Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 14:27

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

27. Peace I leave with you ] “Finally the discourse returns to the point from which it started. Its object had been to reassure the sorrowful disciples against their Lord’s departure, and with words of reassurance and consolation it concludes. These are thrown into the form of a leave-taking or farewell.” S. p. 226. ‘Peace I leave with you’ is probably a solemn adaptation of the conventional form of taking leave in the East: comp. ‘Go in peace,’ Jdg 18:6 ; 1Sa 1:17; 1Sa 20:42; 1Sa 29:7 ; 2Ki 5:19; Mar 5:34, &c. See notes on Jas 2:16 and 1Pe 5:14. The Apostle of the Gentiles perhaps purposely substitutes in his Epistles ‘ Grace be with you all’ for the traditional Jewish ‘Peace.’

my peace I give unto you ] ‘My’ is emphatic; this is no mere conventional wish. Comp. Joh 16:33, Joh 20:19; Joh 20:21; Joh 20:26. The form of expression, peace that is mine, is common in this Gospel. Comp. the joy that is mine (Joh 3:29, Joh 15:11, Joh 17:13); the judgment that is mine (Joh 5:30, Joh 8:16); the commandments that are mine (Joh 14:15); the love that is mine (Joh 15:10).

not as the world giveth ] It seems best to understand ‘as’ literally of the world’s manner of giving, not of its gifts, as if ‘as’ were equivalent to ‘what.’ The world gives from interested motives, because it has received or hopes to receive as much again (Luk 6:33-34); it gives to friends and withholds from enemies (Mat 5:43); it gives what costs it nothing or what it cannot keep, as in the case of legacies; it pretends to give that which is not its own, especially when it says ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace (Jer 6:14). The manner of Christ’s giving is the very opposite of this. He gives what is His own, what He might have kept, what has cost Him a life of suffering and a cruel death to bestow, what is open to friend and foe alike, who have nothing of their own to give in return.

Let not your heart be troubled ] See on Joh 14:1. Was He not right in giving them this charge? If He sends them another Advocate, through whom both the Father and He will ever abide with them, if He leaves them His peace, what room is there left for trouble and fear?

The word for ‘be afraid’ is frequent in the LXX. but occurs nowhere else in the N.T. ‘ Be fearful ’ is the literal meaning.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Peace I leave with you – This was a common form of benediction among the Jews. See the notes at Mat 10:13. It is the invocation of the blessings of peace and happiness. In this place it was, however, much more than a mere form or an empty wish. It came from Him who had power to make peace and to confer it on all, Eph 2:15. It refers here particularly to the consolations which he gave to his disciples in view of his approaching death. He had exhorted them not to be troubled Joh 14:1, and he had stated reasons why they should not be. He explained to them why he was about to leave them; he promised them that he would return; he assured them that the Holy Spirit would come to comfort, teach, and guide them. By all these truths and promises he provided for their peace in the time of his approaching departure. But the expression refers also, doubtless. to the peace which is given to all who love the Saviour. They are by nature enmity against God, Rom 8:7. Their minds are like the troubled sea, which cannot rest, whose waters east up mire and dirt, Isa 57:20. They were at war with conscience, with the law and perfections of God, and with all the truths of religion. Their state after conversion is described as a state of peace. They are reconciled to God; they acquiesce in all his claims; and they have a joy which the world knows not in the word, the promises, the law, and the perfections of God, in the plan of salvation, and in the hopes of eternal life. See Rom 1:7; Rom 5:1; Rom 8:6; Rom 14:7; Gal 5:22; Eph 2:17; Eph 6:15; Phi 4:7; Col 3:15.

My peace – Such as I only can impart. The special peace which my religion is fitted to impart.

Not as the world –

1. Not as the objects which men commonly pursue – pleasure, fame, wealth. They leave care, anxiety, remorse. They do not meet the desires of the immortal mind, and they are incapable of affording that peace which the soul needs.
2. Not as the men of the world give. They salute you with empty and flattering words, but their professed friendship is often reigned and has no sincerity. You cannot be sure that they are sincere, but I am.
3. Not as systems of philosophy and false religion give. They profess to give peace, but it is not real. It does not still the voice of conscience; it does not take away sin; it does not reconcile the soul to God.
4. My peace is such as meets all the wants of the soul, silences the alarms of conscience, is fixed and sure amid all external changes, and will abide in the hour of death and forever. How desirable, in a world of anxiety and care, to possess this peace! and how should all who have it not, seek that which the world can neither give nor take away!

Neither let it be afraid – Of any pain, persecutions, or trials. You have a Friend who will never leave you; a peace that shall always attend you. See Joh 14:1.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Joh 14:27

Peace I leave with you

The legacy of legacies

The Earl of Dundonald fought with his solitary ship a line of formidable forts in South America, whose fire proved so raking that his men could not be got to stand to their guns.

Calling his wife, he asked her to fire one of the guns, and show these men how to do their duty. She did so. Instantly they returned, burning with shame, to their posts, and soon the victory was theirs. The lady, in rehearsing the circumstance, said that the thing that was felt by her to be the most terrible, was not the din of battle, not the raking fire, but the awful calmness that sat fixed on her husbands countenance, as it seemed to carry in itself the sure presage of victory. This we can all understand. Every moral nature feels that settled calmness in the face of dangers and deaths is the loftiest example of the sublime. Of this we have one peerless example in the man Christ Jesus, who, on the eve of His agony, utters these words. We have here a word of

I. FAREWELL. The Old Testament phrase, Peace be with you! had now come to be a word of salutation, as it still is in the Oriental salaam, the modern form of the Hebrew shalom, or peace. Originally, it was a benedictory prayer. But by this time, in most cases, like our words adieu, good-bye, which mean God be with you! the deeper and devouter meaning had very much exhaled, leaving only a breath of courtesy or compliment behind. But this is good, so far as it goes: for our religion says, be courteous, and no gentleman can compare with the Christian gentleman. Christ here commends these forms of courtesy by His august example. But he does a great deal more. Instead of pharisaically leaving these forms, because they are not always what they ought to be. He tells us to take them up and make them what they ought to be. But, as the context shows, He here means a farewell; and this farewell of peace He repeats at the end of the sixteenth chapter, where He brings these valedictory discoursings to a close.

II. BEQUEST. Leave. Even in the case of a human relative, it is much to inherit his peace. We prize more than gold a fathers, a mothers dying benediction. But what are such legacies compared with that which Jesus here bequeaths to the humblest of His disciples. If we have Christs peace, no matter for anyones curse, no matter what wrath may surround our head. Peace is here used twice, and occurs first in its general sense. Peace within, in the calm serenity of a pardoned and reconciled soul; peace without, in every needed temporal blessing; peace in storms and afflictions, in the precious gift of a heart established, trusting in the Lord; peace in persecution; yea, perfect peace, blessing them that curse us, doing good to them that hate us; peace in death; for mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace; peace in the grave, for there the body is stretched out in repose, where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest; and the consummation of all peace in heaven. And as Christ is the Testator, so He is Himself the Executor. My peace. Yes; what the Saviour leaves He gives: what He died to procure, He rose and reigns to bestow.

III. GOSPEL. This peace is a peace particularly Christs own; that which He Himself possesses and feels, as having finished His work and wrought out our salvation. Would you see something of it? Go to Calvary. The pallid lips give forth the victory shout, It is finished; and the words, Father, into Thy hands I commit My spirit; and then the triumphant soul of the Redeemer rises in peace and rapture to the bosom of His Father and His God. It is the climax of peace. Now the peace which was then our Saviours own He imparts to the humblest of His disciples. We believe in Him and become pardoned, accepted, and sanctified in the Beloved.

IV. GOOD CHEER. Not as the world giveth, etc. There is no peace saith my God to the wicked. But let the wicked only forsake his way, and this peace straightway breathes down upon him like a scented vivifying gale from the delectable land. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. How suggestive the contrast!

1. It is vain to seek peace

(1) In the worlds objects of attraction, such as pride, pleasure, and ambition, which bring with them no end of thorny care.

(2) In the worlds friendships, which at best are but fleeting, and which too often promise only to falsify and forget.

(3) In the worlds wisdoms, which are folly.

(4) In the worlds religions, which are worse.

2. But our Saviours words seem to refer mainly to the manner of the giving.

(1) The world gives conventionally, Christ gives sincerely.

(2) The world gives superficially, Christ gives substantially.

(3) The world gives partially, Christ gives perfectly.

(4) The world gives capriciously, Christ gives constantly.

(5) The world gives temporarily, Christ gives eternally. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

The legacy of Christ

That the Son of God might become the merciful and faithful High Priest of His Church, it behoved Him to be made in all things like unto His brethren. Hence we see Him influenced by the same affections that influence ourselves, and manifesting the same dispositions. When His end drew near, He made, as it were, His will, and would not suffer the last interview with His disciples to close before He had reminded them of the precious gifts which He purposed to bestow.

I. THE BLESSING WHICH CHRIST BEQUEATHS. Peace. If there is any word which can excite pleasing sensations in the human breast, it is this. It is as sweet to the children of men, as the long wished for shore to the mariner who is wearied with the labours of the ocean. It is as reviving as the warm breezes of the spring to the man who has just risen from a bed of sickness. How welcome are the tidings of returning peace to a nation which has been long accustomed to the sound of war! How beautiful the feet of them who publish it! But it is not amongst mankind only that peace is thus highly esteemed. It is declared by the great Jehovah Himself to be among the things which He calls good. To bring down this blessing was the great object of our Saviours appearing. Hence the prophecies spoke of Him as the Prince of Peace. Hence, when He was born, peace on earth was proclaimed by the rejoicing angels. Hence, too, when He was about to leave His beloved disciples, peace was the precious legacy he left, and it was His first blessing after He rose. What, then, is this peace? Is it an exemption from the calamities of life, from sorrow and affliction? No. In the world ye shall have tribulation. Is it peace with the world, an exemption from its hatred and persecution? No. The world hateth you. It is

1. Peace with God. The man who inherits this precious legacy was once the enemy of the Lord. But now the enmity of his carnal mind has been subdued. He has gone, as a repentant prodigal, to the throne of his heavenly Father, and has received a welcome and a pardon there. Being justified by faith, he has peace, etc.

2. Peace in the soul. This is a blessing which none but Christ can give, and none but His renewed people receive. Others may seek it, may perhaps find something which they mistake for it; but until a mans heart has been sprinkled from an evil conscience, he must remain as far off from true peace of mind as he is from God.

3. Christs peace. It is the same peace that He Himself enjoys; that kept His soul tranquil in the midst of all His sorrows, and into which He is now entered in His Fathers kingdom above.

II. THE MANNER IN WHICH IT HAS BEEN GIVEN.

1. By bequest.

(1) The property which a man conveys by a will or testament must be his own estate and property; and he must also have a right of transferring it to others. Thus this peace was Christs own, and which He had the power of disposing of by will. He was the only Being in the universe rich enough to purchase reconciliation.

(2) This peace could never have been inherited if the great Giver of it had not died. A man may leave to his friends abundant riches, but these gifts will profit them nothing till after he is dead.

(3) Not as the world giveth. The blessings which Christ has left are widely different from those things which men leave to their friends. They are

(a) More valuable. Men may leave behind them riches, mansions, titles; but they cannot make a man happy, even in the day of prosperity; while the legacy of Christ, even in the darkest night of adversity, can satisfy the longing soul, and fill the hungry soul with goodness.

(b) More permanent. They will remain precious as ever, when every earthly treasure shall be heard of no more. Conclusion:

1. The security and stability of the Divine promises. Peace is not only promised, but bequeathed. The Testator is now dead; the testament is in force.

2. A man may have a precious legacy bequeathed to him, and he may be so infatuated as to refuse to accept it, or so indolent as to neglect the proper means of possessing himself of it; but still the legacy is his. The very same causes, united with an evil heart of unbelief, may keep you strangers to the peace of God.

3. But before we can have a title to this legacy, we must be united to Christ by a living faith. There is no peace to the wicked. (C. Bradley, M. A.)

The legacy of Christ

Our Lord, being about to die, makes all the accustomed preparations, and discharges all the functions of a dying man. He charges His friends with His last commands, delivers to them His last advices, prays for them a last and touching prayer, institutes for them an expressive and affecting ordinance–the great Christian keepsake to be observed in remembrance of Him–and compensates them as much as possible for their deprivement of Himself, by bequeathing them all that He had to dispose of–this precious and peculiar blessing of peace.

I. THE THING ITSELF. The legacy is peace.

1. It fulfils the first great condition of peace, by harmonizing the inward feelings with the outward experience; in other words, it establishes peaceful relations between the soul and its proper objects.

(1) Between the soul and its God. These had been violated. The primitive intercourse between man and his Maker was loving and intimate. When he sinned, such intercourse became impossible. How can two walk together unless they be agreed? The holy anger of the offended God is met by the hostile feeling of the offending man. In this condition of enmity Christ becomes our peace. By His Cross He appeases the anger of God. By His Spirit He subdues the enmity in man. He makes pardon possible on Gods part by bearing our sins; He makes it to be desired on ours by renewing our hearts.

(2) Between the soul and its moral duty. Corruption opposes our duty to God, selfishness our duty to man, and their antagonism is destructive of peace. But under the influence of the gospel both are destroyed.

(a) Duties to God are discharged with delight. The service is love, the principle is gratitude.

(b) Nor are duties to man less cordial. We are taught to love as brethren, and are conformed to a noble example. This peace comes into individual hearts, and, eradicating selfishness and bitterness, produces charity; it comes into our homes, and it adds the brotherhood of grace to the brotherhood of nature. It comes among nations, and it teaches that righteousness is exaltation, affection, and felicity.

(3) Between the soul and its providential experiences. When did irreligion acquiesce in providential trials? But the gospel gives us revelations of the purpose of Gods providence, new recognitions of its real character, and thus harmonizes our feelings with even its deepest adversities.

(4) Between the soul and its destiny; peace in anticipation of the future life. The believer has no longer a fearful looking for of judgment; he knows in whom he has believed; he is begotten again to a lively hope. This is more than reconciliation–it is assurance; more than peace with God–it is peace in God; more than peace with his lot–it is rejoicing over it.

2. It is competent to produce harmony among the inward feelings themselves–a condition palpably as essential as the former–essential in order to the former. For, while there is internal discord, there cannot be external harmony. Sin destroyed the peace of the inward heart, as effectually as it destroyed the peace of its outward relations. There can be no peace among passions of equal intensity and independence, unless subject to some common and absolute rule. To meet this need, we receive the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ. Every affection is taught to recognize Him. Every gratification is found in His will. Every passion is thus made to harmonize. Every desire is solicited to a common tendency. Every energy is directed to a common result.

II. THIS BEQUEATHMENT THE SAVIOUR IDENTIFIED WITH HIMSELF.

1. My peace. He had secured it to them. It was purchased by His atonement, and wrought by His Spirit.

2. It is peace like His own; the peculiar and surpassing peace which, as a man, He had enjoyed.

(1) Peace with God.

(2) The peace of perfect and conscious obedience.

(3) The peace of perfect affiance. No endurance made Him murmur; no extremity provoked His impatience; no deprivation shook His confidence.

(4) The peace of blissful anticipation. He knew that when His work was done He should be raised to glory and honour. In all these elements the peace of the Redeemer and the peace of His followers are identical.

III. THE PECULIARITY OF THE BESTOWMENT. Not as the world giveth.

1. The method of the world in giving peace is by a careful adjustment of external things, sweetening such as are bitter, smoothing such as are rugged. It mistakes a peaceful lot for peaceful feelings; totally neglectful of feelings within, it attends solely to circumstances without; it seeks to remove anxiety, not by trusting in Providence, but by heaping up wealth to make us independent of Providence. It seeks to satisfy inordinate craving, not by moderating desire, but by scraping up gratifications until desire be satiated. It builds up around a man its vain fortifications; but let its defences be carried, and the untutored and effeminate soul is a helpless and hopeless prey. Broadly contrasted with this is the peace of Jesus Christ. It is not dependent on things without; it arises from sources within. It requires not that there should be ease and indulgence; it may exist amid the utmost privation and self-sacrifice. It is not the peace of compromise, but of conquest. In the world ye shall have tribulation, but in Me ye shall have peace.

2. Identifying peace with indifference, the world would school the heart into an insensibility. Thus the men of the world seek peace; they would freeze the sea of affection, that no storm may agitate its waves; they would petrify the heart, that no grasp of anguish may mark it. And in like manner would they deal with spiritual things; they would quiet all religious solicitudes by utterly banishing them; peace with God they would have by forgetting Him; peace with their consciences by stifling them; peace with the claims of duty by refusing to listen to them; peace with their future destiny by never thinking about it. They make a solitude, and call it peace. (H. Allen, D. D.)

Christs legacy

I. THE NATURE OF THE BLESSING BEQUEATHED.

1. The enjoyment of actual reconciliation with God.

2. A sweet composure and calmness of mind, arising from the sense of reconciliation impressed by the Spirit of God on our hearts.

II. THE PECULIAR CONNECTION WHICH HE STATES THIS BLESSING TO HAVE WITH HIMSELF. My peace.

1. Reconciliation to God exclusively arises from the merit of His sacrificial sufferings as being our Redeemer. It is in consequence of the work of the Saviour that the Spirit has been sent actually to apply the blessing of reconciliation to the heart and to the conscience of man.

III. THE POINTS OF CONTRAST EXISTING BETWEEN THIS BLESSING AND THE COMMUNICATIONS OF THE WORLD. Not as the world giveth.

1. That which is given to us by the world is empty; that which is given to us by Christ is substantial.

2. What the world gives is pernicious, and that which Christ gives is beneficial.

3. That which is given to us by the world is changeable, and must perish; and that which is given to us by Christ is immutable, and must endure for ever.

IV. THE INFLUENCE WHICH THE POSSESSION OF THIS BLESSING OUGHT TO POSSESS ON OUR MINDS. Let not your heart be troubled. (J. Parsons.)

Christs legacy

When Christ left the world, He made His will. His soul He bequeathed to His Father, and His body to Joseph. His clothes fell to the soldiers, His mother He left to the care of John. But what should He leave to His poor disciples, who had left all for Him? Silver and gold He had none; but He left them what was far better–His peace. (M. Henry.)

The legacy of peace

I. THE FIRST REQUISITE, IN ORDER TO THIS PEACE, IS HAVING, SEALED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD, A CERTIFICATE OF JUSTIFICATION. One has said, If you wish for peace with God, do your duty. Try to be as good as you can. But I have not been as good as I could. God has not had the first place in my love, and the first obedience in my life. Through Christs intervention, however, the writ once against me is now null, for the sentence for treason is crossed through under sanction of the law itself, and I have in my very soul the certificate of justification, sealed by the Comforter.

II. CHRISTS PEACE COMES FROM CHRISTS LIFE. You mistake if you fancy that this peace is a dull composure. It means more life, not less! The Spirit of Christ, in giving this peace, numbs no nerve, stifles no primitive impulse, mesmerises no faculty. On the contrary, His tendency is to make us spring up, broad awake, feeling alive all over. He makes, through this change in us, a change in everything around us. He makes old Christian truths, that once had become almost insipid by familiarity, break out into meanings and charms, bright as morning and fresh as the spring. To be spiritually-minded is life, the cause; peace, the effect.

III. PEACE IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH SIN. A person may be in the root of his life a Christian, and yet his Christianity may be little more than a root. He may have a name to live, and may pass as an average professor of faith in Christ, yet might know but little of this Divine peace. There is no peace for the shot limb while the bullet is in it. A person has been drinking some deadly thing, tempted by its inspiriting flavour, but now it maddens him, and there is no peace for the poisoned system while the poison is in it. There is no peace to the fever-stricken sufferer until the fever is out of him. You remember the storm that Jonah caused, and how it had to be quieted. If you would have peace, first find out, and then cast out your Jonah–the Jonah of that sheltered sin, of that crooked policy, of that secret, whatever it may be, that stops a blessing from coming on you who carry it.

IV. THE PEACE OF CHRIST HAS ITS SEAT, NOT IN THE CIRCUMSTANCES, BUT IN THE HEART. Let not your heart be troubled. It is a truism to say that disquiet belongs to this world, for everyone knows this, though he may know little else; and it belongs in a particular degree to this particular age. Disquiet connected with the disputes between labour and capital; from questions connected with the money market; made by the battle of books, by the conflicts of theological thought; seen from the post of political outlook. But having Christ as our own life, we can say, though our surroundings may be like the disquiet of an earthquake, Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, etc. We have peace in our heart, for the Giver of peace is there. Without, there may be excitement; indeed, our own physical life may be excitable, for grace does not turn one body into another; yet there is a Divine calm down under the surface, such as no man can know who knows not the true life.

V. CHRISTS PEACE IS HERE ASSURED TO US IN TERMS OF PECULIAR SIGNIFICANCE. Peace I leave. This is the language of legacy, and implies

1. That He would live after He had died. A legacy implies death Heb 9:16).

2. The principle of grace. He gives. Grace is not the name of wages for work, nor of reward for merit; nor of gain by conquest; nor of what we receive on the principle of so much for so much.

3. The deity of the Giver. Reconsider what is meant by the peace of Christ, and then ask yourself if a man could give it.

4. Not as the world giveth. The world can only give what it has to give. The world gives fitfully, and there is no dependence on the world; the world gives in order to get; the world gives to take away again; grudgingly and delusively. (C. Stanford, D. D.)

Peace

I. THE NATURE OF THE PEACE THAT JESUS GIVES.

I. It is peace in the mind. There is a state of the mind answering to the surging sea, or the agitations of the atmosphere; when a man has not clear perception of important truth; when the mind is swayed by apprehension, and driven by scepticism from every resting place for its convictions. The opposite of that is certitude, the repose of enlightened conviction upon ascertained principle. Jesus Christ gives that to His people.

2. Peace of conscience. If a man have not that, all the flattery of nations will not make him happy. The Psalmist says, Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which Thou hast broken for dislocated] may rejoice. Mans moral nature is the skeleton of his soul. David felt that his conscience was dislocated, and he could not know happiness until God had reset and restored it. Well, Christ gives peace of conscience; He restores it to its functions, and causes the man that has this peace to rejoice.

3. Peace of heart. Man may know, see, say, and sing a great deal, but if his heart is not keyed to spiritual harmony, if there are jarring affections, forbidden passions, corrupt emotions in the soul, he cannot be happy.

4. Peace in all the relationships in which a man stands. There is no solid peace if there is not peace with God, but where there is there will be peace with man, and he who enjoys it will be a peacemaker; he will delight in diffusing that happiness which he enjoys.

5. It is Christs peace

(1) As distinguished from

(a) The peace of indifference. There are some persons who, on the subject of religion, have really no trouble at all. This is a peace like that of the poor Indian sleeping in his canoe while rolling him onwards to the cataract.

(b) The peace of self-deception: the peace of the patient that takes the hectic flush of his cheek as a sign of health, of the sailor who swaggers along the deck while the leak is in the keel. That is not the peace of Christ.

(2) Positively it is the peace that arises from a knowledge of mans state and the remedy that he needs. I have seen a patient quite relieved by being told the very worst of his case. At the same time he was assured by a physician that there was a specific remedy for that disease which had cured thousands.

II. HOW HE GIVES THIS PEACE: Not as the world giveth.

1. The world could not give such a thing at all; the world can only give what it gets, and it neither has nor knows that peace. The world may give a man wealth; the heart may be writhing in agony under the blaze of diamonds. The world may give a man fame, but a celebrated actor died of sorrow whilst the city was ringing his praise. The world may give a man pleasure, but that can only ripple the surface.

2. The world gives what it has

(1) With a hope of getting again.

(2) As little as it can.

3. Is soon tired of giving on any principle, even of giving to its friends. (J. Graham, D. D.)

The blessedness of peace

A lady who passed through the terrors of the Vicksburg siege wrote the night after the surrender: It is evening. All is still. Silence and night are once more united. H– is leaning back in his rocking chair. He says, G– , it seems to me I can hear the silence and feel it too. It wraps me like a soft garment; how else can I express this peace? (H. O.Mackey.)

False peace and true peace

I. THE WORLDS PEACE.

1. It is not sound and sincere, but hollow (Psa 55:21). It professes friendship, and yet it is ready to sell its friend for a mess of pottage.

2. Selfish.

3. Mercenary. When it gives, always expects an equivalent.

4. Fragile. How soon is the trading mans peace, our domestic peace, our civil peace, our peace of mind, broken! How long can you calculate upon keeping your peace?

5. Unserviceable. The worlds peace never stands by our side in the hour of sorrow, tribulation, or temptation. It will do for the summer, but not for the winter.

6. Temporary.

II. THE PEACE OF CHRIST.

1. Its nature. It is peace

(1) with God;

(2) with ourselves;

(3) with our fellow men.

2. Its characteristics.

(1) It is sincere;

(2) disinterested;

(3) gratuitous;

(4) indissoluble;

(5) serviceable. (J. Ralph, M. A.)

False peace

Once, as a poet was thinking of Napoleons defeat when he tried to win Moscow, he had a dreadful dream of peace. Under the spell of his dream, he found himself in a dim, still, snowy wilderness; many horsemen, covered with cloaks, their cloaks covered with snow, were sitting motionless; dead fires were seen, with grenadiers, white with snow, stretched motionless around; waggons, crowded with snow-shrouded, motionless figures, seemed to stop the way, the wheels fixed by a riverside, in ruts of water which the frost had struck into steel; cannon were there, heaped over with snow; snow lay on banners unlifted, on trumpets unblown. Was the seer of such a sight moved to cry Peace, peace! Better face the intense white flame that bursts from guns, better face the terrible iron rain, better face the worst of war, than face a scene of peace like that! Yet much that passes for peace in the region of the soul, and in relation to God, is not much better. (C. Stanford, D. D.)

Divine peace

It may, perhaps, have befallen some of us to stand by the side of one of those brawling mountain streams which descend from our southern and western coasts into the sea. It rushes with its noisy waters down its stony channel; every pebble rattles in the torrent; every ripple makes a murmur of its own. Suddenly the sound ceases: a deep stillness fills the banks from side to side. Why? It is the broad sweep of the advancing tide of the ocean that has checked the stream and occupied the whole space of its narrow channel with its own strong, silent, overwhelming waters. Even so it is with all the little cares, difficulties, and distractions which make up the noise and clatter of the stream of our daily life. They go on increasing and increasing, and engross our whole attention, till they are suddenly met and absorbed by some thoughts or objects greater than themselves advancing from a wider and deeper sphere. So it is in human things: so it is when in private life we are overtaken by some great personal joy or sorrow. The very image which I have just used of the brook and the sea has been beautifully employed by our greatest living poet to express the silencing of all lesser thoughts and aims by the death of a dear friend. So it is often felt in public concerns, when all petty cares and quarrels have been drowned in the tide of public joy or sorrow which has rolled in upon us from the great world without. All the streams of common life under such circumstances, descending from their several heights, deep or shallow, turbid or clear, have been checked at one and the same moment, have been hushed at one and the same point, by the waters broad and vast sweeping in from the ocean, which encompassed us all alike. Every lesser controversy has then stood still; every personal murmur at such moments has been silenced by the grander and deeper interest which belonged alike to us all. What that figure of the brook and of the tide is in the natural world, what great joys and sorrows are in personal life, what great public events are in the life of a nation, that to every human being ought to be the thought of eternity, the peace of God. From a thousand heights the streams of life are ever rushing down. All manner of obstacles meet their course–the rough rock, the broken bough, the smooth pebble, the crooked bank. Each and all are enough to ruffle those shallow waters, and to obstruct those narrow torrents. But there is, or there may be, forever advancing into each of these channels a tide from that wide and trackless ocean to which they are all tending; and deep indeed is the peace which those tides bring with them into the inland hills wherever their force extends. (Dean Stanley.)

Jesus leaving peace to His disciples

Though all Christs conduct is godlike, nevertheless the last scenes of His life shine with peculiar splendour. In proportion as He draws nearer to its close, His charity appears to burn with a warmer flame, His divinity to shed forth brighter beams through the clouds which enshrouded it.

I. JESUS CHRIST GIVES PEACE TO HIS FOLLOWERS; or in other words, He has opened for them sources of tranquillity and joy amidst all the calamities and afflictions of life. This will be established if we can prove these two points

1. He has given us the most adequate supports under all the woes to which we are exposed; and,

2. He has bestowed on us positive grounds of tranquillity. That is to say, with the one hand He gives us an antidote against every sorrow, and with the other reaches forth to us the richest benedictions.

(1) Look at your life and heart, and you will find two great enemies of peace and tranquillity, sins and afflictions; and in vain will the heart sigh for rest, till in some mode the sting of sin is taken away and the bitterness of affliction removed. While the conscience is burdened by the guilt of sin, and the mind harassed by the apprehension of that punishment to which it exposes us, we in vain hope for peace. No, no! there is no other grief that can be compared with the anguish of the soul, that is enlightened to behold the spotless purity and inflexible justice of God, and the depth of the abyss dug by its own crimes and iniquities. Where, then, shall we seek for relief to these torments which arise from a sense of guilt? In the sacrifice of Immanuel we behold all cause of terror removed, and the most satisfying joys presented to our hopes and expectations. Could you find it in the amusements and gaieties of the world? Alas! in the midst of jocoseness and pleasantry your heart was bleeding. Human philosophy, worldly wisdom! alas, can these wash out the stain of the smallest sin from the conscience? Could you find it in the endearments of friendship and affection? Christ has been no less careful in affording proper supports under those trials, those crosses, and afflictions, of which human life is full, and which we mentioned as the second great enemy to peace. All the schools of antiquity, discordant and clashing in everything else, were united only in presenting unsubstantial comforts, which were too airy to support those under the pressure of real grief, or else in irritating instead of healing the wounds of the soul. But when we turn from these ineffectual consolations of the brightest ornaments of Greece and Rome, to the Divine Instructor who spake as never man spake, what different sentiments are excited! He proposes such grounds of peace and tranquillity as will hush every painful passion, will compose every rising grief, will drive back every starting tear, or convert it into a tear of joy, and render us not patient merely, but triumphant in affliction. He gives us such instructions concerning the author, the intent, and the issue of afflictions, as, if they be properly realized, will cause the sorrows of life to vanish like the morning cloud, and the pains of mortality to dissolve like the early dew.

(2) That He has conferred on them positive grounds of tranquillity so powerful, so cheering, as to be sufficient to keep their souls in sacred peace amidst all the storms of sorrow with which they may be assailed. Jesus Christ secures peace and tranquillity for His followers, by giving them an intimate communion with God. But this is only the first of His benedictions. He confers also the Holy Spirit, that bond and ligament connecting God and the soul of the believer. As the enlightening Spirit He presents to our minds those great truths of religion which affect, which interest and delight us. But this Spirit which enlightens is also the renewing Spirit; and how much tranquillity and satisfaction does the exercise of this part of His office give to the soul. To find harmony restored to our irregular affections, to see the passions formerly untamed submitting to the yoke of religion; to behold our native depravity losing its reigning power, and the image of God re-impressed upon us: is not this a desirable, a delightful contemplation? And finally, it is part of the office of this same Spirit, by His consoling influences, to dissipate the cloud of sorrow and cause the sunshine of heaven to break in upon the soul. Finally, Jesus is ready to confer on believers, and will confer on them, if they be not wanting to themselves, the earnests of future glory, the pledges of eternal felicity.

II. THAT HE GIVES IT NOT AS THE WORLD DOES.

1. When the world exclaims to us, Peace be unto you l this exclamation is often void of sincerity. How often are proffers of service, and desires for our happiness, uttered by the mouth that has just been employed in stabbing our reputation, and that in a few minutes will load us with slanders, and hold us up to ridicule!

2. When the world exclaims to us, Peace be unto you, it is not always insincere and deceitful; but even when it most strongly desires our felicity, it is weak, and without power to afford us a complete felicity. Man is feeble, indigent, unhappy. Thus, unable to find full happiness from the world, shall we, my brethren, entirely despair of attaining it? No; for Jesus gives peace not as the world does; His wishes can all be accomplished, for His power is irresistible.

3. The peace which the world gives is limited in its duration. Inconstant and variable, men frequently change their sentiments and opinions. (H. Kollock, D. D.)

Spiritual peace

This blessed legacy our Lord has left might be considered as being peace

1. With all the creatures. God has made a league of peace between His people and the whole universe. For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field, etc. All things work together for good to them that love God.

2. Among the people of God toward one another.

3. With God, for He hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ

4. In the conscience. Peace with God is the treaty; peace in the conscience is the publication of it.

I. ITS GROUNDWORK. It is not built upon imagination, but on facts.

1. Faith in the blood of Christ.

2. A sense of pardon.

3. An intimacy with Christ.

4. The possession of the title deeds of heaven.

5. An assurance of the faithfulness and covenant fidelity of God our Father.

II. ITS NOBLE CHARACTER. The peace of other men is ignoble and base. Their peace is born in the purlieus of sin. Self-conceit and ignorance are its parents. Our peace is

1. Gods own child and God-like in its character.

2. Divine in its nourishment. The daintiest morsels that ever carnal sense fed upon would be bitter to the mouth of this sweet peace. Ye may bring your much fine corn, your sweet wine, and your flowing oil; your dainties tempt us not, for this peace feeds upon angels food, and it cannot relish any food that grows on earth. If you should give a Christian ten times as much riches as he has, you would not cause him ten times as much peace, but probably ten times more distress; you might magnify him in honour, or strengthen him with health, yet neither would his honour or his health contribute to his peace, for that peace flows from a Divine source, and there are no tributary streams from the hills of earth to feed that Divine current.

3. A peace that lives above circumstances.

4. Profound and real.

III. ITS EFFECTS.

1. Joy. The words joy and peace are continually put together.

2. Love. He that is at peace with God through the blood of Christ is constrained to love Him that died for him.

3. Holiness. He that is at peace with God does not wish to go into sin; for he is careful lest he should lose that peace.

4. It will help us to bear affliction. Your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

5. It gives us boldness at the throne.

IV. INTERRUPTIONS OF PEACE. All Christians have a right to perfect peace, but they have not all the possession of it. These interruptions may be owing to

1. The ferocious temptations of Satan.

2. Ignorance.

3. Sin. God hides His face behind the clouds of dust which His own flock make as they travel along the road of this world. We sin, and then we sorrow for it.

4. Unbelief.

Conclusion: If ye would keep your peace continual and unbroken

1. Look always to the sacrifice of Christ.

2. Walk humbly with your God.

3. Walk in holiness; avoid every appearance of evil. (C. H.Spurgeon.)

Christs peace

Peace be unto you was, and is, the common Eastern salutation, both in meeting and parting. It carries us back to a state of society in which every stranger might be an enemy. It is a confession of the deep unrest of the human heart. Note

I. THE GREETING, WHICH IS A GIFT. Christ gives His peace because He gives Himself. It comes with Him, like an atmosphere; it is never where He is not.

1. The first requisite for peace is consciousness of harmonious relations between me and God. The deepest secret of Christs peace was His consciousness of unbroken communion with the Father. And the centre and foundation of all the peace-giving power of Jesus Christ is that in His death He has swept away the occasion of antagonism, and so made peace between the Father and the child, rebellious and prodigal.

2. We must be at peace with ourselves. There is no way of healing the inner schism of our anarchic nature except in bringing it all in submission to His merciful rule. Look at that troubled kingdom that each of us carries about within himself, passion dragging this way, conscience that; a hundred desires all arrayed against one another, inclination here, duty there, till we are torn in pieces like a man drawn asunder by wild horses. But when He enters the heart with His silken leash, the old fable comes true, and He binds the lions and the ravenous beasts there with its slender tie and leads them along, tamed, by the cord of love, and all harnessed to pull together in the chariot that He guides. There is one power, and only one, that can draw after it all the multitudinous heaped waters of the weltering ocean, and that is the quiet silver moon in the heavens, which pulls the tidal wave, into which melt and merge all currents and small breakers, and rolls it round the whole earth. And so Christ, shining down lambent and gentle, but changeless, from the darkest of our skies, will draw, in one great surge of harmonized motion, all the else contradictory currents of our stormy souls.

3. Peace with men. The reason why men are in antagonism with one another is the central selfishness of each. And there is only one way by which mens relations can be thoroughly sweetened, and that is by the Divine love of Jesus Christ casting out the devil of selfishness, and so blending them all into one harmonious whole.

4. Peace with the outer world. It is not external calamities, but the resistance of the will to these, that makes the disturbances of life. Submission is peace, and when a man with Christ in his heart can say what Christ did, Not My will, but Thine, be done, then some faint beginnings, at least, of tranquillity come to the most agitated and buffeted.

II. THE WORLDS GIFT, WHICH IS AN ILLUSION. The world may mean either mankind in general or the whole material frame of things.

1. Regarding it in the former sense, the thought is suggested–Christ gives; men can only wish. How little we can do for one anothers tranquillity! how soon we come to the limits of human love and human help!

2. And then, if we take the other signification, we may say, Outward things can give a man no real peace. The world is for excitement; Christ alone has the secret of tranquillity.

III. THE DUTY OF THE RECIPIENTS OF THAT PEACE OF CHRISTS, Let not your heart be troubled, etc.

1. Christs gift of peace does not dispense with the necessity for our own effort after tranquillity. There is very much in the outer world and within ourselves that will surge up and seek to shake our repose; and we have to coerce and keep down the temptations to anxiety, to undue agitation of desire, to tumults of sorrow, to cowardly fears of the unknown future. All these will continue, even though we have Christs peace in our hearts. And it is for us to see to it that we treasure the peace.

2. It is useless to tell a man, Do not be troubled and do not be afraid, unless he first has Christs peace as his. Is that peace yours because Jesus Christ is yours? If so, then there is no reason for your being troubled or dreading any future. If it is not, you are mad not to be troubled, and you are insane if you are not afraid.

3. Your imperfect possession of this peace is all your own fault. Conclusion: I went once to the side of a little Highland loch, on a calm autumn day, when all the winds were still, and every birch tree stood unmoved, and every twig reflected on the stedfast mirror, into the depths of which Heavens own blue seemed to have found its way. That is what our hearts may be, if we let Christ put His guarding hand round them to keep the storms off, and have Him within us for our rest. But the man that does not trust Jesus is like the troubled sea which cannot rest. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Christ our peace in trouble

In India, where there are many venomous serpents, there is an animal–a kind of weasel–which is, as it were, appointed by God to destroy them. Put one of these creatures and the deadliest snake together, and let them begin the battle. Presently the weasel will be bitten by the serpent, and it will dart off into the next bush, will find the antidote to the poison, and will return to the fight. And so, again and again, till at last it seizes the snake and destroys it. That is strange in itself; but a thing yet stranger is this: A very large reward has been offered by the Government for the discovery of this antidote. If an animal can find it out, much more easily, one would think, can a man discover it. But it is not so. This creature has been watched again and again, but no one has ever yet been able to learn the remedy. God has given to it the knowledge, which He has denied to us. And so the true servant of Christ knows where to go for a cure against all the troubles that may befall him; where to seek peace in all the storms that beset him. (J. M. Neale, D. D.)

Christs peace in the dying hour

A poor soldier was mortally wounded at the battle of Waterloo. His companion conveyed him to some distance and laid him down under a tree. Before he left him, the dying soldier entreated him to open his knapsack and take out his pocket Bible, and read to him a small portion of it before he died. When asked what passage he should read, he desired him to read Joh 14:27. Now, said he, I die happy. I desire to have peace with God, and I possess the peace of God which passeth all understanding. A little while after one of his officers passed him, and seeing him in such an exhausted state, asked him how he did. He said, I die happy, for I enjoy the peace of God which passeth all understanding, and then expired. The officer left him and went into the battle, where he was soon after mortal]y wounded. When surrounded by his brother officers, full of anguish and dismay, he cried out, Oh! I would give ten thousand worlds, if I had them, that I possessed that peace which gladdened the heart of a dying soldier, whom I saw lying under a tree; for he declared that he possessed the peace of God which passeth all understanding. I know nothing of that peace! I die miserable! for I die in despair! (New Testament Anecdotes.)

Christian peace

I. The peace of FORGIVENESS–the peace of the evening.

II. Peace in SERVICE–the peace of the morning.

III. Peace in SORROW–peace of dark hours. (S. S. Times.)

Christian peace

Peace. It was no new word. It was and is the common form of salutation and farewell; and the Master used it because it was old and familiar. This peace is threefold.

I. Peace with OURSELVES. Every one knows what it is to be at peace with ourselves, and not at peace.

1. We may be perfectly prosperous, and yet there is a secret pang, a bitter thought.

2. On the other hand, we may be in suffering, and yet be in perfect peace because doing our duty. Peace of conscience is the peace of the Holy Spirit of Christ.

II. Peace with ONE ANOTHER. In Christ Jew and Gentile, etc., are one. He gathered round Him the most opposite characters. His peace therefore does not mean that we are all to speak, think, act, in the same way. The world of nature derives its beauty and grace from its variety. And so in the world of man. We differ but no difference, but that of sin should become separation. The chief priests of ancient Rome were called Pontiffs–bridge makers. It is the duty of every Christian to throw bridges over the moral rents or fissures which divide us. Sometimes you will find opinions shading off one into the other: these are branches that are entwined over the abyss. Seize hold of them! Sometimes there are points of character the very counterparts of our own: these are stepping stones. Sometimes there are concessions made: to all such give the widest scope. There are, no doubt, occasions when truth and justice must be preferred to peace, and differences which are widened by saying, Peace, peace when there is no peace; but we must be careful not to multiply them. You receive an angry letter; do not answer it. You observe a quarrelsome look; take no notice of it. You see the beginning of a quarrel; throw cold water on it. Churches need not be united in order to be at peace. The peace of the Holy Spirit of Christ is deeper than outward diversities.

III. Peace with GOD. Our hearts are torn with scruples and cares even in duty; our sins rise up against us. Where shall we find a haven of peace? In the thought of God. Think of God the Father, perfectly just and merciful. Think on Christ who stilled the tumult of the natural storm, and who came to reconcile us to the Father. Think of the Holy Spirit who broods over chaos, and of it can make eternal order and peace. (Dean Stanley.)

Peace undisturbed

All the peace and favour of the world cannot calm a troubled heart; but where the peace is that Christ gives, all the trouble add disquiet of the world cannot disturb it. Outward distress to a mind thus at peace is but as the rattling of the hail upon the tiles to him that sits within the house at a sumptuous feast,

Perfect peace in Christ

There was a martyr once in Switzerland standing barefooted on the fagots, and about to be burnt quick to the death–no pleasant prospect for him. He accosted the magistrate who wassuperintending his execution, and asked him to come near him. He said, Will you please to lay your hand upon my heart. I am about to die by fire. Lay your hand on my heart. If it beats any faster than it ordinarily beats, do not believe my religion. The magistrate, with palpitating heart himself, and all in a tremble, laid his hand upon the martyrs bosom, and found that he was just as calm as if he was going to his bed rather than to the flames. Thai is a grand thing! To wear in your button hole that little flower called hearts ease, and to have the jewel of contentment in your bosom–this is heaven begun below: godliness is great gain to him that hath it. (C. H.Spurgeon.)

Not as the world giveth

The worlds peace

They cry peace when there is no peace, and make fair weather when such a storm of Gods wrath is ready to be burst as shall never be blown over. They compliment and wish peace when war is in their hearts, as when the Pope sent away Henry III, in peace, but it was, saith the historian, not such as Jesus left His people. (J. Trapp.)

Unwilling givers

The great ocean is in a constant state of evaporation. It gives back what it receives, and sends up its waters in mists to gather into clouds; and so there is rain on the fields, and storm on the mountains, and greenness and beauty everywhere. But there are many men who do not believe in evaporation. They get all they can and keep all they get, and so are not fertilisers, but only stagnant, miasmatic pools. (H. W. Beecher.)

The world bestows meagerly

It promises much and gives but little. When the richest man, who has died in New York, within my memory was on his dying bed, he asked his attendants to sing for him. They sang the familiar old revival hymn, Come, ye sinners, poor and needy. The dying millionaire said to them, in a plaintive tone, Yes, please sing that again for me. I am poor and needy. Ah! what could fifty millions of railway securities and bank stocks do for him on the verge of eternity? One verse out of the fourteenth chapter of John could bring him more peace than all the mines of California multiplied by all the bonds in the National Treasury. Poor and needy was he? I count that one of the most pathetic sayings that ever fell from dying lips. (T. L. Cuyler, D. D.)

Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid

Words of peace

The acceptableness and the force of advice depend upon our feelings with respect to the adviser. Now the Counsellor in this case is the Lord Jesus; entirely informed, thoroughly concerned, full of truth as well as full of grace, and so disinterested that He has for us already laid down His life. Look at

I. THE WORDS THEMSELVES. They imply

1. The possession of a power of control over our own hearts. Now how is the heart to be controlled? You cannot govern it directly; it is to be governed by means of the thoughts. If you would change the emotions, you must change the thoughts. To think only of our grievous and not of our joyous circumstances–only of the cloudy side of our grievous circumstances (and every cloud over us Christians has a silver lining), is to let our heart be troubled and be afraid. But to call off the thoughts from the circumstances which are grievous to those which are joyous, to think of God as our refuge, and strength, and present help in the time of trouble, is to check the sorrow and to quench the fear.

2. Responsibility as to the exercise of such control. This is a power which you may not leave dormant. That which, in this case, we can do, we ought to do, because God requires it, and because the doing of it is essential to our well-being and right conduct. The difficulty does not lessen our obligation. God calls us all to do difficult things. The human being who never attempts a difficult thing is but half a man.

3. They do not require that we should harden our hearts against the due influence of grievous circumstances, or shut our eyes to danger or to threatening sorrow; but they do forbid and condemn

(1) The sorrow which confuses and discomposes a man–which hinders the performance of duty and prevents the use of consolation, and mars the enjoyment of present mercies. A man may be sad, and yet do his work. He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed. Weeping is not to hinder working.

(2) Fear. A girls school in New York took fire, and all the children were thrown into the greatest state of excitement. But there sat upon a form one little girl who remained perfectly still. When the excitement was over the teacher said to her, How is that you sat so still? Oh, said the little one, my father is one of the firemen, and he told me that if ever I was in a building when an alarm of fire was given, to sit still. Your Father is employed in extinguishing the fire that would consume you. And you have been told to be quiet; and this because you can afford to be quiet.

4. Now the whole of this advice proceeds on the assumption that the disciple of Christ has sources of joy counteractive of his sorrows, and that he has no ground for fear.

(1) The Saviour has charge of us individually.

(2) The Father loves us.

(3) A place is prepared for us.

(4) A Comforter is sent to abide with us forever.

(5) Jesus gives us His peace.

II. CASES TO WHICH THEY PARTICULARLY APPLY.

1. Some may be expecting bereavement. Death hath no sting to that loved one, and the grave can gain no victory.

2. Others are now bearing the anguish of the separation which death creates. Special promises are made to you; and He, who superintends the fulfilment of these promises, says, let not your heart be troubled, etc.

3. Some are anticipating change–change of residence–emigration. Whither can you go from your Saviours Spirit–or from your best Friends presence?

4. A few are stretched and tortured on the rack of suspense. The uncertainty is only in your mind. Above, all things are arranged, and will work together for your good.

5. Many are enduring the pains of disappointment. But still there are hopes founded upon rock, of which no man can ever be ashamed. The hope of salvation, of eternal life, of paradise.

6. Diseases, like worms at the roots of plants, are surely bringing many of us to death and the grave–and their destructive work will one day be fully wrought. But death is only the beginning of new life.

7. Poverty, like an armed man, is beating down others. There is but one shield against this armed man–faith; but one weapon–lawful endeavour; and but one cordial and stimulant–prayer. And if you pray poverty, turning your face Christward, you will hear Christ in His sweetest whispers say, Take no thought for tomorrow, etc.

8. Does persecution rage around some of you as a tempest? Fear not them that kill the body. (S. Martin.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 27. Peace I leave with you] The Jewish form of salutation and benediction. A wish of peace among them is thus to be understood: May you prosper in body and soul, and enjoy every earthly and heavenly good! For the meaning of this word, see Mt 5:9.

My peace I give unto you] Such tranquillity of soul, such uninterrupted happiness of mind, such everlasting friendship with God as I enjoy, may ye all enjoy! And such blessedness I bequeath unto you: it is my last, my best, my dying legacy.

Not as the world giveth] Not as the Jews, in empty wishes: not as the people of the world, in empty compliments. Their salutations and benedictions are generally matters of custom and polite ceremony, given without desire or design; but I mean what I say; what I wish you, that I will give you. To his followers Jesus gives peace, procures it, preserves it, and establishes it. He is the author, prince, promoter, and keeper of peace.

Neither let it be afraid.] , Let not your heart shrink back through fear of any approaching evil. This is the proper meaning of the word. In a few hours ye will be most powerfully assaulted; but stand firm: – the evil will only fall upon me; and this evil will result in your comfort and salvation, and in the redemption of a lost world.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Peace be with you, or to you, was the Jewish common salutation, 1Sa 25:6; under that general name they comprehended all manner of good: with this good wish they both saluted their friends when they met them, and took their farewell of them when they left them. Christ, being now about to take his leave for a time of his disciples, wishes them

peace; nay, he doth not only wish it to them, but he

leaves it to them; he giveth it them as a legacy; and that in another kind of peace, and in another manner, than was common. He therefore calls it his peace revealed in the gospel, Eph 6:15; purchased with his blood, Rom 5:1; brought to the soul by his Spirit, by which we are sealed to the day of redemption. Christs peace is either union or reconciliation with God, or the copy of it, which is a quiet of conscience, and assurance of his love; or a union with men by brotherly love, so often commended and pressed by Christ. Nor doth Christ give this peace as the men of the world give peace; who often wish peace earnestly, never considering what it is they say; often falsely, formally wishing peace, when they are about to strike those to whom they wish it under the fifth rib; and when they are most serious, wish it, but cannot give it. Christ leaves it to his disciples for a legacy, giveth it to them as a gift; if they want it, it is their own fault: therefore, as in the first verse, so here again he saith,

Let not your heart be troubled; and adds,

neither let it be afraid. Fear is one of those passions which most usually and potently doth disturb the hearts and minds of men; but there was no reason it should have this ill influence on Christs disciples, because he had left them peace for his legacy, and the gifts of God are without repentance; and, if God be for us, (saith the apostle, Rom 8:31), who, or what, can be against us?

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

27. Peace I leave with you, my peaceI give unto youIf Joh 14:25;Joh 14:26 sounded like a note ofpreparation for drawing the discourse to a close, this would soundlike a farewell. But oh, how different from ordinary adieus! It isa parting word, but of richest import, the customary “peace”of a parting friend sublimed and transfigured. As “the Prince ofPeace” (Isa 9:6) He broughtit into flesh, carried it about in His Own Person (“My peace”)died to make it ours, left it as the heritage of His disciples uponearth, implants and maintains it by His Spirit in their hearts. Manya legacy is “left” that is never “given” to thelegatee, many a gift destined that never reaches its proper object.But Christ is the Executor of His own Testament; the peace He”leaves” He “gives“; Thus all issecure.

not as the world givethincontrast with the world, He gives sincerely, substantially,eternally.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Peace I leave with you,…. Christ being about to die and leave his disciples, makes his last will and testament, and as the best legacy he could leave them, bequeaths peace unto them;

my peace I give unto you: he left the Gospel of peace with them, to be preached by them to all the world; which is a declaration and publication of peace made by his blood; is a means of reconciling the minds of men to God and Christ, to the truths, ordinances, and people of Christ; of relieving and giving peace to distressed minds; and which shows the way to eternal peace: and as Christ had kept his disciples in peace one with another, so he left them in peace; and left orders with them to maintain it one among another: but what seems chiefly designed here, is peace with God, which Christ is the sole author of; he was appointed in the council and covenant of peace to effect it; he became incarnate with that view, and did procure it by his sufferings and death; and as it was published by angels, when he came into the world, he left it, and gave it to his disciples when he was going out of it: or else that peace of conscience is meant, which follows upon the former, which arises from the sprinklings of the blood of Christ, and from a comfortable view, by faith, of an interest in his justifying righteousness, and is enjoyed in a way of believing, and commonly in the use of ordinances “leaving” it supposes that Christ was about to leave his disciples, but would not leave them comfortless; he leaves a Comforter with them, and bequeaths peace unto them as his last legacy: “giving” it, shows that it is not to be acquired by any thing that man can do, but is a pure free grace gift of Christ; and which being given as his legacy, is irrevocable; for the allusion is to the making of a will or testament when persons are about to die: though some have thought it refers to the custom of wishing peace, health, and prosperity, among the Jews; but Christ does not say “peace be to you”; which was the more usual form of salutation among them, and which was used by them when they met, and not at parting; especially we have no instance of such a form as here used, by dying persons taking their leaves of their relations and friends. It must indeed be owned that the phrase, “to give peace”, is with them the same as to salute, or wish health and prosperity. Take two or three of their rules as instances of it;

“whoever knows his friend, that he is used a, “to give him peace”; he shall prevent him with peace (i.e. salute him first), as it is said, “seek peace and pursue it”; but if he “gives” it to him, and he does not return it, he shall be called a robber.”

Again,

“b a man may not go into the house of a stranger, on his feast day, , “to give peace unto him” (or salute him); if he finds him in the street, he may give it to him with a low voice, and his head hanging down;”

once c more,

“a man , “not give peace to”, or salute his master, nor return peace to him in the way that they give it to friends, and they return it to one another.”

Likewise it must be owned, that when they saluted persons of distinction, such as princes, nobles, and doctors, they repeated the word “peace” d, though never to any strangers; however, certain it is, that it was another sort of peace which Christ left, and gave to his disciples, than what the Jews were wont to give, or wish to one another;

not as the world giveth, give I you. The peace Christ gives is true, solid, and substantial; the peace the world, the men, and things of it give, is a false one; and whilst they cry, “peace, peace, sudden destruction is at hand”: the peace of the world is at best but an external one, but the peace Christ is the giver of, is internal; the peace the world affords is a very transient, unstable, and short lived one, but the peace of Christ is lasting and durable; the peace of the world will not support under the troubles of it, but the peace which Christ gives, cheerfully carries his people through all the difficulties and exercises of this life: and as these differ in kind, so likewise in the manner of giving, and in the persons to whom they are given; the world gives peace in words only, Christ in deed; the world gives feignedly, Christ heartily; the world gives it for its own advantage, Christ for his people’s sake; the world gives its peace to the men of it, to the ungodly, none to the godly, whom it hates; Christ gives his; not to the wicked, for there is no peace to them, but to the saints, the excellent in the earth. Wherefore says Christ,

let not your heart be troubled; at my departure from you, since I leave such a peace with you:

neither let it be afraid: at the dangers you may be exposed unto, and the trouble you may be exercised with; for in the midst of them all, “in me ye shall have peace”, Joh 16:33.

a T. Bab. Beracot, fol. 6. 2. b T. Bab. Gittin, fol. 62. 1. Maimon. Obede Cochabim, c. 10. sect. 5. c Maimon. Talmud Tora, c. 5. sect. 5. d T. Bab. Gittin, fol. 62. 1. Maimon. Hilch. Melacim. c. 10. sect. 12.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

My peace ( ). This is Christ’s bequest to the disciples before he goes, the shalom of the orient for greeting and parting, used by Jesus in his appearances after the resurrection (John 20:19; John 20:21; John 20:26) as in 2John 1:3; 3John 1:14, but here and in 16:33 in the sense of spiritual peace such as only Christ can give and which his Incarnation offers to men (Lu 2:14).

Neither let it be fearful ( ). Added to the prohibition in verse 1, only N.T. example of (rare word in Aristotle, in a papyrus of one condemned to death), common in LXX, like palpitating of the heart (from ).

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Peace. “These are last words, as of one who is about to go away and says ‘good – night ‘ or gives his blessing” [] . Peace ! was the ordinary oriental greeting at parting. Compare Joh 20:21.

My peace I give. Compare 1Jo 3:1. “It is of his own that one gives” (Godet).

Let it be afraid [] . Only here in the New Testament. Properly it signifies cowardly fear. Rev., fearful. The kindred adjective deilov fearful, is used by Matthew of the disciples in the storm (viii. 26), and in Revelation of those who deny the faith through fear of persecution (xxi. 8). The kindred noun, deilia, occurs only in 2Ti 1:7, “God hath not given us the spirit of fear,” contrasted with the spirit of power, love, and a sound mind.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “Peace I leave with you,” (eirenen aphiemi humin) “Peace I give over to you all,” which you received from me, by access of faith to justification, a present and continuing state of peace from God and peace with God, Rom 5:1; Which is more than the world could give.

2) “My peace I give unto you:” (eirenen ten emen didomi humin) “My peace I give or dole out to you all,” or bequeath to you all, Joh 16:33; It is also called the “peace of God,” that is to rule in one’s heart, in obedient service to God and one’s fellowman, Rom 14:17; Col 3:15. The usual farewell was “peace” but in this instance Jesus spoke it as a “will” bequeathed to them.

3) “Not as the world gives,” (ou kathos ho kosmos didosin) “Not as the world gives or doles out,” as a temporary peace, one that is so empty, that is fickle, that comes and goes, alluding to pleasures, treasures, and honors that come from the world, 1Jn 2:15-17.

4) “Give I unto you.” (ego didomi humin) “Do I give to you all,” for my peace is one that passes (surpasses) “all understanding” in standing guard over heart and mind of His obedient children, Php_4:7.

5) “Let not your heart be troubled,” (me tarassestho humon he kardia) “Do not let your heart (center of affections) be troubled,” overanxious, or frustrated, or a slave to trouble and anxiety, Joh 14:1; Heb 13:5. Don’t let your soul shudder with fear. (mede deiliato) “Nor let it be fearful,” Rom 8:15.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

27. Peace I leave with you. By the word peace he means prosperity, which men are wont to wish for each other when they meet or part; for such is the import of the word peace in the Hebrew language. He therefore alludes to the ordinary custom of his nation; as if he had said, I give you my Farewell But he immediately adds, that this peace is of far greater value than that which is usually to be found among men, who generally have the word peace but coldly in their mouth, by way of ceremony, or, if they sincerely wish peace for any one, yet cannot actually bestow it. But Christ reminds them that his peace does not consist in an empty and unavailing wish, but is accompanied by the effect. In short, he says that he goes away from them in body, but that his peace remains with the disciples; that is, that they will be always happy through his blessing.

Let not your heart be troubled. He again corrects the alarm which the disciples had felt on account of his departure. It is no ground for alarm, he tells them; for they want only his bodily presence, but will enjoy his actual presence through the Spirit. Let us learn to be always satisfied with this kind of presence, and let us not give a loose reign to the flesh, which always binds God by its outward inventions.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(27) Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.The immediate context speaks of His departure from them (Joh. 14:25; Joh. 14:28), and it is natural therefore to understand these words as suggested by the common Oriental formulas of leave-taking. Men said to each other when they met and parted, Shalom! Shalom! (Peace! Peace!) just as they say the Salaam! Salaam! in our own day. (See 1Sa. 1:17; Luk. 7:50; Act. 16:36; Jas. 2:16; Eph. 6:23; 1Pe. 5:14; 3Jn. 1:14.)

He will leave them as a legacy the gift of peace. And this peace is more than a meaningless sound or even than a true wish. He repeats it with the emphatic My, and speaks of it as an actual possession which He imparts to them. Peace on earth was the angels message when they announced His birth; peace to you was His own greeting when He returned victorious from the grave. He is our peace (Eph. 2:14), and this peace is the farewell gift to the disciples from whom He is now departing. (Comp. Joh. 14:27; Joh. 16:33; Joh. 20:19; Joh. 20:21; Joh. 20:26.)

Not as the world giveth, give I unto you.The contrast is not between the emptiness of the worlds salutations and the reality of His own gift, but between His legacy to them and the legacies ordinarily left by the world. He gives them not land or houses or possessions, but peace; and that His own peace, the peace of God which passeth all understanding.

Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.These are in part the words of the first verse, and are now repeated as a joyous note of triumph. Possessing the peace which He gives them, having another Advocate in the person of the Holy Spirit, having the Father and the Son ever abiding in them, there cannot be, even when He is about to leave them, room for trouble or for fear.

The word here rendered be afraid occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It points especially to the cowardice of fear. The cognate substantive is used in 2Ti. 1:7, and the adjective in Mat. 8:26; Mar. 4:40; and Rev. 21:8.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

27. Peace A blessed word. And Jesus was Prince of Peace. The peace here named is that pure tranquillity arising from the consciousness that all is right between God and ourselves, and consequently that, whatever men may think, all is safe as between men and us. The man in such a state can never be harmed. In the midst of great storms he is a great calm.

I leave with you He would take himself from them, but he would leave behind peace. There should be toils, trials, persecutions; but amidst them all peace. My peace I give unto you The word salam, peace, is the oriental farewell. But Jesus should give his salam, not as the world giveth, in mere words, whether of courtesy or of sincere prayer, but in reality and power. And the peace which he gives should not be a mere world’s peace. The peace of the world is but an armistice between wars; a weariness between struggles. It is but an armed neutrality, founded on mutual self-interest. The peace of God is peace essential. It is full of love and mighty in power.

Troubled afraid Troubled from without, fear from within. External dangers and harms will ruffle the surface of our nature; but let there be a deep peace, which, like the ocean’s depths beneath the storm, remains forever undisturbed. Amid troubles and fears the command of Jesus is, Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Quietude and courage are both the Christian’s privilege and his duty.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. It is not as the world gives that I give to you”.

Jesus now assures them of peace in mind and heart, which He will give to them, indeed is now giving to them. His Spirit will not only teach them but will give them peace within, ‘peace that passes all understanding’ (Php 4:7), a part of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22). It is a peace which is permanent, not dependent on the vicissitudes of the world. It is a peace that nothing can touch (except deliberate sin). The one who enjoys this peace may be troubled, as Jesus was sometimes troubled, but he will have an inner certainty beneath that makes the troubles bearable and temporary. For it His peace, a peace that they enjoy because of His presence within them, and through an awareness of the greatness of God’s love for them (Eph 3:17-19).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

“Do not allow your heart to be troubled, nor let it be fearful. You have heard how I said to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you’. If you loved me you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father. For the Father is greater than I”.

While it is true that He is leaving them, they must not let it get them down. For if they only think about it they will realise that it is both for His and their good. They may want Him to stay, but if they love Him they will rejoice at His going for they will realise that He is going to the Father, and what could be more wonderful than that? He is receiving again the glory which He had with the Father before the world was (Joh 17:5). He will once more enjoy the fullness of the Father’s ‘presence’ unalloyed by physical things Here on earth He is tried and tested, often weary, the object of enmity, scorn and ridicule, but there He will share the Father’s glory, the glory which was once also His, and will rejoice in the Father’s love, as the Father will rejoice in His love.

In His present manhood He is as One Who has stepped down from that glory. Although being Himself of the nature of Godhood from all eternity, He had emptied Himself and become in the nature of servitude, not counting equality with God as something to be grasped and held on to, but as something to be let go so that He may become ‘obedient to death’ on a cross (Php 2:6-8).

Thus while He is in this present position of servitude and humility His Father is greater than He, for His Father has retained His status and glory in full. The Father is not restricted by human weakness. So they should rejoice that He will now return to that glory and that untrammelled state, and take His rightful place, being exalted and given the Name above every Name (the name of YHWH, the name by which God was known in the Old Testament), and therefore being declared ‘Kurios’ (LORD) which in the Greek Old Testament is the translation of YHWH (Php 2:9-11).

Note on ‘My Father Is Greater Than I’.

Like all Scripture verses this should not be taken out of context. It is not the statement of an eternal truth in itself, but the acknowledgement of the present position that Jesus was in. He is speaking of His current situation as One Who had deliberately taken the lower place. He Who had once enjoyed equal glory with the Father (Joh 17:5), Who was pure divine Spirit (2Co 3:17-18), Who could claim unique Oneness with the Father (Joh 14:6-9 above; Joh 10:30), and Who is worthy of equal honour with the Father (Joh 5:22-23) had chosen to lower Himself and become man, yielding up the status that had been His as the great ‘I am’ (Joh 8:58), and limiting Himself to God-empowered manhood. By being ‘sent’ He had taken a lower place (Joh 13:16). In this position His Father was greater than He in status, and He was now looking forward to being restored to His former status.

As we saw with regard to Joh 13:31-32 the whole of Joh 13:31 to Joh 17:26 has in mind the idea that Jesus was now returning to the glory which He had had with the Father before the world was (Joh 17:5), a glory which He had voluntarily relinquished. He had voluntarily become less ‘great’ than the Father, making Himself lower than the angels for the purposes of our redemption (Heb 2:9). This was the position that He was in as He spoke to the disciples and was why He could say ‘My Father is (at present) greater than I’. But the whole point of these words was that the disciples were to rejoice because He was now about to be restored to His former greatness and glory at which point He and His Father would be equal in glory and status.

We can compare how of all men born of women none was ‘greater’ than John the Baptist. This did not mean that he was of a superior essence to other men, but that his status as the Forerunner to Jesus singled him out. And yet we then note that the one who is least under the Kingly Rule of God is to be seen as ‘greater’ even than John the Baptist, because they have entered that to which John pointed. It is quite clear in either case that this does not mean ‘greater in essential eminence’. It rather refers to their status in God’s eyes at that particular point in time (Mat 11:11). How was John of equal greatness with the greatest of men? Only in that he was so in status in God’s eyes as the proclaimer of His truth and as the forerunner to Jesus. This gave him unparalleled status. (The Romans would not have agreed with this argument. It was a status in God’s eyes). How are believers greater than John the Baptist? Only in that they have actually entered into that to which John looked forward. They were to be seen as of a higher status because they were actually within the Kingly Rule of God which to John had been a coming event. Both John and they were of the same essence. The greatness lay in their status at that time. John, of course, has since entered into that status. Believers are no longer greater than John. Thus the lack of greatness was of a temporary nature, as with Jesus in His earthly existence.

End of Note.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

3). Closing Words of Comfort ( Joh 14:27-31 ).

Jesus ends these words of strengthening and encouraging with further assurances. They will enjoy His peace, and are to recognise that it is good that He is going away because it means a greater and a wider work, and will also result in His once again enjoying His Father’s presence in the fullness of His Being..

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The gift of peace:

v. 27. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

v. 28. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away and come again unto you. If ye loved Me, ye would rejoice because I said, I go unto the Father; for My Father is greater than I.

v. 29. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.

v. 30. Hereafter I will not talk much with you; for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me.

v. 31. But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.

This was the last talk of Jesus with His disciples, the last opportunity for speaking with them at length. And so He made a verbal request. He not only said His farewell by wishing them the blessings of peace, but He actually gave them, bequeathed to them as their possession, the peace which He was about to earn for them through His suffering and death, peace with God through His blood, Rom 5:1. This was not a peace after the manner of the world, a mere external, temporal blessing. It is a peace which will insure quietness and security in the midst of turmoil and trouble. It will take the terror out of the hearts of the believers, even when the enemies are threatening murder and every form of abuse. The person that has the peace of a good conscience in the full assurance of God’s grace and mercy will be unmoved in the midst of upheavals that threaten the very foundations of the universe, Psa 46:1-11. And Jesus testifies to the disciples that His announcement of His going away, far from filling their hearts with sorrow, should rather redound to their joy. Sorrow and grief in this case are indications of selfishness and a lack of understanding of His purpose in leaving them for a time. The Master is going to His Father, and that Father is greater than He in His present form, in the person and in the guise of a servant. By going to the Father, He will be given the full use of the divine power and majesty And the benefit of this would come to them in a very short time. He could then give them a much better protection, care for His whole Church in a much better way than at present. And all of these things the Lord told His disciples in advance, for the fulfillment of the prophecy would tend to confirm their faith; and in the meantime, when all things seemed to speak against the fact of Christ’s divinity, they would have the certainty of this promise as an anchor for their faith.

But the time was passing by rapidly; Jesus must make His conversation brief. The hour of His Passion is drawing near; the prince, the ruler of this world, the devil, is preparing for his onslaught. The Lord must die on the cross, after having been delivered into the hands of the heathen. But Satan, though he comes in the treachery of Judas, could not prevail. There was no sin in Jesus according to which the devil might have claimed Him as his subject; there was no cause of death in Him. In Jesus there was nothing which the devil could call his own, nothing which he could claim as his and thus use for his purposes. And therefore also the devil, with all his cunning and power, would not be able to carry out his evil design, to conquer the Lord. He Himself is innocent, and will therefore, by His vicarious sacrifice, be able to reconcile the world to God. His work, His Passion, will stand before the world as an evidence of His love toward the Father and as a proof of His total fulfillment of all commandments concerning the redemption of mankind. -At this point Jesus interrupted His discourse only long enough to suggest their leaving the upper room, where the Passover meal had been held. The various Hallel Psalms had been sung before, after the close of the meal, which John does not describe.

Summary. Jesus speaks to His disciples of His going to the Father, of the evidences of love toward Him in the believers, and of the work of the Holy Spirit.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Joh 14:27. Peace I leave with you: “Peace be to you” was the common salutation and compliment mutually given by the Jews to each other at meeting and parting. But although this compliment implied a wish of every thing thatcould make one happy, it was often used without any meaning. At best, it was but a wish, however sincere, and had no real efficacy in making him to whom it was given happy. But in the mouth of Jesus, by whose wisdom and power the affairs of the world are governed, a farewel wish was a matter of a very different kind: His peace, his parting blessing could draw down all manner of felicity upon those who were the objects of it. Accordingly, he encouraged his disciples from that consideration, under the prospect of his departure; desiring them not to be in the least anxious about what was to befal them after he was gone. See the note on Mat 10:13.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Joh 14:27 . “These are last words, as of one who is about to go away and says good-night, or gives his blessing,” Luther.

] The whole position of affairs, as Jesus is on the point of concluding these His last discourses (Joh 14:31 ), as well as the characteristic word , introduced without further preface, justifies the ordinary assumption that here there is an allusion to the Oriental greetings at partings and dismissals, in which (i.e. not specially: Peace of soul, but generally: Prosperity) was wished. Comp. 1Sa 1:17 ; 1Sa 20:42 ; 1Sa 29:5 ; Mar 5:34 ; Luk 7:50 ; Luk 8:48 ; Act 16:36 ; Jas 2:16 ; also the Syrian pacem dedit, in the sense of valedixit in Assem. Bibl. I. p. 376; and finally, the epistolary farewell-greeting, Eph 6:23 ; 1Pe 5:14 ; 1Pe 3 John 15. That which men were wont to wish at departure, namely, prosperity, Jesus is conscious of leaving behind, and of giving to His disciples, and that in the best and highest sense, namely, the entire prosperity of His redemptive work, “fore ejus benedictione semper felices” (Calvin), in which, however, the peace of reconciliation with God (Rom 5:1 ), as the first essential element, is also included. To assume (with Lcke) in the expression a reference, at the same time, to the O. T. peace-assuring and encouraging address (Gen 43:23 ; Jdg 6:23 , et al.), is less in harmony with the departing scene, and the remote , . . ., as well as with the expression of this consolatory address.

. . . .] More precise definition of what has preceded. It is His, the peculiar prosperity proceeding from Him, which He gives to them as His bequest. Thus speaks He to His own, who, on the threshold of death, is leaving hereditary possessions: “I leave behind, I give,” in the consciousness that this will be accomplished by His death. So also Jesus, whose is to be understood neither as promitto (Kuinoel), nor even to be conceived as first taking place through the Paraclete (who rather brings about only the appropriation of the salvation given in the death of Jesus).

Not as the world gives, give I TO YOU! Nothing is to be supplied. My giving to you is of quite another kind than the giving of the (unbelieving) world; its giving bestows treasure, pleasure, honour, and the like, is therefore unsatisfying, bringing no permanent good, no genuine prosperity, etc. [156] Quite out of relation to the profound seriousness of the moment, and therefore irrelevant, is the reference to the usual empty formulas of salutation (Grotius, Kling, Godet).

, . . .] “Thus does He conclude exactly as He first (Joh 14:1 ) began this discourse,” Luther. The short asyndetic (here supply ) sentences correspond to the deep emotion.

(Diod. xx. 78) here only in the N. T., frequently in the LXX., which, on the other hand, has not the classical ( , Thomas Magister) .

[156] Hengstenberg introduces quite groundlessly a reference to the which the world gives, according to Joh 16:33 .

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Ver. 27. Peace I leave with you ] As a farewell or legacy; Sacrosancta nobis committitur, non , aut : Christ is the Prince of Peace, yea, he is our peace, saith the apostle, and brings true peace, which is a piece of his kingdom, Rom 14:17 . Of him it may be more truly said than it was of our Henry VII, that he came in, Ut cum pacem exulantem exul, extorremque extorris concomitatus esset, reducem quoque redux apportaret. (Twinus Comment. de rebus Britann.)

Not as the world, &c. ] They cry peace when there is no peace, and make fair weather when such a storm of God’s wrath is ready to burst out as shall never be blown over. They complement, and wish peace, when war is in their hearts: as the pope sent away Henry III, emperor, in peace, but it was, saith the historian, Qualem scilicet pacem Iudas simulavit, non qualem Christus reliquit, i.e. such as Judas, counterfeit, not such as Jesus left his people. (Auth. Apolog. de unit. Eccles.)

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

27. ] This is introduced by Joh 14:25 , which suggests the speedy close of the discourse. It was customary to take leave with wishes of peace: so 1Sa 1:17 ; Luk 7:50 ; Act 16:36 ; 1Pe 5:14 ; 1Pe 3 John 15. Also, to reassure by such words, see Gen 43:23 ; Jdg 6:23 . But our Lord distinguishes His peace, true peace, ‘ the peace which I have and give ’ (see ch. Joh 15:11 ), from the mere empty word used in the world’s form of greeting. Peace (in general) He leaves with them; His peace He gives to them, over and above that other. The . . must refer, I think (with Lampe, Lcke, and Stier), to the world’s manner of giving , not to the unreality of the world’s peace, of which, however true, there is no direct mention here. The world can only give peace in empty formul, saying ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace: Jer 6:14 . alli [201] .

[201] alli = some cursive mss.

Joh 14:28 as far as is a reason why their heart should not be troubled; then the rest of the verse removes all ground of , since it is an exaltation of Him whom they loved, which is about to happen; and therefore a ground of joy, and not of fear.

] And therefore the going of Jesus to the Father is an advancement . This word greater, as Luther well remarks (Stier, ver. 228, edn. 2), is not here used as referring to the Nature or Essence of the Son as related to the Father , but as indicating that particular subordination to the Father in which the Lord Jesus then was, and the cessation of the state of humiliation, and entering into His glory, which would take place on His being received up to the Father. So also Calvin: “Non confert hic Christus Patris Divinitatem cum sua, nec humanam suam naturam divin Patris essenti comparat, sed potius statum prsentem clesti glori ad quam mox recipiendus erat.” And Cocceius: “Non intelligitur hic minoritas secundum naturam humanam, quia intelligitur minoritas qu per profectionem ad Patrem deponitur ” (Stier, ibid. Similarly, De Wette, Tholuck). And this removes all reason for fear, as they will be exalted in Him .

The whole doctrinal controversy which has been raised on these words (especially by the Fathers against the Arians, see Suicer, Thes. ii. pp. 1368 9), seems not to belong to the sense of the passage. That there is a sense in which the Father is greater than even the glorified Son, is beyond doubt (see especially 1Co 15:27 f.); but as on the one hand that concession is no concession to Arianism, because it is not in the essential being of the Son, but in His Mediatorial office that this minoritas consists, so on the other hand this verse implies in itself no such minoritas, the discourse being of another kind .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Joh 14:27 . , “peace I bequeath to you”. The usual farewell was given with the word “peace”. And Jesus uses the familiar word, but instead of uttering a mere wish He turns it into a bequest, intimating His power not only to wish but to give peace in the further description , “my peace I give unto you”; the peace which He had attained by means of all the disturbance and opposition He had encountered. Leaving them His work, His view of life, His Spirit, He necessarily left them His peace. , , “not as the world gives give I to you”. This is referred by Grotius to the difference between the empty form of salutation and Christ’s gift of peace. (“ Mundus , i.e. , major pars hominum, salute alios impertit sono vocis, nihil saepe de re cogitans; et si cogitet, tamen id alteri nihil prodest.”) So too Holtzmann and Bernard. Meyer considers this “quite out of relation to the profound seriousness of the moment,” and understands the allusion to be to the treasures, honours, pleasures which the world gives. There is no reason why the primary reference should not be to the salutation, with a secondary reference to the wider contrast. This gift of peace, if accepted, would secure them against perturbation, and so Jesus returns to the exhortation of Joh 14:1 , “Observing that the opening sentence of the discourse is here repeated and fortified, we understand that all enclosed within these limits is to be taken as a whole in itself, and that the intervening words compose a divine antidote to that troubling and desolation of heart which the Lord’s departure would suggest.” Bernard. He now adds a word, , which carries some reproach in it. Theophrastus ( Char. , xxvii.) defines as , a shrinking of the soul through fear. With this must be taken Aristotle’s description, Nic. Eth. , iii. 6, 7, . It may be rendered “neither let your heart timidly shrink”.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

John

CHRIST’S PEACE

Joh 14:27 .

‘Peace be unto you!’ was, and is, the common Eastern salutation, both in meeting and in parting. It carries us back to a state of society in which every stranger might be an enemy. It is a confession of the deep unrest of the human heart. Christ was about closing His discourse, and the common word of leave-taking came naturally to His lips; just as when He first met His followers after the Resurrection, He soothed their fears by the calm and familiar greeting, ‘Peace be unto you!’ But common words deepen their force and meaning when He uses them. In Him ‘all things become new,’ and on His lips the conventional threadbare salutation changes into a tender and mysterious communication of a real gift. His words are deeds, and His wishes for His disciples fulfil themselves.

I. So we have here, first, the greeting, which is a gift.

‘Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you.’ We have seen, in former discourses on this chapter, how prominently and repeatedly our Lord insists on the great truth of His dwelling with and in His disciples. He gives His peace because He gives Himself; and in the bestowal of His life He bestows, in so far as we possess the gift, the qualities and attributes of that life. His peace is inseparable from His presence. It comes with Him, like an atmosphere; it is never where He is not. It was His peace inasmuch as, in His own experience, He possessed it. His manhood was untroubled by perturbation or tumult, by passions or contending desires, and no outward things could break His calm. If we open our hearts by lowly faith, love, and aspiration for His entrance, we too may be at rest; for His peace, like all which He is and has, is His that it may be ours.

The first requisite for peace is consciousness of harmonious and loving relations between me and God. The deepest secret of Christ’s peace was His unbroken consciousness of unbroken communion with the Father, in which His will submitted and the whole being of the man hung in filial dependence upon God. And the centre and foundation of all the peace-giving power of Jesus Christ is this, that in His death, by His one offering for sin for ever, He has swept away the occasion of antagonism, and so made peace between the twain, the Father in the heavens and the child, rebellious and prodigal, here below. Little as these disciples dreamed of it, the death impending, which was already beginning to cast its shadow over their souls, was the condition of securing to them and to us the true beginning of all real peace, the rectifying of our antagonistic relation to God, and the bringing Him and us into perfect concord.

My brother, no man can be at rest down to the very roots of His being, in the absence of the consciousness that he is at peace with God. There may be tumults of gladness, there may be much of stormy brightness in the life, but there cannot be the calm, still, impregnable, all-pervading, and central tranquillity that our souls hunger for, unless we know and feel that we are right with God, and that there is nothing between us and Him. And it is because Jesus Christ, dying on the Cross, has made it possible for you and me to feel this, that He Is our peace, and that He can say, ‘Peace I leave with you.’

Another requisite is that we must be at peace with ourselves. There must be no stinging conscience, there must be no unsatisfied desires, there must be no inner schism between inclination and duty, reason and will, passion and judgment. There must be the quiet of a harmonised nature which has one object, one aim, one love; which-to use a very vulgar phrase-has ‘all its eggs in one basket,’ and has no contradictions running through its inmost self. There is only one way to get that peace-cleaving to Jesus Christ and making Him our Lord, our righteousness, our aim, our all. Your consciences will sting, and that destroys peace; or if they do not sting, they will be torpid, and that destroys peace, for death is not peace. Unless we take Christ for our love, for the light of our minds, for the Sovereign Arbiter and Lord of our will, for the home of our desires, for the aim of our efforts, we shall never know what it is to be at rest. Unsatisfied and hungry we shall go through life, seeking what nothing short of an Infinite Humanity can ever give us, and that is a heart to lean our heads upon, an adequate object for all our faculties, and so a quiet satisfaction of all our desires. ‘Wherefore do ye spend your money for that which is not bread?’ A question that no man can answer without convicting himself of folly! There is One, and only One, who is enough for me, poor and weak and lowly and fleeting as I am, and as my earthly life is. Take that One for your Treasure, and you are rich indeed. The world without Christ is nought. Christ without the world is enough.

Nor is there any other way of healing the inner discord, schism, and contradiction of our anarchic nature, except in bringing it all into submission to His merciful rule. Look at that troubled kingdom that each of us carries about within himself, passion dragging this way, conscience that, a hundred desires all arrayed against one another, inclination here, duty there, till we are torn in pieces like a man drawn asunder by wild horses. And what is to be done with all that rebellious self, over which the poor soul rules as it may, and rules so poorly? Oh! there is an inner unrest, the necessary fate of every man who does not take Christ for his King. But when He enters the heart with His silken leash, the old fable comes true, and He binds the lions and the ravenous beasts there with its slender tie and leads them along, tamed, by the cord of love, and all harnessed to pull together in the chariot that He guides. There is only one way for a man to be at peace with himself through and through, and that is that he should put the guidance of his life into the hands of Jesus Christ, and let Him do with it as He will. There is one power, and only one, that can draw after it all the multitudinous heaped waters of the weltering ocean, and that is the quiet, silver moon in the heavens that pulls the tidal wave, into which melt and merge all currents and small breakers, and rolls it round the whole earth. And so Christ, shining down lambent, and gentle, but changeless, from the darkest of our skies, will draw, in one great surge of harmonised motion, all the else contradictory currents of our stormy souls. ‘My peace I give unto you.’

Another element in true tranquillity, which again is supplied only by Jesus Christ, is peace with men. ‘Whence come wars and fightings amongst you? From your lusts.’ Or to translate the old-fashioned phraseology into modern English, the reason why men are in antagonism with one another is the central selfishness of each, and there is only one way by which men’s relations can be thoroughly sweetened, and that is, by the divine love of Jesus Christ pouring into their hearts, and casting out the devil of selfishness, and so blending them all into one harmonious whole.

The one basis of true, happy relations between man and man, without which there is not the all-round tranquillity that we require, lies in the common relation of all, if it may be, but certainly in the individual relation of myself, to Him who is the Lover and the Friend of all. And in the measure in which the law of the Spirit of life which was in Jesus Christ is in me, in that measure do I find it possible to reproduce His gentleness, sympathy, compassion, insight into men’s sorrows, patience with men’s offences, and all which makes, in our relations to one another, the harmony and the happiness of humanity.

Another of the elements or aspects of peace is peace with the outer world. ‘It is hard to kick against the pricks,’ but if you do not kick against them, they will not prick you. We beat ourselves all bruised and bleeding against the bars of the prison-house in trying to escape from it, but if we do not beat ourselves against them, they will not hurt us. If we do not want to get out of prison, it does not matter though we are locked in. And so it is not external calamities, but the resistance of the will to these, that makes the disturbances of life. Submission is peace, and when a man with Christ in his heart can say what Christ said, ‘Not My will, but Thine be done,’ Oh! then, some faint beginnings, at least, of tranquillity come to the most agitated and buffeted; and even in the depths of our sorrow we may have a deeper depth of calm. If we have yielded ourselves to the Father’s will, through that dear Son who has set the example and communicates the power of filial obedience, then all winds blow us to our haven, and all ‘things work together for good,’ and nothing ‘that is at enmity with joy’ can shake our settled peace. Storms may break upon the rocky shore of our islanded lives, but deep in the centre there will be a secluded, inland dell ‘which heareth not the loud winds when they call,’ and where no tempest can ever reach. Peace may be ours in the midst of warfare and of storms, for Christ with us reconciles us to God, harmonises us with ourselves, brings us into amity with men, and makes the world all good.

II. So, secondly, note here the world’s gift, which is an illusion.

‘Not as the world giveth, give I unto you.’ Our Lord contrasts, as it seems to me, primarily the manner of the world’s bestowment, and then passes insensibly into a contrast between the character of the world’s gifts and His own. That phrase ‘the world’ may have a double sense. It may mean either mankind in general or the whole external and material frame of things. I think we may use both significations in elucidating the words before us.

Regarding it in the former of them, the thought is suggested-Christ gives; men can only wish. ‘Peace be unto you’ comes from many a lip, and is addressed to many an ear, unfulfilled. Christ says ‘peace,’ and His word is a conveyance. How little we can do for one another’s tranquillity, how soon we come to the limits of human love and human help! How awful and impassable is the isolation in which each human soul lives! After all love and fellowship we dwell alone on our little island in the deep, separated by ‘the salt, unplumbed, estranging sea,’ and we can do little more than hoist signals of goodwill, and now and then for a moment stretch our hands across the ‘echoing straits between.’ But it is little after all that husband or wife can do for one another’s central peace, little that the dearest friend can give. We have to depend upon ourselves and upon Christ for peace. That which the world wishes Christ gives.

And then, if we take the other signification of the ‘world,’ and the other application of the whole promise, we may say-Outward things can give a man no real peace. The world is for excitement; Christ alone has the secret of tranquillity. It is as if to a man in a fever a physician should come and say: ‘I cannot give you anything to soothe you; here is a glass of brandy for you.’ That would not help the fever, would it? The world comes to us and says: ‘I cannot give you rest: here is a sharp excitement for you, more highly spiced and titillating for your tongue than the last one, which has turned flat and stale.’ That is about the best that it can do.

Oh! what a confession of unrest are the rush and recklessness, the fever and the fret of our modern life with its ever renewed and ever disappointed quest after good! You go about our streets and look men in the face, and you see how all manner of hungry desires and eager wishes have imprinted themselves there. And now and then-how seldom!-you come across a face out of which beams a deep and settled peace. How many of you are there who dare not be quiet because then you are most troubled? How many of you are there who dare not reflect because then you are wretched? How many of you are uncomfortable when alone, either because you are utterly vacuous, or because then you are surrounded by the ghosts of ugly thoughts that murder sleep and stuff every pillow with thorns? The world will bring you excitement; Christ, and Christ alone will bring you rest.

The peace that earth gives is a poor affair at best. It is shallow; a very thin plating over a depth of restlessness, like some skin of turf on a volcano, where a foot below the surface sulphurous fumes roll, and hellish turbulence seethes. That is the kind of rest that the world brings.

Oh! dear friends, there is nothing in this world that will fill and satisfy your hearts except only Jesus Christ. The world is for excitement; and Christ is the only real Giver of real peace.

III. Lastly, note the duty of the recipients of that peace of Christ’s: ‘Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.’

The words that introduced this great discourse return again at its close, somewhat enlarged and with a deepened soothing and tenderness. There are two things referred to as the source of restlessness, troubled agitation or disturbance of heart; and that mainly, I suppose, because of terror in the outlook towards a dim and unknown future. The disciples are warned to fight against these if they would keep the gift of peace.

That is to say, casting the exhortation into a more general expression, Christ’s gift of peace does not dispense with the necessity for our own effort after tranquillity. There is much in the outer world that will disturb us to the very end, and there is much within ourselves that will surge up and seek to shake our repose and break our peace; and we have to coerce and keep down the temptations to anxiety, the temptations to undue agitation of desire, the temptations to tumults of sorrow, the temptations to cowardly fears of the unknown future. All these will continue, even though we have Christ’s peace in our hearts, and it is for us to see to it that we treasure the peace, ‘and in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let our requests be made known unto God,’ that nothing may break the calm which we possess.

So, then, another thought arises from this final exhortation, and that is, that it is useless to tell a man, ‘Do not be troubled, and do not be afraid,’ unless he first has Christ’s peace as his. Is that peace yours, my brother, because Jesus Christ is yours? If so, then there is no reason for your being troubled or dreading any future. If it is not, you are mad not to be troubled, and you are insane if you are not afraid. The word for you is, ‘Be troubled, ye careless ones,’ for there is reason for it, and be afraid of that which is certainly coming. The one thing that gives security and makes it possible to possess a calm heart is the possession of Jesus Christ by faith. Without Him it is a waste of breath to say to people, ‘Do not be frightened,’ and it is wicked counsel to say to men, ‘Be at ease.’ They ought to be terrified, and they ought to be troubled, and they will be some day, whether they think so or not.

But then the last thought from this exhortation is-and now I speak to Christian people-your imperfect possession of this peace is all your own fault. Why, there are hundreds of professing Christian people who have some kind of faint, rudimentary faith, and there are many of them, I dare say, listening to me now, who have no assured possession of any of those elements, of which I have been speaking, as the constituent parts of Christ’s peace. You are not sure that you are right with God. You do not know what it is to possess satisfied desires. You do know what it is to have conflicting inclinations and impulses; you have envy and malice and hostility against men; and the world’s storms and disasters do strike and disturb you. Why? Because you have not a firm grasp of Jesus Christ. ‘I have set the Lord always at my right hand, therefore I shall not be be moved’; there is the secret. Keep near Him, my brother; and then all things are fair, and your heart is at peace.

I remember once standing by the side of a little Highland loch on a calm autumn day, when all the winds were still, and every birch-tree stood unmoved, and every twig was reflected on the steadfast mirror, into the depths of which Heaven’s own blue seemed to have found its way. That is what our hearts may be, if we let Christ put His guarding hand round them to keep the storms off, and have Him within us for our rest. But the man who does not trust Jesus ‘is like the troubled sea which cannot rest,’ but goes moaning round half the world, homeless and hungry, rolling and heaving, monotonous and yet changeful, salt and barren-the true emblem of every soul that has not listened to the merciful call, ‘Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

Peace. Figure of speech Synecdoche. Greek. eirene. Six times in John, always by the Lord. Compare Dan 10:19.

with you = to you.

My peace. The Prince of Peace (Isa 9:6) alone can give true peace. Compare Joh 16:33; Joh 20:19, Joh 20:21, Joh 20:26. Luk 24:36.

unto = to,

world. Greek kosmos. App-129. The world talks of peace, and we have Peace Societies, and Temples of Peace, while the nations are arming to the teeth. The world (Act 4:27) slew Him Who came to bring peace, and now talks of creating a “World’s Peace” without the Prince of Peace, in ignorance of Psa 2:1. Pro 1:25-27. 1Th 5:8.

neither. Greek mede.

be afraid = show cowardice. Greek. deiliao. Occures only here. The noun deilia. Occurs only in 2Ti 1:7, and the adjective deilos in Mat 8:26. Mar 4:40. Rev 21:8.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

27.] This is introduced by Joh 14:25, which suggests the speedy close of the discourse. It was customary to take leave with wishes of peace:-so 1Sa 1:17; Luk 7:50; Act 16:36; 1Pe 5:14; 3 John 15. Also, to reassure by such words, see Gen 43:23; Jdg 6:23. But our Lord distinguishes His peace, true peace, the peace which I have and give (see ch. Joh 15:11), from the mere empty word used in the worlds form of greeting. Peace (in general) He leaves with them;-His peace He gives to them, over and above that other. The . . must refer, I think (with Lampe, Lcke, and Stier), to the worlds manner of giving,-not to the unreality of the worlds peace, of which, however true, there is no direct mention here. The world can only give peace in empty formul, saying Peace, peace, when there is no peace: Jer 6:14. alli[201].

[201] alli = some cursive mss.

Joh 14:28 as far as is a reason why their heart should not be troubled;-then the rest of the verse removes all ground of , since it is an exaltation of Him whom they loved, which is about to happen; and therefore a ground of joy, and not of fear.

] And therefore the going of Jesus to the Father is an advancement. This word greater, as Luther well remarks (Stier, ver. 228, edn. 2), is not here used as referring to the Nature or Essence of the Son as related to the Father,-but as indicating that particular subordination to the Father in which the Lord Jesus then was,-and the cessation of the state of humiliation, and entering into His glory, which would take place on His being received up to the Father. So also Calvin: Non confert hic Christus Patris Divinitatem cum sua, nec humanam suam naturam divin Patris essenti comparat, sed potius statum prsentem clesti glori ad quam mox recipiendus erat. And Cocceius: Non intelligitur hic minoritas secundum naturam humanam,-quia intelligitur minoritas qu per profectionem ad Patrem deponitur (Stier, ibid. Similarly, De Wette, Tholuck). And this removes all reason for fear, as they will be exalted in Him.

The whole doctrinal controversy which has been raised on these words (especially by the Fathers against the Arians, see Suicer, Thes. ii. pp. 1368-9), seems not to belong to the sense of the passage. That there is a sense in which the Father is greater than even the glorified Son, is beyond doubt (see especially 1Co 15:27 f.); but as on the one hand that concession is no concession to Arianism, because it is not in the essential being of the Son, but in His Mediatorial office that this minoritas consists,-so on the other hand this verse implies in itself no such minoritas, the discourse being of another kind.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Joh 14:27. ) , peace in general (the genus); the peace of reconciliation. [Such as ye might have enjoyed as Israelites (as distinguished from My peace).-V. g.]-) I leave, at My departure. The same verb occurs in Joh 14:18, Mat 22:25 [ , said of the man dying without issue, and leaving his wife to his brother].- ) My peace, in particular (the species): the peace of sons. So , My joy, ch. Joh 17:13. All things in Christ are new; even the commandment of love, ch. Joh 13:34, and in some measure faith itself. See note, Joh 14:1 [The old faith in God receives as it were a new colour from the Gospel, which orders faith in Christ].-, I give) even now. See ch. Joh 16:33, These things have I spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. To the gradation in the nouns, peace, My peace, there corresponds the gradation in the verbs, I leave, I give.- , the world) in its empty salutations [which in Hebrew were generally wishes for peace to the person saluted], or in merely external benefits, which do not reach the heart, and which, simultaneously with the presence, cease from the sight and life of mortal men. The world so gives, as that it presently after snatches away; it does not leave.- , let not-be troubled) by fears from within.- , nor let it be afraid) by terrors from without.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Joh 14:27

Joh 14:27

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you:-The peace that Jesus gave them was not peaceable and pleasant surroundings. It was not an outward or external peace, but it was a composure and peace of mind and spirit that no external surroundings or troubles can destroy or disturb. This is the only sure and true peace on earth. Disturbances, trials, and troubles will arise in the world, and the mind that is dependent upon the external surroundings for peace will never find peace on earth. One who believe and trusts in Jesus, the Spirit of God dwells with and imparts to him the Spirit of Jesus, and he becomes a partaker of the peace that Jesus possesses. With the peace of Jesus in our hearts, we may look without fear on all the troubles and disturbances of life. This is unlike the peace the world proposes.

not as the world giveth, give I unto you,-[Either in quantity or quality. I give richly, abundantly, my presence and my Fathers presence in the most intimate communion.]

Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful.-[Neither caring for what has come, nor dreading that which may still come. Thus he returns to the beginning of the lesson begun at the opening of the chapter. Believe in God, believe also in me, and rest in perfect peace!]

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe. Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.

It was possibly at this point that our blessed Lord and His disciples rose from the supper table where they had been observing the Passover, followed by the institution of that most sacred of all feasts of the church, called the Lords Supper. He had washed their feet, told them of His coming again, of the Fathers love, and of the coming of the Comforter. And now they rose up together and started on the way to Gethsemane where the blessed Lord was to enter into that hour of sorrow before going on to the judgment hall and the cross.

His words have peculiar force as we think of the circumstances under which they were spoken. Peace, He says, I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid (v. 27). When He came to earth, He was presented to man as the One who was to bring peace. The prophet Isaiah, seven hundred years before the birth of Christ, the Savior, had predicted that His name should be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace (9:6). Angels sang at His birth, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men (Luk 2:14). And yet the sad thing that cannot but occupy our hearts today is this, that after nineteen centuries-nineteen centuries of gospel preaching-this world knows less of peace than it has ever known.

Our Lord indicated that such would be the case before He went away, and the reason He gave was this, Because thou knowest not the time of thy visitation and the things that belong to thy peace (see Luk 19:42; Luk 19:44). He came unto his own, and his own received him not (Joh 1:11). He presented Himself to them as their King and they said, We will not have this man to reign over us (Luk 19:14). In Pilates judgment hall He was rejected in this specific character-that of king. Pilate asked, [What!] Shall I crucify your King? And the Jews replied, We have no king but Caesar (Joh 19:15). Oh, how they have suffered under the Caesars since! And all because of that dreadful mistake. The Savior said before He went away, Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword (Mat 10:34). That is, if man did not receive Him and the truth He brought that was to make them free, then they must still remain in bondage to sin with all its dreadful consequences.

He foresaw all these scenes of strife and bloodshed. When they asked Him, What shall be the sign of thy coming? (Mat 24:3), He replied, And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom (vv. 6-7).

The little children sang as He rode into Jerusalem that last time, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest (Luk 19:38). Notice the difference. The angels said, Peace on earth, and the children, divinely taught, sang, Peace in heaven, for He was going back to heaven, taking with Him the peace that He would so gladly have shared with the people of the world. And now He sits at the right hand of God-the Man of peace. And before He went away He said to His disciples, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled (Joh 14:27).

I take it we have two distinct characters of peace in that verse: First, the peace that Jesus left-Peace I leave with you. That, I believe, has to do with the question of sin. There could be no peace between God and man as long as sin came in as a barrier. Twice in Isaiah we read this, There is no peace, saith [Jehovah], unto the wicked (Isa 48:22; Isa 57:21). First it follows Jehovahs controversy with idols. There is no peace to those who put something else in place of the one true and living God.

And in the second place, Isaiah pictures the coming into the world of the Savior, Jehovahs Servant, our Lord Jesus Christ, and he says, He [was] despised and rejected of men He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed (Isa 53:3; Isa 53:5). He told how Gods blessed Son was to be rejected by His own people. He ended up that section of prophecy with these words, There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked-no peace for those who reject the Lord Jesus Christ who alone can give peace. But though the rejected One, He went to the cross to make atonement for sin, and there was fulfilled the prophecy concerning the chastisement by which our peace is made. So in Colossians 1 we read, Having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself (v. 20).

I think that is what He was referring to when He said, Peace I leave with you. He did not go back to heaven until He had settled the sin question and made it possible for man to be at peace with God, and that on a righteous basis. Remember, there cannot be peace with God apart from righteousness. The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever (Isa 32:17). Jesus is an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. For this Melchisedec, king of Salem (Heb 6:20; Heb 7:1). Melchisedec means king of righteousness. Salem means peace. And the Spirit of God says, First being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace (7:2)-no peace apart from righteousness. For that reason, you and I as sinners could never make our peace with God.

Away back in the Old Testament God challenged man to make peace with Him, but no one could ever do it. Why cannot I make peace with God? Because I have no ability to put away my sin. No efforts of mine could make satisfaction for sins.

But the Lord Jesus Christ, as our representative, went to the cross and made peace-made peace by blood of His cross. In Zec 6:13 we read, He shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both. That is, the covenant of peace is made between the Father and the Son. The Son took our place, settled the sin question, and so made peace for poor guilty men. Everyone who will may come to God as repentant sinners, and the moment we trust Him, we can say, Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom 5:1).

At the close of the war between the States, we are told that a troop of Federal cavalry were riding along a road between Richmond and Washington. Suddenly they saw a poor wretch clothed in the ragged remnants of a Confederate uniform come out of the bush. He hailed the Captain who drew rein and waited for him. He gasped out, I am starving to death. Can you help me? Can you give me some food? The Captain said, Starving to death! Why dont you go into Richmond and get what you need? The other answered, I dare not, for if I did I would be arrested. Three weeks ago I became utterly disheartened and deserted from the Confederate army. I have been hiding in the woods ever since waiting for an opportunity to get through the lines to the north, for I knew if I were arrested I would be shot for deserting in time of war. The Captain looked at him in amazement and said, Havent you heard the news? What news? the poor fellow gasped. Why, the war is over. Peace has been made. General Lee surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox two weeks ago. The Confederacy is ended. What! he said, peace has been made for two weeks, and I have been starving in the woods because I did not know it? Oh, that was the gospel of peace to him.

Sinner, listen to me! Peace was made nineteen hundred years ago, and millions today are dying in their sins because they do not know it. You do not have to make your peace with God. You do not have to atone for your sins. You could not do it, but Jesus has done it all. You may come to God in His name. All that He accomplished at Calvary will be put down to your account. The One who died on the cross to make propitiation for your sins has been raised again and sits today at Gods right hand speaking peace to all who turn to Him, who trust in Him as their Redeemer.

Peace with God is Christ in glory,

God is light and God is love;

Jesus died to tell the story,

Foes to bring to God above.

So Jesus said, Peace I leave with you. Have you availed yourself of it? Can you say, I thank God I am justified by faith and have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ?

But that is only one side of it. There is another aspect of peace. My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Now Jesus says, I am going to give you a peace that will keep you from heart trouble. We are living in such strenuous days and times. There is a heart trouble which may cause great sorrow and distress even though the physical heart may be in very good condition. That is when one has to endure pain because of bereavement, financial trouble, family trials, and perhaps saddest of all, church troubles. I think sometimes the greatest sorrow people have to endure is trouble among Christians who do not trust each other or love one another anymore. Who instead of being helpers to one another are really hinderers of one anothers progress. And yet how often we come up against that very thing. Some time ago a brother came and began telling another an unkind thing about a third Christian brother. Wait a minute, said the person addressed, are you telling me this because you love this man?

Then there are the sorrows we have to endure out in the world. There are indeed things going on everywhere that are enough to break a sensitive heart. Yet Jesus says, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. He speaks rest to troubled hearts.

My peace I give unto you! He could say, Reproach hath broken my heart (Psa 69:20). and yet His spirit was in perfect peace, and the same peace that possessed the heart of the Son of God, He desires to impart to us. How may we obtain it? We read in Isa 26:3, Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. There is the secret-trust and confidence in a God of love, a God of infinite power who works all things in accordance with His will. We are bidden to come to Him as He says, Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus (Php 4:6-7). The real meaning of that passage is this: the peace of God shall garrison your heart, or keep your heart, or protect your heart. This is the peace which Jesus would share with His own.

Oh, the peace my Saviour gives,

Peace I never knew before,

And the way has brighter grown

Since Ive learned to trust Him more.

In verses 28-31, with which this chapter concludes, we see how our blessed Lord was kept in peace in the face of the most adverse circumstances. He said, Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I (v. 28). If ye loved me, ye would rejoice! Is there not a word of comfort there for those of us who have lost dear ones down here? He said, I told you I am going away. You should be so glad that I am going to the Father. Oh, these loved ones in Christ who have left us. Where have they gone? They have gone to the Father. Surely it should rejoice our hearts that they have entered into the Fathers house. My Father is greater than I. Remember, He who is God, the Son, became Man, and as Man on earth, He takes the place of subjection. He says, My Father is greater than I. As the Eternal Son, He is one with the Father and the Spirit. Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Php 2:6-8). He took the place of recognized subjection to the Father.

And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe (Joh 14:29). This might be applied to many things going on in the world today. If we did not have the witness of Holy Scripture as to the conditions that were to prevail in the world, we might become discouraged. Nineteen hundred years of gospel preaching, and such dreadful things going on that we might say the gospel is a failure. Oh, no, it is not failure. People will not receive the gospel. Someone said, Dont you think that Christianity has failed miserably? The other answered, Christianity has not failed. It has never been tried. You see, God has shown us beforehand the conditions that will prevail until the return of the Lord. So you see, all is known to Him, and He will overrule all for good.

Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me (v. 30). Neither you nor I could say that. I have been a Christian for fifty years, but I would not dare say that. The prince of this world is the Devil, and there is still something in me that responds to the prince of the world. But Jesus had nothing like that in Him. He knew no sin. So when the prince of the world came to Him, there was no traitor inside waiting to throw open the door. I have to be on guard against Satans wiles, but there was no such thing in His case. He was ever the sinless, spotless, unblemished Son of God.

But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence. (Joh 14:31)

Arise, let us go hence. Go where? To Gethsemane, out to Golgotha. What for? That the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. This is the burnt offering aspect of the work of Christ. He died, not only to put away sin, but to glorify the Father. God had been so dishonored in this world by mans wickedness and disobedience, and then the Son of God became Man and was obedient even to the death of the cross. He has glorified the Father in such a way that God has received more glory through that sacrifice than He ever lost by all of mans sin. It is of this that the burnt offering speaks. Christ offered Himself, a sacrifice and a sweet-smelling savor to God.

But then Gods glory and our salvation are linked up together and now since God has been glorified in the work of the cross, He can be just and the Justifier of all who believe in Jesus.

I hear the words of love,

I gaze upon the blood;

I see the mighty Sacrifice,

And I have peace with God.

Tis everlasting peace,

Sure as Jehovahs name;

Tis stable as His steadfast throne,

For evermore the same.

The clouds may go and come,

And storms may sweep the sky,

This blood-sealed friendship changes not,

The cross is ever nigh.

I change, He changes not,

The Christ can never die;

His love, not mine, the resting-place,

His truth, not mine, the tie.

Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

Peace Cf. (See Scofield “Mat 10:34”).

world kosmos = world-system. Joh 15:18; Joh 15:19; Joh 7:7. (See Scofield “Rev 13:8”).

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

Christs Gift of Peace

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful.Joh 14:27.

Christ is making His parting bequest to His disciples. He would fain leave them free from care and distress; but He has none of those worldly possessions which men usually lay up for their children and those dependent on them. Houses, lands, clothes, moneyHe has none. He cannot even secure for those who are to carry on His work an exemption from persecution. He does not leave them, as some initiators have done, stable though new institutions, an empire of recent origin but already firmly established. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. But He does give them that which all other bequests aim at producing: Peace I leave with you.

These words, touching at all times, were unspeakably affecting in the circumstances of the Speaker and hearers. We know not but they did more to comfort the dispirited little ones than all that had been said before. There is a pathos and a music in the very sound of them, apart from their sense, which are wonderfully soothing. We can imagine, indeed, that as they were spoken, the poor disciples were overtaken with a fit of tenderness, and burst into tears. That, however, would do them good. Sorrow is healed by weeping; the sympathy which melts the heart at the same time comforts it. This touching sympathetic farewell is more than a good wish; it is a promisea promise made by One who knows that the blessing promised is within reach. It is like the cheering word spoken by David to brothers in affliction: Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.1 [Note: A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve, 396.]

I

The Source of Peace

Here we are directed to the true Source of peace. Jesus claims that He is the real fountainhead, the author and depositary, of peace.

1. Jesus defines the peace which He was leaving to the disciples as that peace which He had Himself enjoyed: My peace I give unto you,as one hands over a possession he has himself tested, the shield or helmet that has served him in battle. That which has protected Me in a thousand fights I make over to you. The peace which Christ desires His disciples to enjoy is that which characterized Himself; the same serenity in danger, the same equanimity in troublous circumstances, the same freedom from anxiety about results, the same speedy recovery of composure after something had for a moment ruffled the calm surface of His demeanour. This is what He makes over to His people; this is what He makes possible to all who serve Him.

One can give to another only what one has owned oneself, and as soon as Jesus makes His will and leaves peace to the Twelve, it comes to our mind that He has endowed them with the chiefest good, and has given what, beyond all men that ever lived, He Himself enjoyed. He had neither houses nor lands. One other thing He did not have, unrest. He had shame and suffering. One other thing He did haverest. With evident fitness and intense conviction He could face a crowd of harassed, overdriven, hopeless people, heavy laden in soul and body, and offer them rest. Never had any one seen Jesus disturbed in soul, save in grief for a friends death, or in pity for a doomed city, or for some other reason outside Himself. If a multitude would make Him a King, He was not exalted; if they cried, Crucify him, He was not cast down. It mattered nothing to Him what was said of Him, or done with Him; and through accumulated hardships, disappointments, injustices, cruelties, Jesus preserved His high serenity. Whatever storms beat on the outer coast of His life, His soul was anchored in the fair haven of peace.1 [Note: J. Watson, The Upper Room, 96.]

Two painters each painted a picture to illustrate his conception of rest. The first chose for his scene a still lone lake among the far-off mountains. The second threw on his canvas a thundering waterfall, with a fragile birch tree bending over the foam; at the fork of a branch, almost wet with the cataracts spray, a robin sat on its nest. The first was only stagnation; the last was rest. For in rest there are always two elementstranquillity and energy; silence and turbulence; creation and destruction; fearlessness and fearfulness. Thus it was in Christ.1 [Note: Henry Drummond, Pax Vobiscum, 263.]

2. How did Jesus come by this peace? By unfaltering obedience to the Fathers will, and by utter self-sacrifice. His peace was the fruit of a hard-won victory.

Whatever were His peculiar natural aids of spiritual genius and sensibility, Christ attained His greatness by His own faithfulness to the occasions and intimations which the Father gave Him. If we lose hold of this, we lose the whole value of the Christian life and doctrine. The secret means by which the Almighty Spirit prepares His instruments, the mode and the extent of His intercourse with the soul of Christof these we offer no explanation or theory; but the character that grew up under this culture can never by a healthy religion be separated from the personal will of Christ, or be otherwise regarded than as the result of a voluntary faithfulness to the grace of God. Even when a forced flower is made to exhibit summers bloom on winters bosom, the blossoming is due not to culture only but to the nature on which it was exerted, which here offers no resistance but yields up all its hidden glories to the hand that tends it; surrounded with a special atmosphere, and in special circumstances, the fitness within, the genial nature, repaid the care and burst into beauty. And so with Christ,if the Father was the Husbandman the Son was the spiritual Vine; if the culture was of God, the harmonious development of all that was in that rich and blessed nature was through the willing obedience that offered no resistance to the heavenly tending; if the influences were of Gods holy grace, the answering faithfulness was of Gods holy Child. And the true distinction of Him who, by reason of a perfect obedience, is as the only Son of God, was that through a holy will the spiritual influences of the Father did produce their righteous fruit; that no Divine soliciting was rejected because it involved Him in awful duties; that to Him the only true life, life eternal, was life in and with God.1 [Note: J. H. Thom, Laws of Life after the Mind of Christ, 175.]

Lord, I had chosen another lot,

But then I had not chosen well;

Thy choice and only Thine is good:

No different lot, search heaven or hell,

Had blessed me, fully understood;

None other, which Thou orderest not.2 [Note: C. G. Rossetti, Poems, 123.]

II

The Bestowal of Peace

Christ here shares with His people His peculiar secret. He makes a bequest, He bestows a gift.

1. Not as the world givethnot the peace of ease, but of struggle; not of self-content, but of self-sacrifice; not of yielding to evil, but of conflict with it; not of accommodation to the world, but by the subjugation of it. And so He adds, I have overcome the world. It is a strange paradox, this peace of conflict; it is the peace of an Imperial Spirit which by its own victory rises above human circumstances.

In one of her shorter poems Mrs. Browning asks the question, What is the best thing in the world? Various answers are suggested, but the only one which the poetess regards as final and conclusive is this: Something out of it, I think. Yes, the best thing in the world is something outside the world, something which the world does not contain, and which it cannot give.3 [Note: J. Law Wilson, Helpful Words for Daily Life, 62.]

When we look abroad upon the sea, or the silent hills as they sleep in the tranquil folds of the evening light, and say, How peaceful they are! we mean not merely that the wind is down or the air is still, but that Nature rests in her inner central depths. It is such an inward realityquiet within the soul, a restful life beneath all other lifethat Christ gives to them that are His. It is something deeper than sense, or intellect, or passion, or all the shows of that life which we can see, or hear, or touch. It is no mere harmony of natural powersalthough it is also this; but it is a positive spiritual endowmenta gift from the Divinesomething which at once settles and stays the spirit on a foundation that cannot be moved, though the earth be removed, and the waters roar and be troubled.1 [Note: J. Tulloch, Some Facts of Religion and of Life, 56.]

2. Christ gives His peace by bringing us to the same source whence He had it Himselfby bringing us to God, by making us one with God, and so bringing us into harmony with the true law of the Spirits life, which is to live, not by the perishing things of earth, but by the unseen and the eternal. As the physician brings peace to the body by bringing it into harmony with the law of its life, with the conditions of health; as the teacher gives intellectual peace by revealing to the mind the truth that it seeks after, so that it can apprehend it and rest upon itso Christ gives us peace of spirit by bringing us into harmony with Gods will.

We are purposed for union with our Lord. The Scriptures resound with this teaching from end to end. Every call in its pages is a call to a rectified communion with our Maker. That union has been broken, and broken by nothing but sin. And if peace is to be regained, the union must be restored. But that union must not be a mere cuticle relationship; not one of words or of ritual, or created by the flimsy ligaments of sects. It must be the union of mind with mind, Gods thought rising into our thought as the sap of the vine into the receptive branch. It must be the union of conscience with conscience, our moral sense scrupulously reflecting the judgments of the Lord, as a clock in direct connexion with Greenwich registers the royal time. It must be the union of will with will, my will lifted like a sail while the breath of the Lord blows upon it, moving my life in the appointed way. It must be the union of heart with heart, God and man Bharing common sorrows and common joys. This is peace: mans life moving in Gods life in frictionless communion.2 [Note: J. H. Jowett, in the British Congregationalist, Aug. 6, 1908, p. 122.]

3. Christs peace reaches the heart and conscience. There is only one way for a man to be at peace with himself through and through, and that is that he should put the guidance of his life into the hands of Jesus Christ, and let Him do with it as He will. There is one power, and only one, that can draw after it all the multitudinous heaped waters of the weltering ocean, and that is the quiet, silver moon in the heavens that pulls the tidal wave, into which melt and merge all currents and small breakers, and rolls it round the whole earth. And so Christ, shining down, lambent and gentle, but changeless, from the darkest of our skies, will draw, in one great surge of harmonized motion, all the otherwise contradictory currents of our stormy souls. My peace I give unto you.

The peace of a quiet conscience, as the great dramatist has told us, is far above all earthly dignities. For the honours of earth may be thick upon a man, and yet he may never know one hours happiness. But with the conscience at rest, and its light shining like a very candle of the Lord, the believers life is well balanced. He knows no fear of God save filial and holy fear, no fear of man, no fear of the future, and no fear of hell. Where it dwells, the peace of God shuts out all fear.1 [Note: W. J. Armitage, The Fruit of the Spirit, 32.]

It is told of Dante that after many wanderings he reached a monastery and stood before the door. Thrice they asked him, What wouldest thou? and he broke the silence at last with the one word, Peace.2 [Note: F. E. Ridgeway, Calls to Service, 220.]

In the inn of Bethlehem there were many going to and fro, and much hurry and disquietude, while caravans were unlading or making up their complement of passengers, and the divan presented a spectacle of many costumes, and resounded with wrangling, and barter, and merriment. But in a stable hard by there was a tender joy too deep for words, and a stillness of adoration which seemed to shut out the outer world. The soul of man is a noisy hostelry, full of turmoil and disquietude, and giving entertainment to every vain and passing thought which seeks admittance there. But when Christ comes, and takes up His abode in the heart, He reduces it to order and peace; and though it may move amid the excitements and confusions of life, yet hath it an inner stillness which they cannot disturb or destroy; for the King of Peace is there, and peace is the purchase of His cross, and the last legacy of His love, and His ancient promise to His people.3 [Note: E. M. Goulburn.]

How shall I quiet my heart? How shall I keep it still?

How shall I hush its tremulous start at tidings of good or ill?

How shall I gather and hold contentment and peace and rest,

Wrapping their sweetness, fold on fold, over my troubled breast?

The Spirit of God is still, and gentle and mild and sweet,

What time His omnipotent, glorious will guideth the worlds at His feet;

Controlling all lesser things, this turbulent heart of mine,

He keepeth us under His folded wings in a peace serenedivine.

So shall I quiet my heart, so shall I keep it still,

So shall I hush its tremulous start at tidings of good or ill;

So shall I silence my soul with a peacefulness deep and broad,

So shall I gather Divine control in the infinite quiet of God.

4. Christs peace reconciles us to our brother man. Man will not be at peace with man because he is ready to drift with every stream. That is the false peace, the peace of the Vicar of Bray! Peace can never be gained by the surrender of sacred conviction. But a man has gone a long way towards the attainment of peace with his brother when he is willing to think of himself as only a part, and not the whole, of the human race. He has gone a long way towards union when he consistently thinks of himself as a soloist, and not a chorus. There will then be in his life a delicate considerateness, and he will be willing to fit in with other people with courtesy and grace.

Peace, then, was made. I bury the hatchet, said Callires, in a deep hole, and over the hole I place a great rock, and over the rock I turn a river, that the hatchet may never be dug up again.1 [Note: F. Parkman, Count Frontenac, Works, viii. 465.]

III

The Potency of Peace

Christ bids His disciples realize the potency of their new possession. The citadel of their soul is now invulnerable. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful.

1. This peace becomes the antidote to all dismay and despondency.In the slow sad experience of life a Christian is in no wise exempt from losses and failures. It may be that he will realize that the argosy of his earthly hopes and plans has suffered shipwreck: yet the Lord is faithful who has promised, not I will give thee success, but I will give thee rest. Or he may find himself bereft and desolate and haunted with the dread of bleak, solitary years to come. Time, the subtle thief of youth, will rob him of most treasures at last, except that peace which the world can neither give nor take away. As we gaze down the shadowy avenue of our own future, who would not quail to think of those dark possibilities which it conceals, if he could not hear the Voice which says, My peace I give unto you: let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid?

One of the greatest proofs of the blessed and eternal character of Christianity is that it applies to, and satisfies, the very deepest want and craving of our nature. The deepest want of man is not a desire for happiness, but a craving for peace; not a wish for the gratification of every desire, but a craving for the repose of acquiescence in the will of God; and it is this that Christianity promises.1 [Note: F. W. Robertson, Sermons, iii. 138.]

What rest is to the body, peace is to the mind. Peace internal, peace external, peace eternal, peace with men, peace with God, peace with oneself. Seek God, says Fnelon, within yourself, and you will assuredly find Him, and with Him peace and joy. One word from Christ calmed the troubled sea. One glance from Him to us can do the same within us now.2 [Note: Lord Avebury, Peace and Happiness, 356.]

Peace is what all desire, but all do not care for the things that pertain unto true peace.

My peace is with the humble and gentle of heart; in much patience shall thy peace be.

If thou wilt hear me and follow my voice, thou shalt be able to enjoy much peace.

What then shall I do, Lord?

In every matter look to thyself, as to what thou sayest; and direct thy whole attention unto this, to please me alone, and neither to desire nor to seek any thing besides me.

But of the words or deeds of others, judge nothing rashly; neither do thou entangle thyself with things not entrusted unto thee. Thus it may come to pass that thou mayest be little or seldom disturbed.

But never to feel any disturbance at all, nor to suffer any trouble of mind or body, belongs not to this life, but to the state of eternal rest.1 [Note: Thomas Kempis, Of the Imitation of Christ, bk. iii. ch. xxv.]

2. It is a peace superior to outward circumstances.The world has tried hard to put an end to the Christians peace, and it has never been able to accomplish that. The whole might of our enemies cannot take it away. Poverty cannot destroy it; the Christian in his rags can have peace with God. Sickness cannot mar it; lying on his bed, the saint is joyful in the midst of the fires. Persecution cannot ruin it, for persecution cannot separate the believer from Christ, and while he is one with Christ his soul is full of peace. Put your hand here, said the martyr to his executioner, when he was led to the stake, put your hand here, and now put your hand on your own heart, and feel which beats the hardest, and which is the most troubled. The executioner was struck with awe, when he found the Christian man as calm as though he were going to a wedding feast, while he himself was all agitation at having to perform so desperate a deed.

No harm can come to the least of the little ones who believe in Christ, and are faithful and true to Him. At the centre of the wild cyclone, which bears devastation and ruin in its awful sweep, there is a spot which is so quiet that a leaf is scarcely stirred, where a little child might sleep undisturbed. So in the heart of this worlds most terrific storms and convulsions there is a place of perfect security. It is the place of duty and trust. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee.2 [Note: J. R. Miller, Glimpses through Lifes Windows, 132.]

When winds are raging oer the upper ocean,

And billows wild contend with angry roar,

Tis said, far down beneath the wild commotion,

That perfect stillness reigneth evermore.

Far, far beneath, the noise of tempest dieth,

And silver waves chime ever peacefully;

And no rude storm, how fierce soeer it flieth,

Disturbs the Sabbath of that deeper sea.

So, in the heart that knows Thy love, O Saviour,

There is a temple, sacred evermore,

And all the tumult of lifes angry voices

Dies in hushed silence at its peaceful door.

Far, far away, the roar of passion dieth,

And loving thoughts rise calm and peacefully;

And no rude storm, how fierce soeer it flieth,

Disturbs the soul that dwells, O Lord, in Thee.

O rest of rests! O peace serene, eternal!

Thou ever livest, and Thou changest never;

And in the secret of Thy presence dwelleth

Fulness of joy, for ever and for ever!1 [Note: Harriet Beecher Stowe.]

3. It is a peace that keeps the heart pure and fresh.

A tourist writes of a spring as sweet as any that ever gushed from sunny hillside, which one day he found by the sea, when the tides had ebbed away. Taking the cup, he tasted the water, and it was sweet. Soon the sea came again, and poured its bitter surf over the little spring, hiding it out of sight.

Like a fair star, thick buried in a cloud,

Or life in the graves gloom,

The well, enwrapped in a deep watery shroud,

Sank to its tomb.

When the tide ebbed away, the tourist stood once more by the spring to see if the brackish waves had left their bitterness in its waters; but they were sweet as ever.

While waves of bitterness rolled oer its head,

Its heart had folded deep

Within itself, and quiet fancies led,

As in a sleep;

Till, when the ocean loosed his heavy chain

And gave it back to-day,

Calmly it turned to its own life again,

And gentle way.

So does Christs peace refresh the poisoned heart and jaded spirit.

If sin be in the heart,

The fairest sky is foul, and sad the summer weather,

The eye no longer sees the lambs at play together,

The dull ear cannot hear the birds that sing so sweetly,

And all the joy of Gods good earth is gone completely,

If sin be in the heart.

If peace be in the heart,

The wildest winter storm is full of solemn beauty,

The midnight lightning flash but shows the path of duty,

Each living creature tells some new and joyous story,

The very trees and stones all catch a ray of glory,

If peace be in the heart.1 [Note: Charles Francis Richardson.]

Christs Gift of Peace

Literature

Aitchison (J.), The Childrens Own, 37.

Armitage (W. J.), The Fruit of the Spirit, 29.

Benson (R. M.), The Final Passover, ii. (pt. i.) 418.

Bernard (T. D.), The Central Teaching of Jesus Christ, 184.

Darlow (T. H.), The Upward Calling, 49

Knight (G. H.), Divine Upliftings, 51.

Landels (W.), Until the Day Break, 93.

Maclaren (A.), Expositions: John ix.xiv., 372.

Meyer (F. B.), Present Tenses, 9.

Nicoll (W. R.), Sunday Evening, 249.

Parker (J.), City Temple Pulpit, iii. 2.

Smellie (A.), In the Secret Place, 128.

Smith (G. S.), Victory over Sin and Death, 65.

Spurgeon (C. H.), New Park Street Pulpit, vi., No. 300.

Thom (J. H.), Laws of Life after the Mind of Christ, ii. 172.

Thomas (J.), Sermons: Myrtle Street Pulpit, iv. 221.

Tulloch (J.), Some Facts of Religion and of Life, 48.

Vaughan (J. S.), Earth to Heaven, 94.

Watson (J.), The Upper Room, 92.

British Congregationalist, Aug. 6, 1908, p. 122 (Jowett).

Christian World Pulpit, xlvii. 94 (Cameron Lees); lxxix. 76 (Macfarland).

Homiletic Review, i. 305 (Metcalf).

Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible

Peace I leave: Joh 16:33, Joh 20:19, Joh 20:21, Joh 20:26, Num 6:26, Psa 29:11, Psa 72:2, Psa 72:7, Psa 85:10, Isa 9:6, Isa 32:15-17, Isa 54:7-10, Isa 54:13, Isa 55:12, Isa 57:19, Zec 6:13, Luk 1:79, Luk 2:14, Luk 10:5, Act 10:36, Rom 1:7, Rom 5:1, Rom 5:10, Rom 8:6, Rom 15:13, 1Co 1:3, 2Co 5:18-21, Gal 1:3, Gal 5:22, Gal 6:16, Eph 2:14-17, Phi 4:7, Col 1:2, Col 1:20, Col 3:15, 2Th 1:2, 2Th 3:16, Heb 7:2, Heb 13:20, Rev 1:4

not: Job 34:29, Psa 28:3, Lam 3:17, Dan 4:1, Dan 6:25

Let not: Joh 14:1

afraid: Psa 11:1, Psa 27:1, Psa 56:3, Psa 56:11, Psa 91:5, Psa 112:7, Pro 3:25, Isa 12:2, Isa 41:10, Isa 41:14, Jer 1:8, Eze 2:6, Mat 10:26, Luk 12:4, Act 18:9, 2Ti 1:7, Rev 2:10, Rev 21:8

Reciprocal: Gen 43:23 – Peace Lev 26:6 – I will Deu 33:1 – the blessing Jdg 6:23 – Peace be Jdg 18:15 – saluted him Jdg 19:20 – Peace be 1Sa 25:6 – Peace be both 2Ch 14:11 – rest on thee 2Ch 20:30 – his God Ezr 5:7 – all peace Psa 37:11 – delight Psa 85:8 – for he Psa 119:165 – Great Psa 122:7 – Peace Psa 125:5 – peace Isa 26:3 – wilt Isa 26:12 – ordain Isa 51:12 – am he Eze 37:26 – I will make Dan 10:19 – fear not Mic 5:5 – this Hag 2:9 – give Mat 6:34 – Sufficient Mat 24:6 – see Mar 13:7 – when Luk 24:36 – Peace Joh 14:18 – will not Joh 16:6 – General Joh 16:22 – But Joh 20:13 – why Act 16:36 – and go Rom 2:10 – and peace Eph 6:23 – Peace Phi 2:1 – any consolation 2Th 2:2 – shaken Heb 9:17 – General 1Pe 3:14 – and be 1Pe 5:14 – Peace

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

THE PEACE OF CHRIST

My peace I give unto you.

Joh 14:27

The word peace in the Hebrew seems to have the idea of completenesssomething which if a man has, he wants no more; it is a word in which all good is summed up; we should call it happiness.

My peace I give unto you. These are the Words of the Prince of Peace, the King of Peace, the Lord of Peace, and therefore the peace He gives to His people is princely, kingly, lordly peace. It is the peace of God. Gods peace is Christs gift. For, indeed, the world cannot give it. How can the world give what it does not possess? The way of peace it has not known.

I. Peace is in a Person.That Person is Christ. All peace is treasured up in Him. He is our peace (Eph 2:14).

II. He made peace by the Blood of His Cross (Col 1:20). Round the Cross mercy and truth met together, righteousness and peace kissed each other. He is the great Arbitrator, for He made peace between God and every believing man, and He lays His pierced Hands on both.

III. He speaks peace.He stilled the tempest by saying, Peace, be still. That was what we call a miracle, but it was a parable too. We must believe that Christ meant us to gather that what He did once under certain circumstancesthat, or something akin to itHe would do always under similar and analogous conditions. So all down the ages He has been walking on the waves of this troublesome world, and whispering peace. And when He giveth quietness, who then can make trouble? (Job 34:29).

IV. He gives the peace He made.He applies it by His own Spirit. And the Spirit of Peace sheds peace on the heart like the morning spread on the mountains. Every night the believing man lies down in peace. The pilgrim they laid in a chamber whose window opened towards the sunrising. The name of the chamber was Peace, where he slept till break of day, and then he awoke and sang. And when the last night comes, after lifes fitful fever he sleeps well, for he sleeps in peace. The souls of the righteous are in the hands of God, and there shall no torment touch them. In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die; and their departure is taken for misery: but they are in peace.

I publish peace, and how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! (Rom 10:15). I publish peace,I can tell you where it may be found, I can point you to the Fountain-Head of peace; but only Christ gives it. May the Lamb of God grant us His peace, till we come to the everlasting peace there where all the spirits of all the redeemed turn to Him, as all plants turn to the light, and drink in the sunbeams of His Presence softly and silently for ever.

Rev. F. Harper.

Illustration

Peace is an empire with three provinces, and the provinces cannot really be divided, for there is one King of all; all belong to Him, and He is Peace; He is the God of peace. First, there is the peace which a man has with God as soon as he is reconciled to God by an act of faith in the blood of Jesus Christ, and his sins are all forgiven. Then there is the peace which every forgiven man carries in his own bosom; peace with his conscience. And then there is the peace with man. Why are some persons so irritable, and so uncomfortable with everybody? They are uncomfortable in their own breast; they are not at peace with God, therefore they are not at peace with themselves; and therefore they cannot be at peace with any one.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

7. The Greek word for peace is ETRENE, and its proper or general meaning is a state of mind that is satisfied. It does not mean that no trials or hardships were to be expected, for Jesus had frequently told his apostles that such experiences were to be their lot. Notwithstanding such conditions, the assurance that Jesus would care for them was to give them a peace of mind that the world could not give. Hence Jesus again bade them not to be troubled or agitated.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

We ought not to leave the closing portion of this wonderful chapter without noticing one striking feature in it. That feature is the singular frequency with which our Lord uses the expression, “My Father,” and “the Father.” In the last five verses we find it four times. In the whole chapter it occurs no less than twenty-two times. In this respect the chapter stands alone in the Bible.

The reason of this frequent use of the expression, is a deep subject. Perhaps the less we speculate and dogmatize about it the better. Our Lord was one who never spoke a word without a meaning, and we need not doubt there was a meaning here. Yet may we not reverently suppose that He desired to leave on the minds of His disciples a strong impression of his entire unity with the Father? Seldom does our Lord lay claim to such high dignity, and such power of giving and supplying comfort to His Church, as in this discourse. Was there not, then, a fitness in His continually reminding His disciples that in all His giving He was one with the Father, and did nothing without the Father? This, at any rate, seems a fair conjecture. Let it be taken for what it is worth.

We should observe, for one thing, in this passage, Christ’s last legacy to His people. We find Him saying, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you.”

Peace is Christ’s peculiar gift: not money, not worldly ease, not temporal prosperity. These are at best very questionable possessions. They often do more harm than good to the soul. They act as clogs and weights to our spiritual life. Inward peace of conscience, arising from a sense of pardoned sin and reconciliation with God, is a far greater blessing. This peace is the property of all believers, whether high or low, rich or poor.

The peace which Christ gives He calls “my peace.” It is specially His own to give, because He bought it by His own blood, purchased it by His own substitution, and is appointed by the Father to dispense it to a perishing world. Just as Joseph was sealed and commissioned to give corn to the starving Egyptians, so is Christ specially commissioned, in the counsels of the Eternal Trinity, to give peace to mankind.

The peace that Christ gives is not given as the world gives. What He gives the world cannot give at all, and what He gives is given neither unwillingly, nor sparingly, nor for a little time. Christ is far more willing to give than the world is to receive. What He gives He gives to all eternity, and never takes away. He is ready to give abundantly above all that we can ask or think. “Open thy mouth wide,” He says, “and I will fill it.” (Psa 81:10.)

Who can wonder that a legacy like this should be backed by the renewed emphatic charge, “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid”? There is nothing lacking on Christ’s part for our comfort, if we will only come to Him, believe, and receive. The chief of sinners has no cause to be afraid. If we will only look to the one true Savior, there is medicine for every trouble of heart. Half our doubts and fears arise from dim perceptions of the real nature of Christ’s Gospel.

We should observe, for another thing, in this passage, Christ’s perfect holiness. We find Him saying, “The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me.”

The meaning of these remarkable words admits of only one interpretation. Our Lord would have his disciples know that Satan, “the prince of this world,” was about to make his last and most violent attack on Him. He was mustering all his strength for one more tremendous onset. He was coming up with his utmost malice to try the second Adam in the garden of Gethsemane, and on the cross of Calvary. But our blessed Master declares, “He hath nothing in Me.”-“There is nothing he can lay hold on. There is no weak and defective point in Me. I have kept my Father’s commandment, and finished the work He gave me to do. Satan, therefore, cannot overthrow Me. He can lay nothing to my charge. He cannot condemn Me. I shall come forth from the trial more than conqueror.”

Let us mark the difference between Christ and all others who have been born of woman. He is the only one in whom Satan has found “nothing.” He came to Adam and Eve, and found weakness. He came to Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and all the saints, and found imperfection. He came to Christ, and found “nothing” at all. He was a Lamb “without blemish and without spot,” a suitable Sacrifice for a world of sinners, a suitable Head for a redeemed race.

Let us thank God that we have such a perfect, sinless Savior; that His righteousness is a perfect righteousness, and His life a blameless life. In ourselves and our doings we shall find everything imperfect; and if we had no other hope than our own goodness, we might well despair. But in Christ we have a perfect, sinless, Representative and Substitute. Well may we say, with the triumphant Apostle, “Who shall lay anything to our charge?” (Rom 8:33.) Christ has died for us, and suffered in our stead. In Him Satan can find nothing. We are hidden in Him. The Father sees us in Him, unworthy as we are, and for His sake is well pleased.

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Notes-

v27.-[Peace I leave with you.] In this verse our Lord gives His disciples one more consolation. He bequeaths them as a legacy, “peace;” not riches or worldly honour, but peace,-peace of heart, conscience, and inward man,-peace from a sense of pardoned sin, a living Saviour, and a home in heaven.

Matthew Henry remarks here, “When Christ left the world, He made His will. His soul He bequeathed to His Father, and His body to Joseph. His clothes fell to the soldiers. His mother He left to the care of John. But what should He leave to His poor disciples, who had left all for Him? Silver and gold He had none; but He left them what was far better, His peace.”

[My peace give I unto you.] The expression “my peace,” seems to indicate something peculiar in the gift here promised. Does it not mean “a sense of that peace with God which I am purchasing with my blood,-that inward calm and rest of soul which faith in Me procures for believers,-that peace which it is my special prerogative to give to my people”?

[Not as…world giveth…I…you.] The first and fullest meaning of this sentence seems to lie in the kind of things which Christ gives: “I give you possessions which the world cannot give, because it has not got them to give.” The world can give temporary carnal satisfaction and excitement, and can gratify the passions and affections and pride of the natural man. But the world cannot give inward peace and rest of conscience.

Some, however, think that the point of the sentence lies in the manner of the world’s giving,-temporarily, defectively, imperfectly, grudgingly, and the like. But, however true this may be, I prefer the view that the chief point is in the nature of the world’s gifts compared to Christ’s.

[Let not your heart be troubled.] This is a repetition of the words which began the long list of consolations in this chapter: “Once more I say to you, in view of the many grounds of comfort which I have just named, do not give way to trouble of heart.”

[Neither let it be afraid.] These words are added to the opening charge, not to be “troubled.” They point to a frame of mind which our Lord saw creeping over the disciples: “Let not your heart give way to cowardice. Let it not be fearful.” It is the only place in the New Testament where this word is used.

We need not doubt that the whole of this consoling verse is meant to be the property of all believers in every age.

v28.-[Ye have heard…said…go away.] This sentence must refer to Joh 13:33-36, and Joh 14:2-3, Joh 14:12. The disciples seem to have understood clearly that our Lord was leaving them, and that seems to have been one chief reason of their trouble and distress.

[And come-to you.] I must retain the opinion that this coming refers to the second advent, and not to the resurrection of Christ. “My leaving the world until my second advent, you have heard me plainly teach and declare.”

[If ye loved…rejoice…go…Father.] These words mean,-“if you really loved Me with an intelligent love, and thoroughly understood my person, nature, and work, you would rejoice to hear of my leaving the world and going to the Father, because you would see in it the finishing and completion of the work which the Father sent Me to do.” Our Lord cannot of course mean that the disciples did not “love” Him at all, but that they did not rightly and intelligently love Him; otherwise they would have rejoiced at His completion of His work.

[For my father is greater than I.] This famous sentence has always been an occasion of controversy and dispute. It presents two difficulties.

(a) What did our Lord mean by saying, “My Father is greater than I”? I answer that the words of the Athanasian Creed contain the best reply. Christ is no doubt “equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching His manhood.” This we may freely and fully admit, and yet not give up a hair’s breadth to Arians and Socinians, who always throw this text in our teeth. The enemies of the doctrine of Christ’s divinity forget that Trinitarians maintain the humanity of Christ as strongly as His divinity; and never shrink from admitting that while Christ as God is equal to the Father, as man He is inferior to the Father. And it is in this sense that He here says truly, “My Father is greater than I.” It was specially spoken of the time of His incarnation and humiliation. When the Word was “made flesh” He took on Him “the form of a servant.” This was temporary inferiority. (Php 2:7.)

(b) But what did our Lord mean by saying that the disciples ought to rejoice at His going to the Father, BECAUSE “the Father is greater than I”? This is a hard knot to untie, and has received different solutions. My own impression is that the meaning must be something of this kind:-“Ye ought to rejoice at my going to the Father, because in so going I shall resume that glory which I had with Him before the world was, and which I laid aside on becoming incarnate. Here on earth, during the thirty-three years of my incarnation, I have been in the form of a servant, and dwelling in a body as one inferior to my Father. In leaving this world I go to take up again the equal glory and honour which I had with the Father before my incarnation; and to lay aside the position of inferiority in which I have tabernacled here below. I go to be once more Almighty with the Almighty, and to share once more my Father’s throne, as a Person in that Trinity in which ‘none is afore or after other, none is greater or less than another.’ I go to receive the kingdom and honour which in eternal counsels the Father has prepared for the Son; and on this account, if you really knew and understood all, you would rejoice at my going. If I had not voluntarily placed myself in a position of inferiority to the Father by becoming man for man’s sake, you would have no hope for your souls. But now the work is finished. I return to the Father, and leave my position of inferiority and humiliation, and you ought to rejoice and be glad.”

v29.-[And now…told…before…to pass, etc.] This seems to refer to our Lord’s going away. “I have told you plainly that I am leaving you and about to die on the cross, in order that when I do die and go, you may continue believing, and not have your faith shaken.”

v30.-[Hereafter…not talk much with you.] This must mean that our Lord would not talk much more before His crucifixion. The time was short, and the betrayal and suffering drew nigh. It does not refer to the time after our Lord’s resurrection, and the forty days before His ascension.

[For…prince…cometh…nothing in me.] This means that Satan was drawing nigh for his last final assault on our Lord; and that he would find nothing to lay hold on, and no weak point.

It is very striking to observe that our Lord does not say “Judas, the Romans, the Pharisees are coming.” It is only the devil. He, as at the fall, is at the bottom of all. Others are only his tools.

We should note how the devil is called “the prince of this world.” He rules and reigns in the hearts of the vast majority of mankind. The whole world “lieth in the wicked one.” Of the extent and intensity of Satan’s influence on earth, even now we have probably very little idea.

When it says that he “cometh,” we must not suppose that it means “cometh for the first time.” All through our Lord’s earthly ministry He was tempted and assailed and opposed by Satan. It must mean, “He is coming with special violence and bitter wrath to make his last attack on Me both in Gethsemane and on Calvary.” There are evidently degrees at different seasons in the intensity and virulence of Satan’s attacks.

When it says “hath nothing in Me,” it must mean that our Lord’s heart and life were equally without spot of sin. He knew and felt that He, the second Adam, had nothing about Him that Satan could lay hold on. No one but Christ our Head could say that. The holiest saint could never say it!

Sanderson observes, “a cunning searcher had pried narrowly into every corner of His life; and if there had been anything amiss, would have been sure to have spied it, and proclaimed it. But he could find nothing.”

v31.-[But that the world…so I do.] This is a somewhat dark and obscure passage. The meaning is probably something of this kind: “I do all I am doing now, and go to the cross voluntarily, though innocent, that the world may have full proof that I love the Father who sent Me to die, and am willing to go through everything which He has commanded Me to go through. Innocent as I am, and without one spot of sin that Satan can lay to my charge, I willingly go forward to the cross, to show how I love the Father’s will, and am determined to do it by dying for sinners.”

[Arise, let us go hence.] These words seem to indicate a change of position, and probably mean that our Lord at this point rose from the table where He had been speaking, and walked out towards the garden of Gethsemane. The rest of His discourse He seems to have delivered in the act of walking, without a single interruption from any of the disciples, until the end of the sixteenth chapter; and then, at some point unknown to us, He probably paused and offered up the prayer of the seventeenth chapter.

This is the view of Cyril and Augustine, and most commentators. Yet Jansenius, Maldonatus, Alford, and some others, think that our Lord never left the house, and only rose from [the] table at this point, and went on with His discourse standing!

Lightfoot, almost alone, maintains the strange and improbable notion that the place where this discourse was delivered was Bethany, that the interval of a week comes into the narrative here, that at the end of this week the paschal supper and the institution of the Lord’s Supper took place, and then came the discourse of the fifteenth chapter.

No commentator perhaps can leave this chapter without deeply feeling how little he knows and understands of the full meaning of much of its contents. May we not however fairly reflect that one great cause of the chapter’s difficulty is man’s entire inability to grasp the great mystery of the union of the Father, the Son and the Spirit in the Trinity? We are continually handling matters which we cannot fully comprehend, and cannot therefore fully explain, and must be content humbly to believe.

Fuente: Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels

Joh 14:27. Peace I leave unto you; a peace that if mine I give onto you: not as the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. The peace spoken of here is not the legacy of a dying father, but the salutation of a departing Master. It is thus not mere peace of heart, a pacified conscience, the result of a personal resting in the love of God. It is peace in the midst of the trials which the world brings on the followers of Jesus while they perform their task; peace that is the result of His having overcome the world (comp. on chap. Joh 16:33). My peace, again, is the peace which Jesus Himself enjoys, as well as that which He alone can give: this peace becomes the true possession of the receiver (comp. on chap. Joh 17:14). The effect is that the disciples shall neither be troubled from within, nor afraid with a coward terror in the presence of outward foes.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

As if our Lord had said, “Whatever outward trouble the world gives you, be not afraid of it before it comes, nor troubled at it when it is come, for I will give you inward peace in the midst of all your outward troubles. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you.”

Where note, That Christ’s peace is vastly different from that peace which is given or enjoyed by the world; the world may wish peace, yet never intend it; or they may wish it, yet not be able to give it: but Christ’s peace is real and effectual, solid and substantial; the world’s peace is only a freedom from outward trouble, but Christ’s peace is a deliverance from inward guilt: and though it doth not give us an exemption from outward trouble, yet it gives us a sanctified use and improvement of them, and assures us of a joyful issue and deliverance out of them.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Vv. 27-29. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives, do I give it to you; let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. 28. You have heard how I said to you, I go away, and come to you. If you loved me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father; for my Father is greater than I. 29. And now I have told you these things before they come to pass, that when they have come to pass, you may believe.

The promise of Joh 14:25-26 had as its aim to tranquillize the disciples in relation to the obscurities which still hovered over their Master’s future and their own. Joh 14:27-29 tend to reassure them with reference to the dangers to which they see themselves exposed in this future which is opening before them. Jesus evidently alludes to the Israelite salutation:Peace be unto thee (Schalom leka)! Meyer and Reuss take the word in an objective sense: salvation (, H8934, full prosperity). But the adjective my peace and the end of the verse where the question is of causingtrouble to cease, should have prevented this false interpretation. On leaving them, Jesus would make them enjoy a perfect inward quietness, such as that which they behold in Himself. This peace arises in Him, in the presence of death, from His absolute confidence in the love of the Father. This confidence it is which He wishes to inspire in them, and by means of which His peace will become theirs. This is the legacy which He gives them (, I leave), and this legacy He draws from His own treasury: my peaee.

The verb , I give, is in connection with (mine): one gives of his own. In Luk 10:5-6, Jesus confers on His disciples the power which He exercises here Himself: that of imparting their peace.The contrast between the peace of Jesus and that of the world is ordinarily referred to the nature of the two: the peace of the world consisting in the enjoyment of blessings which are only such in appearance; that of Jesus in the possession of real and imperishable blessings. Luthardt and Keil find here another contrast: that between true and false peace. But it follows from the omission of the object: peace, in the second clause (I do not give as the world gives), and from the conjunction (according as), that the contrast relates rather to the act of giving than to the object of the gift: When I give, it is really giving, it is giving with efficacy, while, when the world says farewell to you in the ordinary form: Peace be unto you! it gives you only empty words, a powerless wish. I cannot understand wherein this sense is below the seriousness of the situation, as Meyer claims. This peace, which He communicates to them by this very word, should banish from their hearts thetrouble which Jesus observes there still ( ), and preserve them, even by this means, from the danger of being afraid (), which would result from this troubled state.

But it is not enough for Jesus to see them reassured, strengthened; He would even see them joyous (Joh 14:28). And they would really be so, if they well understood the meaning of this departure which is approaching. The, you have heard, refers to Joh 14:2; Joh 14:12; Joh 14:18; the quotation, as so often, is made freely.

Jesus adds: and I come, because without this He could not ask them to find in His departure a subject of joy. The words: If you loved me, signify here: If you loved Me in an entirely disinterested way, loving Me for Myself, and not for yourselves. These words are of an exquisite delicacy. Jesus thereby finds the means of making joy on their part a duty of affection. He turns their attention to the approaching exaltation of His position (comp. Joh 13:3; Joh 13:31-32); and what true friend would not rejoice to see his friend raised to a state more worthy of him? Jesus does not here give expression to the idea of the more powerful activity of which this exaltation will be for Him the means (Joh 17:12). He appeals only to their friendly hearts.

We must reject, with the Alexandrian authorities, the word (the second) and read:because I go away, and not: because I said to you, I go away.

The reason why they should rejoice for Him on account of this change is that His Father is greater than He. In returning to God, therefore, He is going to find again a form of existence more free, more exalted, more blessed. Jesus felt the burden of the earthly existence, while patiently bearing it. Did He not say: How long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? (Luk 9:41.) His surrendering of divine existence, His acceptance of human existence was for Him an ordeal which was to cease through His exaltation to the presence of God; comp. the , Joh 1:1; Joh 1:18. The explanation of Lucke, de Wette, etc., God will be a better protector for you than I could be by my visible presence, ignores the natural meaning of the words and what there is of the personal element in this appeal to their affection: if you loved me.

Since the second century of the Church exegesis has understood in two different ways the explanation which follows respecting the relation between the Father and the Son (see Westcott’s excellent dissertation). Some have understood: greater than the Logos as such, inasmuch as the Father is very naturally superior to the Son, while others have referred this superiority of the Father merely to the human nature of Jesus. This second explanation does not seem to me possible, in the first place because, if the state of the Son can change, His person, His ego, remains ever identical with itself; the subject who is speaking at this moment cannot, therefore, be any other than the one who speaks in passages such as Joh 8:58, Joh 17:5; Joh 17:24. Then, applied merely to the human nature of Jesus, as apart from His divine nature, these words become almost blasphemous, or at least ridiculous.

As Weiss says, such a comparison between God and a created being would be a folly bordering upon blasphemy. We have already recognized the fact, in studying the Prologue (Joh 1:1), that the Logos, as such, is subordinate to God. As Marius Victorinus said (365): As having everything from the Father, He is inferior to Him, although, as having everythingfrom Him, He is His equal. Reuss has wrongly seen a disagreement between these words and the divinity of Christ, as it is taught in the Prologue (Joh 1:1). For even in the Prologue we find the notion of subordination expressly declared as it is here, and, on the other hand, our passage breathes, in Him who thus speaks, the most lively feeling of His participation in divinity. God alone can compare Himself with God, and the Arians, in seeking for a support in this text, have at least been guilty of unskilfulness. Here is certainly one of the passages by which the apostle was inspired in formulating his Prologue.

Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)

Verse 27

Peace I leave with you. This was the customary Hebrew form of farewell, and, of course, like other such forms, was used ordinarily without much regard to its import and signification. Jesus says that he pronounces the benediction, not as the world ordinarily do, that is, as a mere form, but that he truly invokes upon them a real peace. It was, however, peace of mind, not peace in regard to external circumstances; for perhaps twelve men never came together who had to pass through so many exciting scenes of persecution, trial, suffering, and worldly tribulation, in every form, as these disciples, to whom Jesus thus, at midnight, in their solitary chamber, promised this peculiar peace, and which he left them as his legacy. All these trials Jesus foresaw, and frankly foretold John 15:18-21,16:1-4; and more distinctly still, John 16:32,33. This last promise was fulfilled; and nothing is more striking, in the subsequent history of the apostles, than the contrast between the perils, dangers, and agitations, of their condition, on the one hand, and the calm contentment and happiness of their hearts on the other. They enjoyed, at all times, a certain deep-seated repose and calmness of soul, which could not be reached or disturbed by external agitations.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

14:27 {9} Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

(9) All true comfort and peace comes to us by Christ alone.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

The disciples’ uneasiness at the prospect of Jesus leaving them without clarifying what they did not yet understand elicited this word of comfort from their Teacher.

"Peace" (Gr. eirene, Heb. shalom) was a customary word of greeting and farewell among the Jews. Jesus used it here as a farewell, but He used it as a greeting again after the Resurrection (Joh 20:19; Joh 20:21; Joh 20:26). Jesus probably meant that He was bequeathing peace to the Eleven as an inheritance that would secure their composure and dissolve their fears (cf. Php 4:7; Col 3:15).

The world cannot give true peace. That can only come from the "Prince of Peace," a messianic title (Isa 9:6-7). He is the only source of true personal and social peace. The world cannot provide peace because it fails to correct the fundamental source for strife, namely, the fallen nature of humankind. Jesus made peace possible by His work on the cross. He will establish universal peace when He comes to reign on earth as Messiah. He establishes it in the hearts and lives of those who believe on Him and submit to Him now through His representative, the indwelling Spirit (Joh 14:26). Later in this discourse Jesus promised His love (Joh 15:9-10) and His joy (Joh 15:11) as well as His peace.

The peace Jesus spoke of was obviously not exemption from conflicts and trials. He Himself felt troubled by His impending crucifixion (Joh 12:27). Rather it is a settled confidence that comes from knowing that one is right with God (cf. Rom 5:1). As the believer focuses on this reality, he or she can experience supernatural peace in the midst of trouble and fear, as Jesus did.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)