Welcome back everyone to Deeper Waters. Another comment was posted in reply to my review of Loftus’s argument on Natural Evil and I wanted to say I really appreciated that one. I’m not sure of the identity of the one who made the comment, but I do appreciate it. However, we are going to continue our study now on the Trinity in the book of Philippians. The passage I am going to use tonight is the one I wrote a paper for on my Hermeneutics class. Now while I read the commentaries on this passage, I didn’t see anyone making the reference I was. Thus, I again present this as speculation, but I think there could be something to it of course or else I wouldn’t be saying it. The passage will be Philippians 4:4-9:
4Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
I wrote on this passage due to the way it deals with the problem of anxiety we so often have. I am one who would be far better off in this world if I could follow my own advice. Tonight will not be about dealing with anxiety per se, but I hope the idea I have on this passage will help with that.
When we look at the start of the fourth chapter, we find that there are a couple of members having an argument in the church. This is something to keep in mind. Be careful of how you’re behaving. After all, imagine that what we know first about these people for all history is that they just couldn’t get along in church.
However, the goal of this is to get the peace of God from the God of peace. Have we considered what it means for him to be the God of peace however? What peace is lacking in this area in the church is the peace of good fellowship between the persons.
What if we put a Trinitarian idea in there? The God of peace is the one who has perfect fellowship in himself which is possible with a God who is triune. The peace that we as Christians are supposed to have is the peace that exists amongst the persons of the Trinity. Many of our problems come from not understanding how our fellow man sees something and maybe we should just stop and look and say “Maybe I should see where he is coming from.” Of course, I also believe that this peace is to be between believers. I don’t think there can be peace between light and darkness, good and evil, God and satan, etc.
My contention is that this peace makes the most sense with the doctrine of the Trinity. The peace that is to exist between the members of the body is to be that peace which is found in the very nature of the Trinity.
Tomorrow, we shall begin looking at Colossians.