillment of Jeremiah 6:14-15:
‘Peace, peace,’ they say,
when there is no peace.
Are they ashamed of their detestable conduct?
No, they have no shame at all;
they do not even know how to blush.
In Jeremiah’s time, the false prophets assured God’s people that the Lord was still happy with them and that everything was fine when, in fact, he was extremely displeased with their sins. In 1938, Hitler assured the world that everything was fine and that he wanted the same peace that they did. But just seven years later, his promised peace had instead evolved into a world war that killed 75 million people, including the extermination of 6 million Jews.
That’s just one example, and there are so many others. Currently, there are about 20 ongoing wars around the world and another 25 or so violent conflicts. The world talks a good game about peace, and there’s even a ceremony every year in Sweden celebrating the person who has been the most instrumental in pursuing world peace. And while the Nobel Prize is a wonderful thing, man’s efforts at achieving peace will never be fully successful until we have acknowledged the need for all people to be at peace with God.
Paul reminded us of this in Philippians when he said that, “…the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” He said that we should pursue things that are honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent and praiseworthy. And he said that when we have engaged in those things that, “the God of peace will be with you.”
It’s not wrong to desire world peace, and it’s understandable when we see people stressed and unsettled because of the abundance of turmoil around the globe. But true peace will only come when each of us individually makes peace with God. If you want to see peace in the world, make sure you start with a pursuit of peace with the Lord in your own life—and encourage those around you to pursue that same peace. “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Reflection copyright © 2025 Doug DeBolt.
