Thursday, February 26, 2009
"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God" (Romans 12:2 NKJV).
IDEA: If I'm at peace about a decision, doesn't that mean God is confirming it to me?
PURPOSE: Inner peace cannot signal whether or not we're in God's will.
One popular teaching on God's will declares that a sense or feeling of peace confirms that we are following God's will for our lives. We often hear people quote Colossians 3:15: "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace." People use that verse to argue that peace proves we are in God's will.
Some who use this text explain that the word "rule" can also be translated "umpire." You know you are in God's will, they argue, because you enjoy a feeling of peace as long as you remain within God's boundaries. Once you step over those boundaries, the heavenly umpire's whistle blows and you experience turmoil in your life. According to this interpretation, you must literally let the peace of Christ rule in your heart determining each specific decision.
This sounds plausible, but there are two major reasons we can't go with this interpretation:
The passage isn't talking about decision-making, and Paul isn't referring to inner peace. In the previous verses he says, "Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts since as members of one body you are called to peace. And be thankful" (Colossians 3:13-15).
Paul is not offering guidelines for making decisions. He is reminding us that God's will is that we live in harmony with one another. That's it. The passage has nothing to do with the process of making major life decisions.
We know that peace cannot be a proof that we're in God's will if we look at Jesus in Gethsemane: If any one was in God's will, it was Jesus Christ. Yet just before His crucifixion, the Bible tells us, He sweat great drops of blood. With strong cries and tears He asked that, if possible, this cup be taken from Him (Luke 22:41-44). At that moment Jesus fulfilled the will of His Father in heaven, but if these are the marks of a man at peace, it's a strange kind of peace.
Look at a contrasting example: if ever anyone was out of God's will, it was Jonah. Commanded to go to Nineveh, the reluctant prophet headed in the opposite direction, boarding a ship crossing the Mediterranean. After the boat put out to sea, a tremendous storm arose and the pagan sailors were terrified. But Jonah wasn't worried: he was asleep in the back of the boat. He had peace, perfect peace, in the midst of the storm. Yet he was completely out of the will of God.
Jesus and Jonah demonstrate that inner peace cannot signal whether or not we're in God's will. The Bible does not uphold that theory.