No Christ. No Peace. Know Christ. Know Peace?
November 22, 2010
The bumper sticker reads, “No Christ. No Peace. Know Christ. Know Peace.” Wow! I thought. What a creative and profound slogan. Jesus is the Prince of Peace. Through Him we experience peace with God. I love it.
But then I had second thoughts as I started thinking about my personal experience. Is it really that simple? Is this slogan an exaggeration? Are we making assertions that don’t jibe with reality?
I can hear someone say, “Rick, this is just bumper sticker theology. Relax.” Yes, you can only say so much on a bumper sticker, but it bothers me because it reflects a reductionist theology that is easy to get caught up in. It’s easy to make simplistic deductions based on truths in this bumper sticker. But I think it hurts our credibility and undermines our witness.
Yes, to know Christ is to know peace. Peace with God. Peace with others. Peace with creation. That’s the biblical mandate and the comprehensive nature of reconciliation in Scripture (Gal 3:28; Eph 2:13-17; Col 1:20). Because of Christ, the potential for peace is massive – that’s why we have started Peace Catalyst International .
However, we really only experience a “measure” of this peace if we are honest with ourselves. So if to know Christ is to know peace then why do we have so little of it? Why is there such a high rate of divorce among Christians? Why is there so much conflict in the church? Because peace is not automatic. We have disciplines to learn, commandments to obey and healing to experience … if we want peace.
And then, is it really true to say that there is no peace outside of Christ? You mean to say that people created in God’s image don’t experience a measure of peace in this world? What about Mahatma Ghandi or Nelson Mandela? Did these men know anything about peace? My Muslim friends would remind us of a man of peace named Abd el-Kader of Algeria. Abd el-Kader has been described by some as the George Washington of Algeria — honored for his remarkable courage in preventing thousands of Maronite Christians from being massacred in 1860 in Damascus, Syria.
Moreover, what are we to make of the commands to “pursue peace with everyone” and to “love our enemies?” This implies that there can be peace outside of the Christian community, and it indicates that it’s our responsibility to help make it happen. So it’s not really true to say, “no Christ, no peace.”
So what am I trying to say? Can we show a little humility? I don’t think the church models the kind of peace the Scripture affirms and this bumper sticker declares. Can we rid ourselves of an adversarial perspective (our Christian club has peace but you don’t). Can we affirm that fullness of peace resides in Christ and the potential for peace resides in Christ but it is not automatic?
So here’s a better bumper sticker for you, “Jesus: God’s Comprehensive Peace Plan,” or maybe, “Jesus: God’s Comprehensive Peace Man.”
Good word Rick! There’s always that tension between the now and not yet. It’s interesting how here in the west we are beginning to equate God’s peace with something that more closely resembles a form of the eastern concept of nirvana, a completely enjoyable experience or an ultimate experience of some pleasurable emotion such as harmony or joy. God’s peace is best experienced on the road with him, and that may often require we walk the more difficult path.
Right on! Thank you for the correction and the encouragement. I am with you, but I probably won’t put the bumper sticker on the car. My bumper is stickerless. Seems to me if I post it I need to practice it. When I work out the consistent practice maybe I’ll get the sticker.
Hey Rick, I like how you give an alternative, i’ll take “Jesus, God’s Comprehensive Peace Man.”
Maybe, Rick, you need to differentiate the different meanings, areas of “peace”.
You might address much of the evangelical audience who like me, find efforts to bring peace on a national level, fleeting to say the least.
Speaking of being superficial, can we really hold up Mandela or Gandhi as having brought peace to South Africa or India? They made huge noble efforts, but Gandhi himself died watching India split up into a massacre of what? One than a million Hindus and Muslims killing each other? That’s why I cringe whenever I read that some ministry is claiming to “transform societies”…
Greg Livingstone