Peace … The Referee: Colossians 3:15-17
Peace ... The Referee:
Colossians 3:15-17
Peace as a Referee
Perhaps one of the most beautiful Bible verses is Colossians 3:15. It says, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.” Don’t we love this verse, especially in times of trouble when our world seems to be imploding. I want to explain a few things about this verse to make it even more beautiful and memorable.
Be filled with the deep serenity of Jesus. Let His calmness arbitrate against anxiety, fear, anger, loneliness to breathe in you a deep sense of ease and relaxation. Listen and be blessed.
Understand the Words
Peace – means calm, serenity, relaxed, truce, cessation, unity.
Peace of Christ – This Bible verse writes of the peace of Christ. Christ himself, living in us, is peaceful, calm and relaxed.
Rule – In Greek language means umpire, referee or judge.
Heart – In Greek thought the heart is considered to be what it is today, the emotional center of our being. The seat of affections and passions. Happiness, anxiety, infatuation, desire, sadness, anger, fear, detachment, betrayal, disgust, shock and all the other emotions, find their place in the heart. While emotions were created by God and never does the Bible condemn us for our feelings, since this is part of our human experience, we must also admit that our emotions can get the better of us. When left unchecked and without a judge, they take over and take us down many potentially dangerous paths.
Understand The Game
If you think of the peace of Christ like a referee and our heart like a playing field for any sport, then this begins to make sense. Our emotions can become like players who hit foul balls, or his step out of bounds, or I want to cheat. Then there is the knock on effect where an emotion like desire can create anxiety or fear or a sense of disgust. And we can find ourselves with the playing field full of emotions that are no longer playing the game fairly.
We need the peace of Christ himself to tell these emotions when they are out of bounds, or when they are engaging in other foul play. This keeps the game of our life from getting out of control.
This is interesting. The aim, the hope, the end result is that we live a life filled with the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Peace is meant to be a judge, a referee, or an arbitrator that brings calmness, serenity, a truce and unity in the area of our emotional life so that our emotions do not get the best of us.
Let It Happen
This is great to know isn’t it. So now is the time to let it be, to let it happen. Let the Lord Jesus Christ, who lives in you and who is full of peace, be the referee to blow the whistle, and call your emotions back into the game when they are attempting to get the best of you.
Blessings,
Rich
