The Perfect Peace – Sunday, January 05, 1986
We have heard the Choir remind us of our need to seek the perfect peace of Christ; to know His teachings, to embrace eternal principles, to practice the spirit of Christianity.
Author C.S. Lewis observed that, once we have accepted Christianity, we must be constantly reminded of its concepts, that some of its main doctrines must be deliberately held before our minds every day. “That is why,” he said, “daily prayers and religious reading and church-going are necessary parts of the Christian life. We have to be continually reminded of what we believe. Neither this belief nor any other will automatically remain alive in the mind. It must be fed. And, as a matter of fact,” adds Lewis, “if you examined a hundred people who had lost their faith in Christianity, I wonder how many of them would turn out to have been reasoned out of it by honest argument?”1 No, he suggest most people simply drift away.
Once men lose the light of Christ, there is a certain flatness to their demeanor. They lose the purpose of life; and, when the purpose of living is forgotten, the universe becomes meaningless. Many in the world today are finding that indifference to the Lord or failure to keep His commandments brings inner turmoil, while the “perfect peace” comes from an ever-closing harmony between our conduct and the Savior’s teachings.
Those teachings are not meant to burden us, but to help us. In inviting us to follow, He said, “My yoke is easy and my burden light.”2
To embrace the teachings of Christ sometimes requires us to experience a spiritual metamorphosis… a sort of renaissance of the heart. Such change often helps us meet the pressures of life in subtle ways… sometimes in ways that are hard to articulate. But there is a reserve that His principles provide in our lives… a balance that permits us to endure difficulty.
Lastly, we should always remember that the perfect peace of Christ does not dwell in outward things, but within the soul. Recall His words as recorded in John: “…whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him, a well of water, springing up into everlasting life.”3
And so is our objective—to find the perfect inner peace of Christ, to drink from the well of everlasting life, and to do so every day of our lives.
1 Lewis, C.S. “Christian Behavior.” Mere Christianity Macmillan Publishing Co, Inc 1952. p 124
2 New Testament, Matthew 11:28-31
3 New Testament, John 4:13-14
January 05, 1986
Broadcast Number 2,942