No peace without truth.

Ephesians 4:3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

In preparing to teach this weekend on the topic of “speaking the truth to one another” I have come to the conclusion in my preparation that peace and truth are inexplicably linked. That is to say, that you cannot truly have one without the other. The attempts we make to have one without the other either leads to “false peace”, which in reality is tolerance or “politically/socially correct” acceptance, or “marginalized truth”, in which a major or minor compromise to ones belief is essential to create the space to have supposed “peace”.

I have seen this played out often in my time in Northern Ireland, a place desperately seeking peace, often without pursing the truth. What occurs when you pursue one without the other is “false community” that appears on the surface to look solid, but when tested by any sort of stressor, folds quickly back into old routine and comfortable patterns that exhibit the real truth, namely that the community is established on nothing sustainable. Consequently to find “common ground” to build peace on, the truth has to be diluted to such a degree that peace is established for no other reason than we know we are supposed to have it. But just because you know something is to be, means little to nothing of our ability to actually manifest it. That’s is to say, knowledge isn’t power as we are often told. Knowledge is apart of the change that leads to peace, but only in that it is our knowledge of what has brought us into peace with God, namely His grace through Christ alone, that produces a resting in our dependence on Christ, which makes us “peacemakers” in the world in which we live (James 3:17-18-But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness).

This is why truth of the gospel is essential and the backbone to real, lasting peace. As Christ followers this then would put the truth of the gospel and our capacity to remain in it, paramount to the production of peace (“gospel of peace” in Ephesians 6:14). It is in our acknowledgement of the truth of the gospel, as it pertains to us first, and then to all others, that we find the ground that true peace is built upon. Ephesians 2:14-For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.

It is in our understanding and willingness not just to acknowledge but remain in and under the truth of the gospel and what has been done for us in Christ, that leads to the “rule” of Christ’s peace (Colossians 3:15) in our hearts and cultivates a community and environment to be able to speak the truth to one another in love.

When we fall out of step (Galatians 5:23) with the truth of the gospel, the humility necessary to speak to one another from a place of gentleness is impossible to manifest. That is to say that we ourselves must always first be saturated with the truth of our own need for Christ’s forgiveness and grace, which is at the center of the gospel, before we are to point out where in the life of another the same grace is needed. When we try to extend the grace needed to produce peace without the truth of the gospel at the center, what is exchanged are just words without power to produce any real effective change that could lead to lasting peace. Christ must be at the center; hence the truth must be at the center, if peace is to be born, cultivated, and lasting.

The “bond of peace” we share in the Spirit is what has been done for us in Christ. Without the truth of our need of Christ, and what has been accomplished for us, by his grace alone, we have no peace ourselves, and consequently no real peace to offer “one another.”