John 14:27

(27) Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.—The immediate context speaks of His departure from them (Joh_14:25; Joh_14:28), and it is natural therefore to understand these words as suggested by the common Oriental formulas of leave-taking. Men said to each other when they met and parted, “Shalom! Shalom!” (Peace! Peace!) just as they say the “Salaam! Salaam!” in our own day. (See 1Sa_1:17; Luk_7:50; Act_16:36; Jas_2:16; Eph_6:23; 1Pe_5:14; 3Jn_1:14.)

He will leave them as a legacy the gift of “peace.” And this peace is more than a meaningless sound or even than a true wish. He repeats it with the emphatic “My,” and speaks of it as an actual possession which He imparts to them. “Peace on earth” was the angels’ message when they announced His birth; “peace to you” was His own greeting when He returned victorious from the grave. “He is our peace” (Eph_2:14), and this peace is the farewell gift to the disciples from whom He is now departing. (Comp. Joh_14:27; Joh_16:33; Joh_20:19; Joh_20:21; Joh_20:26.)

Not as the world giveth, give I unto you.—The contrast is not between the emptiness of the world’s salutations and the reality of His own gift, but between His legacy to them and the legacies ordinarily left by the world. He gives them not land or houses or possessions, but “peace;” and that “His own peace,” “the peace of God which passeth all understanding.”

Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.—These are in part the words of the first verse, and are now repeated as a joyous note of triumph. Possessing the peace which He gives them, having another Advocate in the person of the Holy Spirit, having the Father and the Son ever abiding in them, there cannot be, even when He is about to leave them, room for trouble or for fear.

The word here rendered “be afraid” occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It points especially to the cowardice of fear. The cognate substantive is used in 2Ti_1:7, and the adjective in Mat_8:26; Mar_4:40; and Rev_21:8.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh_14:27

Peace I leave with you

The legacy of legacies

The Earl of Dundonald fought with his solitary ship a line of formidable forts in South America, whose fire proved so raking that his men could not be got to stand to their guns.

Calling his wife, he asked her to fire one of the guns, and show these men how to do their duty. She did so. Instantly they returned, burning with shame, to their posts, and soon the victory was theirs. The lady, in rehearsing the circumstance, said that the thing that was felt by her to be the most terrible, was not the din of battle, not the raking fire, but the awful calmness that sat fixed on her husbands countenance, as it seemed to carry in itself the sure presage of victory. This we can all understand. Every moral nature feels that settled calmness in the face of dangers and deaths is the loftiest example of the sublime. Of this we have one peerless example in the man Christ Jesus, who, on the eve of His agony, utters these words. We have here a word of

I. FAREWELL. The Old Testament phrase, Peace be with you! had now come to be a word of salutation, as it still is in the Oriental salaam, the modern form of the Hebrew shalom, or peace. Originally, it was a benedictory prayer. But by this time, in most cases, like our words adieu, good-bye, which mean God be with you! the deeper and devouter meaning had very much exhaled, leaving only a breath of courtesy or compliment behind. But this is good, so far as it goes: for our religion says, be courteous, and no gentleman can compare with the Christian gentleman. Christ here commends these forms of courtesy by His august example. But he does a great deal more. Instead of pharisaically leaving these forms, because they are not always what they ought to be. He tells us to take them up and make them what they ought to be. But, as the context shows, He here means a farewell; and this farewell of peace He repeats at the end of the sixteenth chapter, where He brings these valedictory discoursings to a close.

II. BEQUEST. Leave. Even in the case of a human relative, it is much to inherit his peace. We prize more than gold a fathers, a mothers dying benediction. But what are such legacies compared with that which Jesus here bequeaths to the humblest of His disciples. If we have Christs peace, no matter for anyones curse, no matter what wrath may surround our head. Peace is here used twice, and occurs first in its general sense. Peace within, in the calm serenity of a pardoned and reconciled soul; peace without, in every needed temporal blessing; peace in storms and afflictions, in the precious gift of a heart established, trusting in the Lord; peace in persecution; yea, perfect peace, blessing them that curse us, doing good to them that hate us; peace in death; for mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace; peace in the grave, for there the body is stretched out in repose, where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest; and the consummation of all peace in heaven. And as Christ is the Testator, so He is Himself the Executor. My peace. Yes; what the Saviour leaves He gives: what He died to procure, He rose and reigns to bestow.

III. GOSPEL. This peace is a peace particularly Christs own; that which He Himself possesses and feels, as having finished His work and wrought out our salvation. Would you see something of it? Go to Calvary. The pallid lips give forth the victory shout, It is finished; and the words, Father, into Thy hands I commit My spirit; and then the triumphant soul of the Redeemer rises in peace and rapture to the bosom of His Father and His God. It is the climax of peace. Now the peace which was then our Saviours own He imparts to the humblest of His disciples. We believe in Him and become pardoned, accepted, and sanctified in the Beloved.

IV. GOOD CHEER. Not as the world giveth, etc. There is no peace saith my God to the wicked. But let the wicked only forsake his way, and this peace straightway breathes down upon him like a scented vivifying gale from the delectable land. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. How suggestive the contrast!

1. It is vain to seek peace

(1) In the worlds objects of attraction, such as pride, pleasure, and ambition, which bring with them no end of thorny care.

(2) In the worlds friendships, which at best are but fleeting, and which too often promise only to falsify and forget.

(3) In the worlds wisdoms, which are folly.

(4) In the worlds religions, which are worse.

2. But our Saviours words seem to refer mainly to the manner of the giving.

(1) The world gives conventionally, Christ gives sincerely.

(2) The world gives superficially, Christ gives substantially.

(3) The world gives partially, Christ gives perfectly.

(4) The world gives capriciously, Christ gives constantly.

(5) The world gives temporarily, Christ gives eternally. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

The legacy of Christ

That the Son of God might become the merciful and faithful High Priest of His Church, it behoved Him to be made in all things like unto His brethren. Hence we see Him influenced by the same affections that influence ourselves, and manifesting the same dispositions. When His end drew near, He made, as it were, His will, and would not suffer the last interview with His disciples to close before He had reminded them of the precious gifts which He purposed to bestow.

I. THE BLESSING WHICH CHRIST BEQUEATHS. Peace. If there is any word which can excite pleasing sensations in the human breast, it is this. It is as sweet to the children of men, as the long wished for shore to the mariner who is wearied with the labours of the ocean. It is as reviving as the warm breezes of the spring to the man who has just risen from a bed of sickness. How welcome are the tidings of returning peace to a nation which has been long accustomed to the sound of war! How beautiful the feet of them who publish it! But it is not amongst mankind only that peace is thus highly esteemed. It is declared by the great Jehovah Himself to be among the things which He calls good. To bring down this blessing was the great object of our Saviours appearing. Hence the prophecies spoke of Him as the Prince of Peace. Hence, when He was born, peace on earth was proclaimed by the rejoicing angels. Hence, too, when He was about to leave His beloved disciples, peace was the precious legacy he left, and it was His first blessing after He rose. What, then, is this peace? Is it an exemption from the calamities of life, from sorrow and affliction? No. In the world ye shall have tribulation. Is it peace with the world, an exemption from its hatred and persecution? No. The world hateth you. It is

1. Peace with God. The man who inherits this precious legacy was once the enemy of the Lord. But now the enmity of his carnal mind has been subdued. He has gone, as a repentant prodigal, to the throne of his heavenly Father, and has received a welcome and a pardon there. Being justified by faith, he has peace, etc.

2. Peace in the soul. This is a blessing which none but Christ can give, and none but His renewed people receive. Others may seek it, may perhaps find something which they mistake for it; but until a mans heart has been sprinkled from an evil conscience, he must remain as far off from true peace of mind as he is from God.

3. Christs peace. It is the same peace that He Himself enjoys; that kept His soul tranquil in the midst of all His sorrows, and into which He is now entered in His Fathers kingdom above.

II. THE MANNER IN WHICH IT HAS BEEN GIVEN.

1. By bequest.

(1) The property which a man conveys by a will or testament must be his own estate and property; and he must also have a right of transferring it to others. Thus this peace was Christs own, and which He had the power of disposing of by will. He was the only Being in the universe rich enough to purchase reconciliation.

(2) This peace could never have been inherited if the great Giver of it had not died. A man may leave to his friends abundant riches, but these gifts will profit them nothing till after he is dead.

(3) Not as the world giveth. The blessings which Christ has left are widely different from those things which men leave to their friends. They are

(a) More valuable. Men may leave behind them riches, mansions, titles; but they cannot make a man happy, even in the day of prosperity; while the legacy of Christ, even in the darkest night of adversity, can satisfy the longing soul, and fill the hungry soul with goodness.

(b) More permanent. They will remain precious as ever, when every earthly treasure shall be heard of no more. Conclusion:

1. The security and stability of the Divine promises. Peace is not only promised, but bequeathed. The Testator is now dead; the testament is in force.

2. A man may have a precious legacy bequeathed to him, and he may be so infatuated as to refuse to accept it, or so indolent as to neglect the proper means of possessing himself of it; but still the legacy is his. The very same causes, united with an evil heart of unbelief, may keep you strangers to the peace of God.

3. But before we can have a title to this legacy, we must be united to Christ by a living faith. There is no peace to the wicked. (C. Bradley, M. A.)

The legacy of Christ

Our Lord, being about to die, makes all the accustomed preparations, and discharges all the functions of a dying man. He charges His friends with His last commands, delivers to them His last advices, prays for them a last and touching prayer, institutes for them an expressive and affecting ordinance--the great Christian keepsake to be observed in remembrance of Him--and compensates them as much as possible for their deprivement of Himself, by bequeathing them all that He had to dispose of--this precious and peculiar blessing of peace.

I. THE THING ITSELF. The legacy is peace.

1. It fulfils the first great condition of peace, by harmonizing the inward feelings with the outward experience; in other words, it establishes peaceful relations between the soul and its proper objects.

(1) Between the soul and its God. These had been violated. The primitive intercourse between man and his Maker was loving and intimate. When he sinned, such intercourse became impossible. How can two walk together unless they be agreed? The holy anger of the offended God is met by the hostile feeling of the offending man. In this condition of enmity Christ becomes our peace. By His Cross He appeases the anger of God. By His Spirit He subdues the enmity in man. He makes pardon possible on Gods part by bearing our sins; He makes it to be desired on ours by renewing our hearts.

(2) Between the soul and its moral duty. Corruption opposes our duty to God, selfishness our duty to man, and their antagonism is destructive of peace. But under the influence of the gospel both are destroyed.

(a) Duties to God are discharged with delight. The service is love, the principle is gratitude.

(b) Nor are duties to man less cordial. We are taught to love as brethren, and are conformed to a noble example. This peace comes into individual hearts, and, eradicating selfishness and bitterness, produces charity; it comes into our homes, and it adds the brotherhood of grace to the brotherhood of nature. It comes among nations, and it teaches that righteousness is exaltation, affection, and felicity.

(3) Between the soul and its providential experiences. When did irreligion acquiesce in providential trials? But the gospel gives us revelations of the purpose of Gods providence, new recognitions of its real character, and thus harmonizes our feelings with even its deepest adversities.

(4) Between the soul and its destiny; peace in anticipation of the future life. The believer has no longer a fearful looking for of judgment; he knows in whom he has believed; he is begotten again to a lively hope. This is more than reconciliation--it is assurance; more than peace with God--it is peace in God; more than peace with his lot--it is rejoicing over it.

2. It is competent to produce harmony among the inward feelings themselves--a condition palpably as essential as the former--essential in order to the former. For, while there is internal discord, there cannot be external harmony. Sin destroyed the peace of the inward heart, as effectually as it destroyed the peace of its outward relations. There can be no peace among passions of equal intensity and independence, unless subject to some common and absolute rule. To meet this need, we receive the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ. Every affection is taught to recognize Him. Every gratification is found in His will. Every passion is thus made to harmonize. Every desire is solicited to a common tendency. Every energy is directed to a common result.

II. THIS BEQUEATHMENT THE SAVIOUR IDENTIFIED WITH HIMSELF.

1. My peace. He had secured it to them. It was purchased by His atonement, and wrought by His Spirit.

2. It is peace like His own; the peculiar and surpassing peace which, as a man, He had enjoyed.

(1) Peace with God.

(2) The peace of perfect and conscious obedience.

(3) The peace of perfect affiance. No endurance made Him murmur; no extremity provoked His impatience; no deprivation shook His confidence.

(4) The peace of blissful anticipation. He knew that when His work was done He should be raised to glory and honour. In all these elements the peace of the Redeemer and the peace of His followers are identical.

III. THE PECULIARITY OF THE BESTOWMENT. Not as the world giveth.

1. The method of the world in giving peace is by a careful adjustment of external things, sweetening such as are bitter, smoothing such as are rugged. It mistakes a peaceful lot for peaceful feelings; totally neglectful of feelings within, it attends solely to circumstances without; it seeks to remove anxiety, not by trusting in Providence, but by heaping up wealth to make us independent of Providence. It seeks to satisfy inordinate craving, not by moderating desire, but by scraping up gratifications until desire be satiated. It builds up around a man its vain fortifications; but let its defences be carried, and the untutored and effeminate soul is a helpless and hopeless prey. Broadly contrasted with this is the peace of Jesus Christ. It is not dependent on things without; it arises from sources within. It requires not that there should be ease and indulgence; it may exist amid the utmost privation and self-sacrifice. It is not the peace of compromise, but of conquest. In the world ye shall have tribulation, but in Me ye shall have peace.

2. Identifying peace with indifference, the world would school the heart into an insensibility. Thus the men of the world seek peace; they would freeze the sea of affection, that no storm may agitate its waves; they would petrify the heart, that no grasp of anguish may mark it. And in like manner would they deal with spiritual things; they would quiet all religious solicitudes by utterly banishing them; peace with God they would have by forgetting Him; peace with their consciences by stifling them; peace with the claims of duty by refusing to listen to them; peace with their future destiny by never thinking about it. They make a solitude, and call it peace. (H. Allen, D. D.)

Christs legacy

I. THE NATURE OF THE BLESSING BEQUEATHED.

1. The enjoyment of actual reconciliation with God.

2. A sweet composure and calmness of mind, arising from the sense of reconciliation impressed by the Spirit of God on our hearts.

II. THE PECULIAR CONNECTION WHICH HE STATES THIS BLESSING TO HAVE WITH HIMSELF. My peace.

1. Reconciliation to God exclusively arises from the merit of His sacrificial sufferings as being our Redeemer. It is in consequence of the work of the Saviour that the Spirit has been sent actually to apply the blessing of reconciliation to the heart and to the conscience of man.

III. THE POINTS OF CONTRAST EXISTING BETWEEN THIS BLESSING AND THE COMMUNICATIONS OF THE WORLD. Not as the world giveth.

1. That which is given to us by the world is empty; that which is given to us by Christ is substantial.

2. What the world gives is pernicious, and that which Christ gives is beneficial.

3. That which is given to us by the world is changeable, and must perish; and that which is given to us by Christ is immutable, and must endure for ever.

IV. THE INFLUENCE WHICH THE POSSESSION OF THIS BLESSING OUGHT TO POSSESS ON OUR MINDS. Let not your heart be troubled. (J. Parsons.)

Christs legacy

When Christ left the world, He made His will. His soul He bequeathed to His Father, and His body to Joseph. His clothes fell to the soldiers, His mother He left to the care of John. But what should He leave to His poor disciples, who had left all for Him? Silver and gold He had none; but He left them what was far better--His peace. (M. Henry.)

The legacy of peace

I. THE FIRST REQUISITE, IN ORDER TO THIS PEACE, IS HAVING, SEALED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD, A CERTIFICATE OF JUSTIFICATION. One has said, If you wish for peace with God, do your duty. Try to be as good as you can. But I have not been as good as I could. God has not had the first place in my love, and the first obedience in my life. Through Christs intervention, however, the writ once against me is now null, for the sentence for treason is crossed through under sanction of the law itself, and I have in my very soul the certificate of justification, sealed by the Comforter.

II. CHRISTS PEACE COMES FROM CHRISTS LIFE. You mistake if you fancy that this peace is a dull composure. It means more life, not less! The Spirit of Christ, in giving this peace, numbs no nerve, stifles no primitive impulse, mesmerises no faculty. On the contrary, His tendency is to make us spring up, broad awake, feeling alive all over. He makes, through this change in us, a change in everything around us. He makes old Christian truths, that once had become almost insipid by familiarity, break out into meanings and charms, bright as morning and fresh as the spring. To be spiritually-minded is life, the cause; peace, the effect.

III. PEACE IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH SIN. A person may be in the root of his life a Christian, and yet his Christianity may be little more than a root. He may have a name to live, and may pass as an average professor of faith in Christ, yet might know but little of this Divine peace. There is no peace for the shot limb while the bullet is in it. A person has been drinking some deadly thing, tempted by its inspiriting flavour, but now it maddens him, and there is no peace for the poisoned system while the poison is in it. There is no peace to the fever-stricken sufferer until the fever is out of him. You remember the storm that Jonah caused, and how it had to be quieted. If you would have peace, first find out, and then cast out your Jonah--the Jonah of that sheltered sin, of that crooked policy, of that secret, whatever it may be, that stops a blessing from coming on you who carry it.

IV. THE PEACE OF CHRIST HAS ITS SEAT, NOT IN THE CIRCUMSTANCES, BUT IN THE HEART. Let not your heart be troubled. It is a truism to say that disquiet belongs to this world, for everyone knows this, though he may know little else; and it belongs in a particular degree to this particular age. Disquiet connected with the disputes between labour and capital; from questions connected with the money market; made by the battle of books, by the conflicts of theological thought; seen from the post of political outlook. But having Christ as our own life, we can say, though our surroundings may be like the disquiet of an earthquake, Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, etc. We have peace in our heart, for the Giver of peace is there. Without, there may be excitement; indeed, our own physical life may be excitable, for grace does not turn one body into another; yet there is a Divine calm down under the surface, such as no man can know who knows not the true life.

V. CHRISTS PEACE IS HERE ASSURED TO US IN TERMS OF PECULIAR SIGNIFICANCE. Peace I leave. This is the language of legacy, and implies

1. That He would live after He had died. A legacy implies death Heb_9:16).

2. The principle of grace. He gives. Grace is not the name of wages for work, nor of reward for merit; nor of gain by conquest; nor of what we receive on the principle of so much for so much.

3. The deity of the Giver. Reconsider what is meant by the peace of Christ, and then ask yourself if a man could give it.

4. Not as the world giveth. The world can only give what it has to give. The world gives fitfully, and there is no dependence on the world; the world gives in order to get; the world gives to take away again; grudgingly and delusively. (C. Stanford, D. D.)

Peace

I. THE NATURE OF THE PEACE THAT JESUS GIVES.

I. It is peace in the mind. There is a state of the mind answering to the surging sea, or the agitations of the atmosphere; when a man has not clear perception of important truth; when the mind is swayed by apprehension, and driven by scepticism from every resting place for its convictions. The opposite of that is certitude, the repose of enlightened conviction upon ascertained principle. Jesus Christ gives that to His people.

2. Peace of conscience. If a man have not that, all the flattery of nations will not make him happy. The Psalmist says, Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which Thou hast broken for dislocated] may rejoice. Mans moral nature is the skeleton of his soul. David felt that his conscience was dislocated, and he could not know happiness until God had reset and restored it. Well, Christ gives peace of conscience; He restores it to its functions, and causes the man that has this peace to rejoice.

3. Peace of heart. Man may know, see, say, and sing a great deal, but if his heart is not keyed to spiritual harmony, if there are jarring affections, forbidden passions, corrupt emotions in the soul, he cannot be happy.

4. Peace in all the relationships in which a man stands. There is no solid peace if there is not peace with God, but where there is there will be peace with man, and he who enjoys it will be a peacemaker; he will delight in diffusing that happiness which he enjoys.

5. It is Christs peace

(1) As distinguished from

(a) The peace of indifference. There are some persons who, on the subject of religion, have really no trouble at all. This is a peace like that of the poor Indian sleeping in his canoe while rolling him onwards to the cataract.

(b) The peace of self-deception: the peace of the patient that takes the hectic flush of his cheek as a sign of health, of the sailor who swaggers along the deck while the leak is in the keel. That is not the peace of Christ.

(2) Positively it is the peace that arises from a knowledge of mans state and the remedy that he needs. I have seen a patient quite relieved by being told the very worst of his case. At the same time he was assured by a physician that there was a specific remedy for that disease which had cured thousands.

II. HOW HE GIVES THIS PEACE: Not as the world giveth.

1. The world could not give such a thing at all; the world can only give what it gets, and it neither has nor knows that peace. The world may give a man wealth; the heart may be writhing in agony under the blaze of diamonds. The world may give a man fame, but a celebrated actor died of sorrow whilst the city was ringing his praise. The world may give a man pleasure, but that can only ripple the surface.

2. The world gives what it has

(1) With a hope of getting again.

(2) As little as it can.

3. Is soon tired of giving on any principle, even of giving to its friends. (J. Graham, D. D.)

The blessedness of peace

A lady who passed through the terrors of the Vicksburg siege wrote the night after the surrender: It is evening. All is still. Silence and night are once more united. H-- is leaning back in his rocking chair. He says, G-- , it seems to me I can hear the silence and feel it too. It wraps me like a soft garment; how else can I express this peace? (H. O.Mackey.)

False peace and true peace

I. THE WORLDS PEACE.

1. It is not sound and sincere, but hollow (Psa_55:21). It professes friendship, and yet it is ready to sell its friend for a mess of pottage.

2. Selfish.

3. Mercenary. When it gives, always expects an equivalent.

4. Fragile. How soon is the trading mans peace, our domestic peace, our civil peace, our peace of mind, broken! How long can you calculate upon keeping your peace?

5. Unserviceable. The worlds peace never stands by our side in the hour of sorrow, tribulation, or temptation. It will do for the summer, but not for the winter.

6. Temporary.

II. THE PEACE OF CHRIST.

1. Its nature. It is peace

(1) with God;

(2) with ourselves;

(3) with our fellow men.

2. Its characteristics.

(1) It is sincere;

(2) disinterested;

(3) gratuitous;

(4) indissoluble;

(5) serviceable. (J. Ralph, M. A.)

False peace

Once, as a poet was thinking of Napoleons defeat when he tried to win Moscow, he had a dreadful dream of peace. Under the spell of his dream, he found himself in a dim, still, snowy wilderness; many horsemen, covered with cloaks, their cloaks covered with snow, were sitting motionless; dead fires were seen, with grenadiers, white with snow, stretched motionless around; waggons, crowded with snow-shrouded, motionless figures, seemed to stop the way, the wheels fixed by a riverside, in ruts of water which the frost had struck into steel; cannon were there, heaped over with snow; snow lay on banners unlifted, on trumpets unblown. Was the seer of such a sight moved to cry Peace, peace! Better face the intense white flame that bursts from guns, better face the terrible iron rain, better face the worst of war, than face a scene of peace like that! Yet much that passes for peace in the region of the soul, and in relation to God, is not much better. (C. Stanford, D. D.)

Divine peace

It may, perhaps, have befallen some of us to stand by the side of one of those brawling mountain streams which descend from our southern and western coasts into the sea. It rushes with its noisy waters down its stony channel; every pebble rattles in the torrent; every ripple makes a murmur of its own. Suddenly the sound ceases: a deep stillness fills the banks from side to side. Why? It is the broad sweep of the advancing tide of the ocean that has checked the stream and occupied the whole space of its narrow channel with its own strong, silent, overwhelming waters. Even so it is with all the little cares, difficulties, and distractions which make up the noise and clatter of the stream of our daily life. They go on increasing and increasing, and engross our whole attention, till they are suddenly met and absorbed by some thoughts or objects greater than themselves advancing from a wider and deeper sphere. So it is in human things: so it is when in private life we are overtaken by some great personal joy or sorrow. The very image which I have just used of the brook and the sea has been beautifully employed by our greatest living poet to express the silencing of all lesser thoughts and aims by the death of a dear friend. So it is often felt in public concerns, when all petty cares and quarrels have been drowned in the tide of public joy or sorrow which has rolled in upon us from the great world without. All the streams of common life under such circumstances, descending from their several heights, deep or shallow, turbid or clear, have been checked at one and the same moment, have been hushed at one and the same point, by the waters broad and vast sweeping in from the ocean, which encompassed us all alike. Every lesser controversy has then stood still; every personal murmur at such moments has been silenced by the grander and deeper interest which belonged alike to us all. What that figure of the brook and of the tide is in the natural world, what great joys and sorrows are in personal life, what great public events are in the life of a nation, that to every human being ought to be the thought of eternity, the peace of God. From a thousand heights the streams of life are ever rushing down. All manner of obstacles meet their course--the rough rock, the broken bough, the smooth pebble, the crooked bank. Each and all are enough to ruffle those shallow waters, and to obstruct those narrow torrents. But there is, or there may be, forever advancing into each of these channels a tide from that wide and trackless ocean to which they are all tending; and deep indeed is the peace which those tides bring with them into the inland hills wherever their force extends. (Dean Stanley.)

Jesus leaving peace to His disciples

Though all Christs conduct is godlike, nevertheless the last scenes of His life shine with peculiar splendour. In proportion as He draws nearer to its close, His charity appears to burn with a warmer flame, His divinity to shed forth brighter beams through the clouds which enshrouded it.

I. JESUS CHRIST GIVES PEACE TO HIS FOLLOWERS; or in other words, He has opened for them sources of tranquillity and joy amidst all the calamities and afflictions of life. This will be established if we can prove these two points

1. He has given us the most adequate supports under all the woes to which we are exposed; and,

2. He has bestowed on us positive grounds of tranquillity. That is to say, with the one hand He gives us an antidote against every sorrow, and with the other reaches forth to us the richest benedictions.

(1) Look at your life and heart, and you will find two great enemies of peace and tranquillity, sins and afflictions; and in vain will the heart sigh for rest, till in some mode the sting of sin is taken away and the bitterness of affliction removed. While the conscience is burdened by the guilt of sin, and the mind harassed by the apprehension of that punishment to which it exposes us, we in vain hope for peace. No, no! there is no other grief that can be compared with the anguish of the soul, that is enlightened to behold the spotless purity and inflexible justice of God, and the depth of the abyss dug by its own crimes and iniquities. Where, then, shall we seek for relief to these torments which arise from a sense of guilt? In the sacrifice of Immanuel we behold all cause of terror removed, and the most satisfying joys presented to our hopes and expectations. Could you find it in the amusements and gaieties of the world? Alas! in the midst of jocoseness and pleasantry your heart was bleeding. Human philosophy, worldly wisdom! alas, can these wash out the stain of the smallest sin from the conscience? Could you find it in the endearments of friendship and affection? Christ has been no less careful in affording proper supports under those trials, those crosses, and afflictions, of which human life is full, and which we mentioned as the second great enemy to peace. All the schools of antiquity, discordant and clashing in everything else, were united only in presenting unsubstantial comforts, which were too airy to support those under the pressure of real grief, or else in irritating instead of healing the wounds of the soul. But when we turn from these ineffectual consolations of the brightest ornaments of Greece and Rome, to the Divine Instructor who spake as never man spake, what different sentiments are excited! He proposes such grounds of peace and tranquillity as will hush every painful passion, will compose every rising grief, will drive back every starting tear, or convert it into a tear of joy, and render us not patient merely, but triumphant in affliction. He gives us such instructions concerning the author, the intent, and the issue of afflictions, as, if they be properly realized, will cause the sorrows of life to vanish like the morning cloud, and the pains of mortality to dissolve like the early dew.

(2) That He has conferred on them positive grounds of tranquillity so powerful, so cheering, as to be sufficient to keep their souls in sacred peace amidst all the storms of sorrow with which they may be assailed. Jesus Christ secures peace and tranquillity for His followers, by giving them an intimate communion with God. But this is only the first of His benedictions. He confers also the Holy Spirit, that bond and ligament connecting God and the soul of the believer. As the enlightening Spirit He presents to our minds those great truths of religion which affect, which interest and delight us. But this Spirit which enlightens is also the renewing Spirit; and how much tranquillity and satisfaction does the exercise of this part of His office give to the soul. To find harmony restored to our irregular affections, to see the passions formerly untamed submitting to the yoke of religion; to behold our native depravity losing its reigning power, and the image of God re-impressed upon us: is not this a desirable, a delightful contemplation? And finally, it is part of the office of this same Spirit, by His consoling influences, to dissipate the cloud of sorrow and cause the sunshine of heaven to break in upon the soul. Finally, Jesus is ready to confer on believers, and will confer on them, if they be not wanting to themselves, the earnests of future glory, the pledges of eternal felicity.

II. THAT HE GIVES IT NOT AS THE WORLD DOES.

1. When the world exclaims to us, Peace be unto you l this exclamation is often void of sincerity. How often are proffers of service, and desires for our happiness, uttered by the mouth that has just been employed in stabbing our reputation, and that in a few minutes will load us with slanders, and hold us up to ridicule!

2. When the world exclaims to us, Peace be unto you, it is not always insincere and deceitful; but even when it most strongly desires our felicity, it is weak, and without power to afford us a complete felicity. Man is feeble, indigent, unhappy. Thus, unable to find full happiness from the world, shall we, my brethren, entirely despair of attaining it? No; for Jesus gives peace not as the world does; His wishes can all be accomplished, for His power is irresistible.

3. The peace which the world gives is limited in its duration. Inconstant and variable, men frequently change their sentiments and opinions. (H. Kollock, D. D.)

Spiritual peace

This blessed legacy our Lord has left might be considered as being peace

1. With all the creatures. God has made a league of peace between His people and the whole universe. For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field, etc. All things work together for good to them that love God.

2. Among the people of God toward one another.

3. With God, for He hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ

4. In the conscience. Peace with God is the treaty; peace in the conscience is the publication of it.

I. ITS GROUNDWORK. It is not built upon imagination, but on facts.

1. Faith in the blood of Christ.

2. A sense of pardon.

3. An intimacy with Christ.

4. The possession of the title deeds of heaven.

5. An assurance of the faithfulness and covenant fidelity of God our Father.

II. ITS NOBLE CHARACTER. The peace of other men is ignoble and base. Their peace is born in the purlieus of sin. Self-conceit and ignorance are its parents. Our peace is

1. Gods own child and God-like in its character.

2. Divine in its nourishment. The daintiest morsels that ever carnal sense fed upon would be bitter to the mouth of this sweet peace. Ye may bring your much fine corn, your sweet wine, and your flowing oil; your dainties tempt us not, for this peace feeds upon angels food, and it cannot relish any food that grows on earth. If you should give a Christian ten times as much riches as he has, you would not cause him ten times as much peace, but probably ten times more distress; you might magnify him in honour, or strengthen him with health, yet neither would his honour or his health contribute to his peace, for that peace flows from a Divine source, and there are no tributary streams from the hills of earth to feed that Divine current.

3. A peace that lives above circumstances.

4. Profound and real.

III. ITS EFFECTS.

1. Joy. The words joy and peace are continually put together.

2. Love. He that is at peace with God through the blood of Christ is constrained to love Him that died for him.

3. Holiness. He that is at peace with God does not wish to go into sin; for he is careful lest he should lose that peace.

4. It will help us to bear affliction. Your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

5. It gives us boldness at the throne.

IV. INTERRUPTIONS OF PEACE. All Christians have a right to perfect peace, but they have not all the possession of it. These interruptions may be owing to

1. The ferocious temptations of Satan.

2. Ignorance.

3. Sin. God hides His face behind the clouds of dust which His own flock make as they travel along the road of this world. We sin, and then we sorrow for it.

4. Unbelief.

Conclusion: If ye would keep your peace continual and unbroken

1. Look always to the sacrifice of Christ.

2. Walk humbly with your God.

3. Walk in holiness; avoid every appearance of evil. (C. H.Spurgeon.)

Christs peace

Peace be unto you was, and is, the common Eastern salutation, both in meeting and parting. It carries us back to a state of society in which every stranger might be an enemy. It is a confession of the deep unrest of the human heart. Note

I. THE GREETING, WHICH IS A GIFT. Christ gives His peace because He gives Himself. It comes with Him, like an atmosphere; it is never where He is not.

1. The first requisite for peace is consciousness of harmonious relations between me and God. The deepest secret of Christs peace was His consciousness of unbroken communion with the Father. And the centre and foundation of all the peace-giving power of Jesus Christ is that in His death He has swept away the occasion of antagonism, and so made peace between the Father and the child, rebellious and prodigal.

2. We must be at peace with ourselves. There is no way of healing the inner schism of our anarchic nature except in bringing it all in submission to His merciful rule. Look at that troubled kingdom that each of us carries about within himself, passion dragging this way, conscience that; a hundred desires all arrayed against one another, inclination here, duty there, till we are torn in pieces like a man drawn asunder by wild horses. But when He enters the heart with His silken leash, the old fable comes true, and He binds the lions and the ravenous beasts there with its slender tie and leads them along, tamed, by the cord of love, and all harnessed to pull together in the chariot that He guides. There is one power, and only one, that can draw after it all the multitudinous heaped waters of the weltering ocean, and that is the quiet silver moon in the heavens, which pulls the tidal wave, into which melt and merge all currents and small breakers, and rolls it round the whole earth. And so Christ, shining down lambent and gentle, but changeless, from the darkest of our skies, will draw, in one great surge of harmonized motion, all the else contradictory currents of our stormy souls.

3. Peace with men. The reason why men are in antagonism with one another is the central selfishness of each. And there is only one way by which mens relations can be thoroughly sweetened, and that is by the Divine love of Jesus Christ casting out the devil of selfishness, and so blending them all into one harmonious whole.

4. Peace with the outer world. It is not external calamities, but the resistance of the will to these, that makes the disturbances of life. Submission is peace, and when a man with Christ in his heart can say what Christ did, Not My will, but Thine, be done, then some faint beginnings, at least, of tranquillity come to the most agitated and buffeted.

II. THE WORLDS GIFT, WHICH IS AN ILLUSION. The world may mean either mankind in general or the whole material frame of things.

1. Regarding it in the former sense, the thought is suggested--Christ gives; men can only wish. How little we can do for one anothers tranquillity! how soon we come to the limits of human love and human help!

2. And then, if we take the other signification, we may say, Outward things can give a man no real peace. The world is for excitement; Christ alone has the secret of tranquillity.

III. THE DUTY OF THE RECIPIENTS OF THAT PEACE OF CHRISTS, Let not your heart be troubled, etc.

1. Christs gift of peace does not dispense with the necessity for our own effort after tranquillity. There is very much in the outer world and within ourselves that will surge up and seek to shake our repose; and we have to coerce and keep down the temptations to anxiety, to undue agitation of desire, to tumults of sorrow, to cowardly fears of the unknown future. All these will continue, even though we have Christs peace in our hearts. And it is for us to see to it that we treasure the peace.

2. It is useless to tell a man, Do not be troubled and do not be afraid, unless he first has Christs peace as his. Is that peace yours because Jesus Christ is yours? If so, then there is no reason for your being troubled or dreading any future. If it is not, you are mad not to be troubled, and you are insane if you are not afraid.

3. Your imperfect possession of this peace is all your own fault. Conclusion: I went once to the side of a little Highland loch, on a calm autumn day, when all the winds were still, and every birch tree stood unmoved, and every twig reflected on the stedfast mirror, into the depths of which Heavens own blue seemed to have found its way. That is what our hearts may be, if we let Christ put His guarding hand round them to keep the storms off, and have Him within us for our rest. But the man that does not trust Jesus is like the troubled sea which cannot rest. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Christ our peace in trouble

In India, where there are many venomous serpents, there is an animal--a kind of weasel--which is, as it were, appointed by God to destroy them. Put one of these creatures and the deadliest snake together, and let them begin the battle. Presently the weasel will be bitten by the serpent, and it will dart off into the next bush, will find the antidote to the poison, and will return to the fight. And so, again and again, till at last it seizes the snake and destroys it. That is strange in itself; but a thing yet stranger is this: A very large reward has been offered by the Government for the discovery of this antidote. If an animal can find it out, much more easily, one would think, can a man discover it. But it is not so. This creature has been watched again and again, but no one has ever yet been able to learn the remedy. God has given to it the knowledge, which He has denied to us. And so the true servant of Christ knows where to go for a cure against all the troubles that may befall him; where to seek peace in all the storms that beset him. (J. M. Neale, D. D.)

Christs peace in the dying hour

A poor soldier was mortally wounded at the battle of Waterloo. His companion conveyed him to some distance and laid him down under a tree. Before he left him, the dying soldier entreated him to open his knapsack and take out his pocket Bible, and read to him a small portion of it before he died. When asked what passage he should read, he desired him to read Joh_14:27. Now, said he, I die happy. I desire to have peace with God, and I possess the peace of God which passeth all understanding. A little while after one of his officers passed him, and seeing him in such an exhausted state, asked him how he did. He said, I die happy, for I enjoy the peace of God which passeth all understanding, and then expired. The officer left him and went into the battle, where he was soon after mortal]y wounded. When surrounded by his brother officers, full of anguish and dismay, he cried out, Oh! I would give ten thousand worlds, if I had them, that I possessed that peace which gladdened the heart of a dying soldier, whom I saw lying under a tree; for he declared that he possessed the peace of God which passeth all understanding. I know nothing of that peace! I die miserable! for I die in despair! (New Testament Anecdotes.)

Christian peace

I. The peace of FORGIVENESS--the peace of the evening.

II. Peace in SERVICE--the peace of the morning.

III. Peace in SORROW--peace of dark hours. (S. S. Times.)

Christian peace

Peace. It was no new word. It was and is the common form of salutation and farewell; and the Master used it because it was old and familiar. This peace is threefold.

I. Peace with OURSELVES. Every one knows what it is to be at peace with ourselves, and not at peace.

1. We may be perfectly prosperous, and yet there is a secret pang, a bitter thought.

2. On the other hand, we may be in suffering, and yet be in perfect peace because doing our duty. Peace of conscience is the peace of the Holy Spirit of Christ.

II. Peace with ONE ANOTHER. In Christ Jew and Gentile, etc., are one. He gathered round Him the most opposite characters. His peace therefore does not mean that we are all to speak, think, act, in the same way. The world of nature derives its beauty and grace from its variety. And so in the world of man. We differ but no difference, but that of sin should become separation. The chief priests of ancient Rome were called Pontiffs--bridge makers. It is the duty of every Christian to throw bridges over the moral rents or fissures which divide us. Sometimes you will find opinions shading off one into the other: these are branches that are entwined over the abyss. Seize hold of them! Sometimes there are points of character the very counterparts of our own: these are stepping stones. Sometimes there are concessions made: to all such give the widest scope. There are, no doubt, occasions when truth and justice must be preferred to peace, and differences which are widened by saying, Peace, peace when there is no peace; but we must be careful not to multiply them. You receive an angry letter; do not answer it. You observe a quarrelsome look; take no notice of it. You see the beginning of a quarrel; throw cold water on it. Churches need not be united in order to be at peace. The peace of the Holy Spirit of Christ is deeper than outward diversities.

III. Peace with GOD. Our hearts are torn with scruples and cares even in duty; our sins rise up against us. Where shall we find a haven of peace? In the thought of God. Think of God the Father, perfectly just and merciful. Think on Christ who stilled the tumult of the natural storm, and who came to reconcile us to the Father. Think of the Holy Spirit who broods over chaos, and of it can make eternal order and peace. (Dean Stanley.)

Peace undisturbed

All the peace and favour of the world cannot calm a troubled heart; but where the peace is that Christ gives, all the trouble add disquiet of the world cannot disturb it. Outward distress to a mind thus at peace is but as the rattling of the hail upon the tiles to him that sits within the house at a sumptuous feast,

Perfect peace in Christ

There was a martyr once in Switzerland standing barefooted on the fagots, and about to be burnt quick to the death--no pleasant prospect for him. He accosted the magistrate who wassuperintending his execution, and asked him to come near him. He said, Will you please to lay your hand upon my heart. I am about to die by fire. Lay your hand on my heart. If it beats any faster than it ordinarily beats, do not believe my religion. The magistrate, with palpitating heart himself, and all in a tremble, laid his hand upon the martyrs bosom, and found that he was just as calm as if he was going to his bed rather than to the flames. Thai is a grand thing! To wear in your button hole that little flower called hearts ease, and to have the jewel of contentment in your bosom--this is heaven begun below: godliness is great gain to him that hath it. (C. H.Spurgeon.)

Not as the world giveth

The worlds peace

They cry peace when there is no peace, and make fair weather when such a storm of Gods wrath is ready to be burst as shall never be blown over. They compliment and wish peace when war is in their hearts, as when the Pope sent away Henry III, in peace, but it was, saith the historian, not such as Jesus left His people. (J. Trapp.)

Unwilling givers

The great ocean is in a constant state of evaporation. It gives back what it receives, and sends up its waters in mists to gather into clouds; and so there is rain on the fields, and storm on the mountains, and greenness and beauty everywhere. But there are many men who do not believe in evaporation. They get all they can and keep all they get, and so are not fertilisers, but only stagnant, miasmatic pools. (H. W. Beecher.)

The world bestows meagerly

It promises much and gives but little. When the richest man, who has died in New York, within my memory was on his dying bed, he asked his attendants to sing for him. They sang the familiar old revival hymn, Come, ye sinners, poor and needy. The dying millionaire said to them, in a plaintive tone, Yes, please sing that again for me. I am poor and needy. Ah! what could fifty millions of railway securities and bank stocks do for him on the verge of eternity? One verse out of the fourteenth chapter of John could bring him more peace than all the mines of California multiplied by all the bonds in the National Treasury. Poor and needy was he? I count that one of the most pathetic sayings that ever fell from dying lips. (T. L. Cuyler, D. D.)

Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid

Words of peace

The acceptableness and the force of advice depend upon our feelings with respect to the adviser. Now the Counsellor in this case is the Lord Jesus; entirely informed, thoroughly concerned, full of truth as well as full of grace, and so disinterested that He has for us already laid down His life. Look at

I. THE WORDS THEMSELVES. They imply

1. The possession of a power of control over our own hearts. Now how is the heart to be controlled? You cannot govern it directly; it is to be governed by means of the thoughts. If you would change the emotions, you must change the thoughts. To think only of our grievous and not of our joyous circumstances--only of the cloudy side of our grievous circumstances (and every cloud over us Christians has a silver lining), is to let our heart be troubled and be afraid. But to call off the thoughts from the circumstances which are grievous to those which are joyous, to think of God as our refuge, and strength, and present help in the time of trouble, is to check the sorrow and to quench the fear.

2. Responsibility as to the exercise of such control. This is a power which you may not leave dormant. That which, in this case, we can do, we ought to do, because God requires it, and because the doing of it is essential to our well-being and right conduct. The difficulty does not lessen our obligation. God calls us all to do difficult things. The human being who never attempts a difficult thing is but half a man.

3. They do not require that we should harden our hearts against the due influence of grievous circumstances, or shut our eyes to danger or to threatening sorrow; but they do forbid and condemn

(1) The sorrow which confuses and discomposes a man--which hinders the performance of duty and prevents the use of consolation, and mars the enjoyment of present mercies. A man may be sad, and yet do his work. He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed. Weeping is not to hinder working.

(2) Fear. A girls school in New York took fire, and all the children were thrown into the greatest state of excitement. But there sat upon a form one little girl who remained perfectly still. When the excitement was over the teacher said to her, How is that you sat so still? Oh, said the little one, my father is one of the firemen, and he told me that if ever I was in a building when an alarm of fire was given, to sit still. Your Father is employed in extinguishing the fire that would consume you. And you have been told to be quiet; and this because you can afford to be quiet.

4. Now the whole of this advice proceeds on the assumption that the disciple of Christ has sources of joy counteractive of his sorrows, and that he has no ground for fear.

(1) The Saviour has charge of us individually.

(2) The Father loves us.

(3) A place is prepared for us.

(4) A Comforter is sent to abide with us forever.

(5) Jesus gives us His peace.

II. CASES TO WHICH THEY PARTICULARLY APPLY.

1. Some may be expecting bereavement. Death hath no sting to that loved one, and the grave can gain no victory.

2. Others are now bearing the anguish of the separation which death creates. Special promises are made to you; and He, who superintends the fulfilment of these promises, says, let not your heart be troubled, etc.

3. Some are anticipating change--change of residence--emigration. Whither can you go from your Saviours Spirit--or from your best Friends presence?

4. A few are stretched and tortured on the rack of suspense. The uncertainty is only in your mind. Above, all things are arranged, and will work together for your good.

5. Many are enduring the pains of disappointment. But still there are hopes founded upon rock, of which no man can ever be ashamed. The hope of salvation, of eternal life, of paradise.

6. Diseases, like worms at the roots of plants, are surely bringing many of us to death and the grave--and their destructive work will one day be fully wrought. But death is only the beginning of new life.

7. Poverty, like an armed man, is beating down others. There is but one shield against this armed man--faith; but one weapon--lawful endeavour; and but one cordial and stimulant--prayer. And if you pray poverty, turning your face Christward, you will hear Christ in His sweetest whispers say, Take no thought for tomorrow, etc.

8. Does persecution rage around some of you as a tempest? Fear not them that kill the body. (S. Martin.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John

CHRIST’S PEACE

Joh 14:27.

‘Peace be unto you!’ was, and is, the common Eastern salutation, both in meeting and in parting. It carries us back to a state of society in which every stranger might be an enemy. It is a confession of the deep unrest of the human heart. Christ was about closing His discourse, and the common word of leave-taking came naturally to His lips; just as when He first met His followers after the Resurrection, He soothed their fears by the calm and familiar greeting, ‘Peace be unto you!’ But common words deepen their force and meaning when He uses them. In Him ‘all things become new,’ and on His lips the conventional threadbare salutation changes into a tender and mysterious communication of a real gift. His words are deeds, and His wishes for His disciples fulfil themselves.

I. So we have here, first, the greeting, which is a gift.

‘Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you.’ We have seen, in former discourses on this chapter, how prominently and repeatedly our Lord insists on the great truth of His dwelling with and in His disciples. He gives His peace because He gives Himself; and in the bestowal of His life He bestows, in so far as we possess the gift, the qualities and attributes of that life. His peace is inseparable from His presence. It comes with Him, like an atmosphere; it is never where He is not. It was His peace inasmuch as, in His own experience, He possessed it. His manhood was untroubled by perturbation or tumult, by passions or contending desires, and no outward things could break His calm. If we open our hearts by lowly faith, love, and aspiration for His entrance, we too may be at rest; for His peace, like all which He is and has, is His that it may be ours.

The first requisite for peace is consciousness of harmonious and loving relations between me and God. The deepest secret of Christ’s peace was His unbroken consciousness of unbroken communion with the Father, in which His will submitted and the whole being of the man hung in filial dependence upon God. And the centre and foundation of all the peace-giving power of Jesus Christ is this, that in His death, by His one offering for sin for ever, He has swept away the occasion of antagonism, and so made peace between the twain, the Father in the heavens and the child, rebellious and prodigal, here below. Little as these disciples dreamed of it, the death impending, which was already beginning to cast its shadow over their souls, was the condition of securing to them and to us the true beginning of all real peace, the rectifying of our antagonistic relation to God, and the bringing Him and us into perfect concord.

My brother, no man can be at rest down to the very roots of His being, in the absence of the consciousness that he is at peace with God. There may be tumults of gladness, there may be much of stormy brightness in the life, but there cannot be the calm, still, impregnable, all-pervading, and central tranquillity that our souls hunger for, unless we know and feel that we are right with God, and that there is nothing between us and Him. And it is because Jesus Christ, dying on the Cross, has made it possible for you and me to feel this, that He Is our peace, and that He can say, ‘Peace I leave with you.’

Another requisite is that we must be at peace with ourselves. There must be no stinging conscience, there must be no unsatisfied desires, there must be no inner schism between inclination and duty, reason and will, passion and judgment. There must be the quiet of a harmonised nature which has one object, one aim, one love; which-to use a very vulgar phrase-has ‘all its eggs in one basket,’ and has no contradictions running through its inmost self. There is only one way to get that peace-cleaving to Jesus Christ and making Him our Lord, our righteousness, our aim, our all. Your consciences will sting, and that destroys peace; or if they do not sting, they will be torpid, and that destroys peace, for death is not peace. Unless we take Christ for our love, for the light of our minds, for the Sovereign Arbiter and Lord of our will, for the home of our desires, for the aim of our efforts, we shall never know what it is to be at rest. Unsatisfied and hungry we shall go through life, seeking what nothing short of an Infinite Humanity can ever give us, and that is a heart to lean our heads upon, an adequate object for all our faculties, and so a quiet satisfaction of all our desires. ‘Wherefore do ye spend your money for that which is not bread?’ A question that no man can answer without convicting himself of folly! There is One, and only One, who is enough for me, poor and weak and lowly and fleeting as I am, and as my earthly life is. Take that One for your Treasure, and you are rich indeed. The world without Christ is nought. Christ without the world is enough.

Nor is there any other way of healing the inner discord, schism, and contradiction of our anarchic nature, except in bringing it all into submission to His merciful rule. Look at that troubled kingdom that each of us carries about within himself, passion dragging this way, conscience that, a hundred desires all arrayed against one another, inclination here, duty there, till we are torn in pieces like a man drawn asunder by wild horses. And what is to be done with all that rebellious self, over which the poor soul rules as it may, and rules so poorly? Oh! there is an inner unrest, the necessary fate of every man who does not take Christ for his King. But when He enters the heart with His silken leash, the old fable comes true, and He binds the lions and the ravenous beasts there with its slender tie and leads them along, tamed, by the cord of love, and all harnessed to pull together in the chariot that He guides. There is only one way for a man to be at peace with himself through and through, and that is that he should put the guidance of his life into the hands of Jesus Christ, and let Him do with it as He will. There is one power, and only one, that can draw after it all the multitudinous heaped waters of the weltering ocean, and that is the quiet, silver moon in the heavens that pulls the tidal wave, into which melt and merge all currents and small breakers, and rolls it round the whole earth. And so Christ, shining down lambent, and gentle, but changeless, from the darkest of our skies, will draw, in one great surge of harmonised motion, all the else contradictory currents of our stormy souls. ‘My peace I give unto you.’

Another element in true tranquillity, which again is supplied only by Jesus Christ, is peace with men. ‘Whence come wars and fightings amongst you? From your lusts.’ Or to translate the old-fashioned phraseology into modern English, the reason why men are in antagonism with one another is the central selfishness of each, and there is only one way by which men’s relations can be thoroughly sweetened, and that is, by the divine love of Jesus Christ pouring into their hearts, and casting out the devil of selfishness, and so blending them all into one harmonious whole.

The one basis of true, happy relations between man and man, without which there is not the all-round tranquillity that we require, lies in the common relation of all, if it may be, but certainly in the individual relation of myself, to Him who is the Lover and the Friend of all. And in the measure in which the law of the Spirit of life which was in Jesus Christ is in me, in that measure do I find it possible to reproduce His gentleness, sympathy, compassion, insight into men’s sorrows, patience with men’s offences, and all which makes, in our relations to one another, the harmony and the happiness of humanity.

Another of the elements or aspects of peace is peace with the outer world. ‘It is hard to kick against the pricks,’ but if you do not kick against them, they will not prick you. We beat ourselves all bruised and bleeding against the bars of the prison-house in trying to escape from it, but if we do not beat ourselves against them, they will not hurt us. If we do not want to get out of prison, it does not matter though we are locked in. And so it is not external calamities, but the resistance of the will to these, that makes the disturbances of life. Submission is peace, and when a man with Christ in his heart can say what Christ said, ‘Not My will, but Thine be done,’ Oh! then, some faint beginnings, at least, of tranquillity come to the most agitated and buffeted; and even in the depths of our sorrow we may have a deeper depth of calm. If we have yielded ourselves to the Father’s will, through that dear Son who has set the example and communicates the power of filial obedience, then all winds blow us to our haven, and all ‘things work together for good,’ and nothing ‘that is at enmity with joy’ can shake our settled peace. Storms may break upon the rocky shore of our islanded lives, but deep in the centre there will be a secluded, inland dell ‘which heareth not the loud winds when they call,’ and where no tempest can ever reach. Peace may be ours in the midst of warfare and of storms, for Christ with us reconciles us to God, harmonises us with ourselves, brings us into amity with men, and makes the world all good.

II. So, secondly, note here the world’s gift, which is an illusion.

‘Not as the world giveth, give I unto you.’ Our Lord contrasts, as it seems to me, primarily the manner of the world’s bestowment, and then passes insensibly into a contrast between the character of the world’s gifts and His own. That phrase ‘the world’ may have a double sense. It may mean either mankind in general or the whole external and material frame of things. I think we may use both significations in elucidating the words before us.

Regarding it in the former of them, the thought is suggested-Christ gives; men can only wish. ‘Peace be unto you’ comes from many a lip, and is addressed to many an ear, unfulfilled. Christ says ‘peace,’ and His word is a conveyance. How little we can do for one another’s tranquillity, how soon we come to the limits of human love and human help! How awful and impassable is the isolation in which each human soul lives! After all love and fellowship we dwell alone on our little island in the deep, separated by ‘the salt, unplumbed, estranging sea,’ and we can do little more than hoist signals of goodwill, and now and then for a moment stretch our hands across the ‘echoing straits between.’ But it is little after all that husband or wife can do for one another’s central peace, little that the dearest friend can give. We have to depend upon ourselves and upon Christ for peace. That which the world wishes Christ gives.

And then, if we take the other signification of the ‘world,’ and the other application of the whole promise, we may say-Outward things can give a man no real peace. The world is for excitement; Christ alone has the secret of tranquillity. It is as if to a man in a fever a physician should come and say: ‘I cannot give you anything to soothe you; here is a glass of brandy for you.’ That would not help the fever, would it? The world comes to us and says: ‘I cannot give you rest: here is a sharp excitement for you, more highly spiced and titillating for your tongue than the last one, which has turned flat and stale.’ That is about the best that it can do.

Oh! what a confession of unrest are the rush and recklessness, the fever and the fret of our modern life with its ever renewed and ever disappointed quest after good! You go about our streets and look men in the face, and you see how all manner of hungry desires and eager wishes have imprinted themselves there. And now and then-how seldom!-you come across a face out of which beams a deep and settled peace. How many of you are there who dare not be quiet because then you are most troubled? How many of you are there who dare not reflect because then you are wretched? How many of you are uncomfortable when alone, either because you are utterly vacuous, or because then you are surrounded by the ghosts of ugly thoughts that murder sleep and stuff every pillow with thorns? The world will bring you excitement; Christ, and Christ alone will bring you rest.

The peace that earth gives is a poor affair at best. It is shallow; a very thin plating over a depth of restlessness, like some skin of turf on a volcano, where a foot below the surface sulphurous fumes roll, and hellish turbulence seethes. That is the kind of rest that the world brings.

Oh! dear friends, there is nothing in this world that will fill and satisfy your hearts except only Jesus Christ. The world is for excitement; and Christ is the only real Giver of real peace.

III. Lastly, note the duty of the recipients of that peace of Christ’s: ‘Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.’

The words that introduced this great discourse return again at its close, somewhat enlarged and with a deepened soothing and tenderness. There are two things referred to as the source of restlessness, troubled agitation or disturbance of heart; and that mainly, I suppose, because of terror in the outlook towards a dim and unknown future. The disciples are warned to fight against these if they would keep the gift of peace.

That is to say, casting the exhortation into a more general expression, Christ’s gift of peace does not dispense with the necessity for our own effort after tranquillity. There is much in the outer world that will disturb us to the very end, and there is much within ourselves that will surge up and seek to shake our repose and break our peace; and we have to coerce and keep down the temptations to anxiety, the temptations to undue agitation of desire, the temptations to tumults of sorrow, the temptations to cowardly fears of the unknown future. All these will continue, even though we have Christ’s peace in our hearts, and it is for us to see to it that we treasure the peace, ‘and in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let our requests be made known unto God,’ that nothing may break the calm which we possess.

So, then, another thought arises from this final exhortation, and that is, that it is useless to tell a man, ‘Do not be troubled, and do not be afraid,’ unless he first has Christ’s peace as his. Is that peace yours, my brother, because Jesus Christ is yours? If so, then there is no reason for your being troubled or dreading any future. If it is not, you are mad not to be troubled, and you are insane if you are not afraid. The word for you is, ‘Be troubled, ye careless ones,’ for there is reason for it, and be afraid of that which is certainly coming. The one thing that gives security and makes it possible to possess a calm heart is the possession of Jesus Christ by faith. Without Him it is a waste of breath to say to people, ‘Do not be frightened,’ and it is wicked counsel to say to men, ‘Be at ease.’ They ought to be terrified, and they ought to be troubled, and they will be some day, whether they think so or not.

But then the last thought from this exhortation is-and now I speak to Christian people-your imperfect possession of this peace is all your own fault. Why, there are hundreds of professing Christian people who have some kind of faint, rudimentary faith, and there are many of them, I dare say, listening to me now, who have no assured possession of any of those elements, of which I have been speaking, as the constituent parts of Christ’s peace. You are not sure that you are right with God. You do not know what it is to possess satisfied desires. You do know what it is to have conflicting inclinations and impulses; you have envy and malice and hostility against men; and the world’s storms and disasters do strike and disturb you. Why? Because you have not a firm grasp of Jesus Christ. ‘I have set the Lord always at my right hand, therefore I shall not be be moved’; there is the secret. Keep near Him, my brother; and then all things are fair, and your heart is at peace.

I remember once standing by the side of a little Highland loch on a calm autumn day, when all the winds were still, and every birch-tree stood unmoved, and every twig was reflected on the steadfast mirror, into the depths of which Heaven’s own blue seemed to have found its way. That is what our hearts may be, if we let Christ put His guarding hand round them to keep the storms off, and have Him within us for our rest. But the man who does not trust Jesus ‘is like the troubled sea which cannot rest,’ but goes moaning round half the world, homeless and hungry, rolling and heaving, monotonous and yet changeful, salt and barren-the true emblem of every soul that has not listened to the merciful call, ‘Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14:27 The Jewish greeting peace (Hebrew shalom) captured the spirit of Jesus’ work on earth to restore humanity’s relationship with God (Isa 9:6-7; 52:7; 57:19; Rom 5:1). The resurrection (John 14:28) and the Spirit were instrumental in achieving this work.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Joh 14:27. Εἰρήνην) שלום, peace in general (the genus); the peace of reconciliation. [Such as ye might have enjoyed as Israelites (as distinguished from “My peace”).—V. g.]—ἀφίημι) I leave, at My departure. The same verb occurs in Joh 14:18, Mat 22:25 [ἀφῆκε τῆν γυναῖκα, said of the man dying without issue, and leaving his wife to his brother].—εἰρήνην τὴν ἐμὴν) My peace, in particular (the species): the peace of sons. So τὴν χαρὰν τὴν ἐμὴν, My joy, ch. Joh 17:13. All things in Christ are new; even the commandment of ‘love,’ ch. Joh 13:34, and in some measure faith itself. See note, Joh 14:1 [The old faith in God receives as it were a new colour from the Gospel, which orders faith in Christ].—δίδωμι, I give) even now. See ch. Joh 16:33, “These things have I spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace.” To the gradation in the nouns, peace, My peace, there corresponds the gradation in the verbs, I leave, I give.—ὁ κόσμος, the world) in its empty salutations [which in Hebrew were generally wishes for ‘peace’ to the person saluted], or in merely external benefits, which do not reach the heart, and which, simultaneously with the presence, cease from the sight and life of mortal men. The world so gives, as that it presently after snatches away; it does not leave.—μὴ ταρασσέσθω, let not—be troubled) by fears from within.—μηδὲ δειλιάτω, nor let it be afraid) by terrors from without.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh_14:27. These are last words, as of one who is about to go away and says good-night, or gives his blessing, Luther.

εἰρήνην ἀφίημι ὑμῖν] The whole position of affairs, as Jesus is on the point of concluding these His last discourses (Joh_14:31), as well as the characteristic word εἰρήνη, introduced without further preface, justifies the ordinary assumption that here there is an allusion to the Oriental greetings at partings and dismissals, in which שָׁלוֹם (i.e. not specially: Peace of soul, but generally: Prosperity) was wished. Comp. 1Sa_1:17; 1Sa_20:42; 1Sa_29:5; Mar_5:34; Luk_7:50; Luk_8:48; Act_16:36; Jam_2:16; also the Syrian pacem dedit, in the sense of valedixit in Assem. Bibl. I. p. 376; and finally, the epistolary farewell-greeting, Eph_6:23; 1Pe_5:14; 3 John 15. That which men were wont to wish at departure, namely, prosperity, Jesus is conscious of leaving behind, and of giving to His disciples, and that in the best and highest sense, namely, the entire prosperity of His redemptive work, fore ejus benedictione semper felices (Calvin), in which, however, the peace of reconciliation with God (Rom_5:1), as the first essential element, is also included. To assume (with Lücke) in the expression a reference, at the same time, to the O. T. peace-assuring and encouraging address שָׁלוֹם לָכֶם (Gen_43:23; Jdg_6:23, et al.), is less in harmony with the departing scene, and the remote μὴ ταρασσέσθω, κ.τ.λ., as well as with the expression of this consolatory address.

εἰρ. τ. ἐμὴν δίδ. ὑμ.] More precise definition of what has preceded. It is His, the peculiar prosperity proceeding from Him, which He gives to them as His bequest. Thus speaks He to His own, who, on the threshold of death, is leaving hereditary possessions: I leave behind, I give, in the consciousness that this will be accomplished by His death. So also Jesus, whose δίδωμι is to be understood neither as promitto (Kuinoel), nor even to be conceived as first taking place through the Paraclete (who rather brings about only the appropriation of the salvation given in the death of Jesus).

Not as the world gives, give I TO YOU! Nothing is to be supplied. My giving to you is of quite another kind than the giving of the (unbelieving) world; its giving bestows treasure, pleasure, honour, and the like, is therefore unsatisfying, bringing no permanent good, no genuine prosperity, etc.[156] Quite out of relation to the profound seriousness of the moment, and therefore irrelevant, is the reference to the usual empty formulas of salutation (Grotius, Kling, Godet).

ΜῊ ΤΑΡΑΣΣΈΣΘΩ, Κ.Τ.Λ.] Thus does He conclude exactly as He first (Joh_14:1) began this discourse, Luther. The short asyndetic (here supply ΟὖΝ) sentences correspond to the deep emotion.

ΔΕΙΛΙΆΩ (Diod. xx. 78) here only in the N. T., frequently in the LXX., which, on the other hand, has not the classical (ΔΟΚΙΜΏΤΕΡΟΝ, Thomas Magister) ἈΠΟΔΕΙΛΙΆΩ.

[156] Hengstenberg introduces quite groundlessly a reference to the θλῖψις which the world gives, according to Joh_16:33.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh 14:27 . εἰρήνην ἀφίημι ὑμῖν , “peace I bequeath to you”. The usual farewell was given with the word “peace”. And Jesus uses the familiar word, but instead of uttering a mere wish He turns it into a bequest, intimating His power not only to wish but to give peace in the further description εἰρήνην τὴν ἐμὴν δίδωμι ὑμῖν , “my peace I give unto you”; the peace which He had attained by means of all the disturbance and opposition He had encountered. Leaving them His work, His view of life, His Spirit, He necessarily left them His peace. οὐ καθὼς ὁ κόσμος δίδωσιν , ἐγὼ δίδωμι ὑμῖν , “not as the world gives give I to you”. This is referred by Grotius to the difference between the empty form of salutation and Christ’s gift of peace. (“ Mundus , i.e. , major pars hominum, salute alios impertit sono vocis, nihil saepe de re cogitans; et si cogitet, tamen id alteri nihil prodest.”) So too Holtzmann and Bernard. Meyer considers this “quite out of relation to the profound seriousness of the moment,” and understands the allusion to be to the treasures, honours, pleasures which the world gives. There is no reason why the primary reference should not be to the salutation, with a secondary reference to the wider contrast. This gift of peace, if accepted, would secure them against perturbation, and so Jesus returns to the exhortation of Joh 14:1 , μὴ ταρασσέσθω … “Observing that the opening sentence of the discourse is here repeated and fortified, we understand that all enclosed within these limits is to be taken as a whole in itself, and that the intervening words compose a divine antidote to that troubling and desolation of heart which the Lord’s departure would suggest.” Bernard. He now adds a word, μηδὲ δειλιάτω , which carries some reproach in it. Theophrastus ( Char. , xxvii.) defines δειλία as ὕπειξίς τις ψυχῆς ἔμφοβος , a shrinking of the soul through fear. With this must be taken Aristotle’s description, Nic. Eth. , iii. 6, 7, ὁ δὲ τῷ φοβεῖσθαι ὑπερβάλλων δειλός . It may be rendered “neither let your heart timidly shrink”.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vv. 27-29. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives, do I give it to you; let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. 28. You have heard how I said to you, I go away, and come to you. If you loved me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father; for my Father is greater than I. 29. And now I have told you these things before they come to pass, that when they have come to pass, you may believe.”

The promise of Joh 14:25-26 had as its aim to tranquillize the disciples in relation to the obscurities which still hovered over their Master’s future and their own. Joh 14:27-29 tend to reassure them with reference to the dangers to which they see themselves exposed in this future which is opening before them. Jesus evidently alludes to the Israelite salutation:Peace be unto thee (Schalom leka)! Meyer and Reuss take the word εἰρήνη in an objective sense: salvation (שָׁלוֹם, H8934, full prosperity). But the adjective “my peace” and the end of the verse where the question is of causingtrouble to cease, should have prevented this false interpretation. On leaving them, Jesus would make them enjoy a perfect inward quietness, such as that which they behold in Himself. This peace arises in Him, in the presence of death, from His absolute confidence in the love of the Father. This confidence it is which He wishes to inspire in them, and by means of which His peace will become theirs. This is the legacy which He gives them (ἀφίημι, I leave), and this legacy He draws from His own treasury: my peaee.

The verb δίδωμι, I give, is in connection with τὴν ἐμήν (mine): one gives of his own. In Luk 10:5-6, Jesus confers on His disciples the power which He exercises here Himself: that of imparting their peace.—The contrast between the peace of Jesus and that of the world is ordinarily referred to the nature of the two: the peace of the world consisting in the enjoyment of blessings which are only such in appearance; that of Jesus in the possession of real and imperishable blessings. Luthardt and Keil find here another contrast: that between true and false peace. But it follows from the omission of the object: peace, in the second clause (“I do not give as the world gives”), and from the conjunction καθώς (according as), that the contrast relates rather to the act of giving than to the object of the gift: “When I give, it is really giving, it is giving with efficacy, while, when the world says farewell to you in the ordinary form: Peace be unto you! it gives you only empty words, a powerless wish.” I cannot understand wherein this sense is below the seriousness of the situation, as Meyer claims. This peace, which He communicates to them by this very word, should banish from their hearts thetrouble which Jesus observes there still (μὴ ταρασσέσθω), and preserve them, even by this means, from the danger of being afraid (δειλιᾷν), which would result from this troubled state.

But it is not enough for Jesus to see them reassured, strengthened; He would even see them joyous (Joh 14:28). And they would really be so, if they well understood the meaning of this departure which is approaching. Theἠκούσατε, you have heard, refers to Joh 14:2; Joh 14:12; Joh 14:18; the quotation, as so often, is made freely.

Jesus adds: and I come, because without this He could not ask them to find in His departure a subject of joy. The words: “If you loved me,” signify here: If you loved Me in an entirely disinterested way, loving Me for Myself, and not for yourselves. These words are of an exquisite delicacy. Jesus thereby finds the means of making joy on their part a duty of affection. He turns their attention to the approaching exaltation of His position (comp. Joh 13:3; Joh 13:31-32); and what true friend would not rejoice to see his friend raised to a state more worthy of him? Jesus does not here give expression to the idea of the more powerful activity of which this exaltation will be for Him the means (Joh 17:12). He appeals only to their friendly hearts.

We must reject, with the Alexandrian authorities, the word εἶπον (the second) and read:because I go away, and not: “because I said to you, I go away.”

The reason why they should rejoice for Him on account of this change is that His Father is greater than He. In returning to God, therefore, He is going to find again a form of existence more free, more exalted, more blessed. Jesus felt the burden of the earthly existence, while patiently bearing it. Did He not say: “How long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?” (Luk 9:41.) His surrendering of divine existence, His acceptance of human existence was for Him an ordeal which was to cease through His exaltation to the presence of God; comp. the πρὸς τὸν θεόν, Joh 1:1; Joh 1:18. The explanation of Lucke, de Wette, etc., “God will be a better protector for you than I could be by my visible presence,” ignores the natural meaning of the words and what there is of the personal element in this appeal to their affection: if you loved me.

Since the second century of the Church exegesis has understood in two different ways the explanation which follows respecting the relation between the Father and the Son (see Westcott’s excellent dissertation). Some have understood: “greater than the Logos as such,” inasmuch as the Father is very naturally superior to the Son, while others have referred this superiority of the Father merely to the human nature of Jesus. This second explanation does not seem to me possible, in the first place because, if the state of the Son can change, His person, His ego, remains ever identical with itself; the subject who is speaking at this moment cannot, therefore, be any other than the one who speaks in passages such as Joh 8:58, Joh 17:5; Joh 17:24. Then, applied merely to the human nature of Jesus, as apart from His divine nature, these words become almost blasphemous, or at least ridiculous.

As Weiss says, “such a comparison between God and a created being would be a folly bordering upon blasphemy.” We have already recognized the fact, in studying the Prologue (Joh 1:1), that the Logos, as such, is subordinate to God. As Marius Victorinus said (365): “As having everything from the Father, He is inferior to Him, although, as having everythingfrom Him, He is His equal.” Reuss has wrongly seen a disagreement between these words and the divinity of Christ, as it is taught in the Prologue (Joh 1:1). For even in the Prologue we find the notion of subordination expressly declared as it is here, and, on the other hand, our passage breathes, in Him who thus speaks, the most lively feeling of His participation in divinity. God alone can compare Himself with God, and the Arians, in seeking for a support in this text, have at least been guilty of unskilfulness. Here is certainly one of the passages by which the apostle was inspired in formulating his Prologue.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

All true felicity cometh to us by Christ alone.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you--If Joh 14:25-26 sounded like a note of preparation for drawing the discourse to a close, this would sound like a farewell. But oh, how different from ordinary adieus! It is a parting word, but of richest import, the customary "peace" of a parting friend sublimed and transfigured. As "the Prince of Peace" (Isa 9:6) He brought it into flesh, carried it about in His Own Person ("My peace") died to make it ours, left it as the heritage of His disciples upon earth, implants and maintains it by His Spirit in their hearts. Many a legacy is "left" that is never "given" to the legatee, many a gift destined that never reaches its proper object. But Christ is the Executor of His own Testament; the peace He "leaves" He "gives"; Thus all is secure.

not as the world giveth--in contrast with the world, He gives sincerely, substantially, eternally.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 27. Peace I leave with you] The Jewish form of salutation and benediction. A wish of peace among them is thus to be understood: May you prosper in body and soul, and enjoy every earthly and heavenly good! For the meaning of this word, see Mt 5:9.

My peace I give unto you] Such tranquillity of soul, such uninterrupted happiness of mind, such everlasting friendship with God as I enjoy, may ye all enjoy! And such blessedness I bequeath unto you: it is my last, my best, my dying legacy.

Not as the world giveth] Not as the Jews, in empty wishes: not as the people of the world, in empty compliments. Their salutations and benedictions are generally matters of custom and polite ceremony, given without desire or design; but I mean what I say; what I wish you, that I will give you. To his followers Jesus gives peace, procures it, preserves it, and establishes it. He is the author, prince, promoter, and keeper of peace.

Neither let it be afraid.] μηδε δειλιατω, Let not your heart shrink back through fear of any approaching evil. This is the proper meaning of the word. In a few hours ye will be most powerfully assaulted; but stand firm: - the evil will only fall upon me; and this evil will result in your comfort and salvation, and in the redemption of a lost world.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

27. Peace I leave with you. By the word peace he means prosperity, which men are wont to wish for each other when they meet or part; for such is the import of the word peace in the Hebrew language. He therefore alludes to the ordinary custom of his nation; as if he had said, I give you my Farewell But he immediately adds, that this peace is of far greater value than that which is usually to be found among men, who generally have the word peace but coldly in their mouth, by way of ceremony, or, if they sincerely wish peace for any one, yet cannot actually bestow it. But Christ reminds them that his peace does not consist in an empty and unavailing wish, but is accompanied by the effect. In short, he says that he goes away from them in body, but that his peace remains with the disciples; that is, that they will be always happy through his blessing.

Let not your heart be troubled. He again corrects the alarm which the disciples had felt on account of his departure. It is no ground for alarm, he tells them; for they want only his bodily presence, but will enjoy his actual presence through the Spirit. Let us learn to be always satisfied with this kind of presence, and let us not give a loose reign to the flesh, which always binds God by its outward inventions.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

27. Peace I leave with you] “Finally the discourse returns to the point from which it started. Its object had been to reassure the sorrowful disciples against their Lord’s departure, and with words of reassurance and consolation it concludes. These are thrown into the form of a leave-taking or farewell.” S. p. 226. ‘Peace I leave with you’ is probably a solemn adaptation of the conventional form of taking leave in the East: comp. ‘Go in peace,’ Jdg_18:6; 1Sa_1:17; 1Sa_20:42; 1Sa_29:7; 2Ki_5:19; Mar_5:34, &c. See notes on Jas_2:16 and 1Pe_5:14. The Apostle of the Gentiles perhaps purposely substitutes in his Epistles ‘Grace be with you all’ for the traditional Jewish ‘Peace.’

my peace I give unto you] ‘My’ is emphatic; this is no mere conventional wish. Comp. Joh_16:33, Joh_20:19; Joh_20:21; Joh_20:26. The form of expression, peace that is mine, is common in this Gospel. Comp. the joy that is mine (Joh_3:29, Joh_15:11, Joh_17:13); the judgment that is mine (Joh_5:30, Joh_8:16); the commandments that are mine (Joh_14:15); the love that is mine (Joh_15:10).

not as the world giveth] It seems best to understand ‘as’ literally of the world’s manner of giving, not of its gifts, as if ‘as’ were equivalent to ‘what.’ The world gives from interested motives, because it has received or hopes to receive as much again (Luk_6:33-34); it gives to friends and withholds from enemies (Mat_5:43); it gives what costs it nothing or what it cannot keep, as in the case of legacies; it pretends to give that which is not its own, especially when it says ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace (Jer_6:14). The manner of Christ’s giving is the very opposite of this. He gives what is His own, what He might have kept, what has cost Him a life of suffering and a cruel death to bestow, what is open to friend and foe alike, who have nothing of their own to give in return.

Let not your heart be troubled] See on Joh_14:1. Was He not right in giving them this charge? If He sends them another Advocate, through whom both the Father and He will ever abide with them, if He leaves them His peace, what room is there left for trouble and fear?

The word for ‘be afraid’ is frequent in the LXX. but occurs nowhere else in the N.T. ‘Be fearful’ is the literal meaning.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Peace I leave with you,.... Christ being about to die and leave his disciples, makes his last will and testament, and as the best legacy he could leave them, bequeaths peace unto them;

my peace I give unto you: he left the Gospel of peace with them, to be preached by them to all the world; which is a declaration and publication of peace made by his blood; is a means of reconciling the minds of men to God and Christ, to the truths, ordinances, and people of Christ; of relieving and giving peace to distressed minds; and which shows the way to eternal peace: and as Christ had kept his disciples in peace one with another, so he left them in peace; and left orders with them to maintain it one among another: but what seems chiefly designed here, is peace with God, which Christ is the sole author of; he was appointed in the council and covenant of peace to effect it; he became incarnate with that view, and did procure it by his sufferings and death; and as it was published by angels, when he came into the world, he left it, and gave it to his disciples when he was going out of it: or else that peace of conscience is meant, which follows upon the former, which arises from the sprinklings of the blood of Christ, and from a comfortable view, by faith, of an interest in his justifying righteousness, and is enjoyed in a way of believing, and commonly in the use of ordinances "leaving" it supposes that Christ was about to leave his disciples, but would not leave them comfortless; he leaves a Comforter with them, and bequeaths peace unto them as his last legacy: "giving" it, shows that it is not to be acquired by any thing that man can do, but is a pure free grace gift of Christ; and which being given as his legacy, is irrevocable; for the allusion is to the making of a will or testament when persons are about to die: though some have thought it refers to the custom of wishing peace, health, and prosperity, among the Jews; but Christ does not say "peace be to you"; which was the more usual form of salutation among them, and which was used by them when they met, and not at parting; especially we have no instance of such a form as here used, by dying persons taking their leaves of their relations and friends. It must indeed be owned that the phrase, "to give peace", is with them the same as to salute, or wish health and prosperity. Take two or three of their rules as instances of it;

"whoever knows his friend, that he is used (a), "to give him peace"; he shall prevent him with peace (i.e. salute him first), as it is said, "seek peace and pursue it"; but if he "gives" it to him, and he does not return it, he shall be called a robber.''

Again,

"(b) a man may not go into the house of a stranger, on his feast day, , "to give peace unto him" (or salute him); if he finds him in the street, he may give it to him with a low voice, and his head hanging down;''

once (c) more,

"a man , "not give peace to", or salute his master, nor return peace to him in the way that they give it to friends, and they return it to one another.''

Likewise it must be owned, that when they saluted persons of distinction, such as princes, nobles, and doctors, they repeated the word "peace" (d), though never to any strangers; however, certain it is, that it was another sort of peace which Christ left, and gave to his disciples, than what the Jews were wont to give, or wish to one another;

not as the world giveth, give I you. The peace Christ gives is true, solid, and substantial; the peace the world, the men, and things of it give, is a false one; and whilst they cry, "peace, peace, sudden destruction is at hand": the peace of the world is at best but an external one, but the peace Christ is the giver of, is internal; the peace the world affords is a very transient, unstable, and short lived one, but the peace of Christ is lasting and durable; the peace of the world will not support under the troubles of it, but the peace which Christ gives, cheerfully carries his people through all the difficulties and exercises of this life: and as these differ in kind, so likewise in the manner of giving, and in the persons to whom they are given; the world gives peace in words only, Christ in deed; the world gives feignedly, Christ heartily; the world gives it for its own advantage, Christ for his people's sake; the world gives its peace to the men of it, to the ungodly, none to the godly, whom it hates; Christ gives his; not to the wicked, for there is no peace to them, but to the saints, the excellent in the earth. Wherefore says Christ,

let not your heart be troubled; at my departure from you, since I leave such a peace with you:

neither let it be afraid: at the dangers you may be exposed unto, and the trouble you may be exercised with; for in the midst of them all, "in me ye shall have peace", Joh 16:33.

(a) T. Bab. Beracot, fol. 6. 2. (b) T. Bab. Gittin, fol. 62. 1. Maimon. Obede Cochabim, c. 10. sect. 5. (c) Maimon. Talmud Tora, c. 5. sect. 5. (d) T. Bab. Gittin, fol. 62. 1. Maimon. Hilch. Melacim. c. 10. sect. 12.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Ver. 27. Peace I leave with you] As a farewell or legacy; Sacrosancta ειρηνη nobis committitur, non ερυννις, aut ερις: Christ is the Prince of Peace, yea, he is our peace, saith the apostle, and brings true peace, which is a piece of his kingdom, Rom 14:17. Of him it may be more truly said than it was of our Henry VII, that he came in, Ut cum pacem exulantem exul, extorremque extorris concomitatus esset, reducem quoque redux apportaret. (Twinus Comment. de rebus Britann.)

Not as the world, &c.] They cry peace when there is no peace, and make fair weather when such a storm of God’s wrath is ready to burst out as shall never be blown over. They complement, and wish peace, when war is in their hearts: as the pope sent away Henry III, emperor, in peace, but it was, saith the historian, Qualem scilicet pacem Iudas simulavit, non qualem Christus reliquit, i.e. such as Judas, counterfeit, not such as Jesus left his people. (Auth. Apolog. de unit. Eccles.)

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Peace I leave with you - This was a common form of benediction among the Jews. See the notes at Mat 10:13. It is the invocation of the blessings of peace and happiness. In this place it was, however, much more than a mere form or an empty wish. It came from Him who had power to make peace and to confer it on all, Eph 2:15. It refers here particularly to the consolations which he gave to his disciples in view of his approaching death. He had exhorted them not to be troubled Joh 14:1, and he had stated reasons why they should not be. He explained to them why he was about to leave them; he promised them that he would return; he assured them that the Holy Spirit would come to comfort, teach, and guide them. By all these truths and promises he provided for their peace in the time of his approaching departure. But the expression refers also, doubtless. to the peace which is given to all who love the Saviour. They are by nature enmity against God, Rom 8:7. Their minds are like the troubled sea, which cannot rest, whose waters east up mire and dirt, Isa 57:20. They were at war with conscience, with the law and perfections of God, and with all the truths of religion. Their state after conversion is described as a state of peace. They are reconciled to God; they acquiesce in all his claims; and they have a joy which the world knows not in the word, the promises, the law, and the perfections of God, in the plan of salvation, and in the hopes of eternal life. See Rom 1:7; Rom 5:1; Rom 8:6; Rom 14:7; Gal 5:22; Eph 2:17; Eph 6:15; Phi 4:7; Col 3:15.

My peace - Such as I only can impart. The special peace which my religion is fitted to impart.

Not as the world -

Not as the objects which men commonly pursue - pleasure, fame, wealth. They leave care, anxiety, remorse. They do not meet the desires of the immortal mind, and they are incapable of affording that peace which the soul needs. Not as the men of the world give. They salute you with empty and flattering words, but their professed friendship is often reigned and has no sincerity. You cannot be sure that they are sincere, but I am. Not as systems of philosophy and false religion give. They profess to give peace, but it is not real. It does not still the voice of conscience; it does not take away sin; it does not reconcile the soul to God. My peace is such as meets all the wants of the soul, silences the alarms of conscience, is fixed and sure amid all external changes, and will abide in the hour of death and forever. How desirable, in a world of anxiety and care, to possess this peace! and how should all who have it not, seek that which the world can neither give nor take away!

Neither let it be afraid - Of any pain, persecutions, or trials. You have a Friend who will never leave you; a peace that shall always attend you. See Joh 14:1.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Peace be with you, or to you, was the Jewish common salutation, 1Sa 25:6; under that general name they comprehended all manner of good: with this good wish they both saluted their friends when they met them, and took their farewell of them when they left them. Christ, being now about to take his leave for a time of his disciples, wishes them

peace; nay, he doth not only wish it to them, but he

leaves it to them; he giveth it them as a legacy; and that in another kind of peace, and in another manner, than was common. He therefore calls it his peace revealed in the gospel, Eph 6:15; purchased with his blood, Rom 5:1; brought to the soul by his Spirit, by which we are sealed to the day of redemption. Christ’s peace is either union or reconciliation with God, or the copy of it, which is a quiet of conscience, and assurance of his love; or a union with men by brotherly love, so often commended and pressed by Christ. Nor doth Christ give this peace as the men of the world give peace; who often wish peace earnestly, never considering what it is they say; often falsely, formally wishing peace, when they are about to strike those to whom they wish it under the fifth rib; and when they are most serious, wish it, but cannot give it. Christ leaves it to his disciples for a legacy, giveth it to them as a gift; if they want it, it is their own fault: therefore, as in the first verse, so here again he saith,

Let not your heart be troubled; and adds,

neither let it be afraid. Fear is one of those passions which most usually and potently doth disturb the hearts and minds of men; but there was no reason it should have this ill influence on Christ’s disciples, because he had left them peace for his legacy, and the gifts of God are without repentance; and, if God be for us, (saith the apostle, Rom 8:31), who, or what, can be against us?

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

27. Peace—A blessed word. And Jesus was Prince of Peace. The peace here named is that pure tranquillity arising from the consciousness that all is right between God and ourselves, and consequently that, whatever men may think, all is safe as between men and us. The man in such a state can never be harmed. In the midst of great storms he is a great calm.

I leave with you—He would take himself from them, but he would leave behind peace. There should be toils, trials, persecutions; but amidst them all peace. My peace I give unto you—The word salam, peace, is the oriental farewell. But Jesus should give his salam, not as the world giveth, in mere words, whether of courtesy or of sincere prayer, but in reality and power. And the peace which he gives should not be a mere world’s peace. The peace of the world is but an armistice between wars; a weariness between struggles. It is but an armed neutrality, founded on mutual self-interest. The peace of God is peace essential. It is full of love and mighty in power.

Troubled… afraid—Troubled from without, fear from within. External dangers and harms will ruffle the surface of our nature; but let there be a deep peace, which, like the ocean’s depths beneath the storm, remains forever undisturbed. Amid troubles and fears the command of Jesus is, Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Quietude and courage are both the Christian’s privilege and his duty.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

"Then follow the last words as of one who is about to go away, and says "Good night," or gives his blessing" (Luther). Peace I leave with (or, to) you. Peace (drhnh) answers to the ( shalom of ordinary converse and greeting, and signifies prosperity, health of soul, serenity, farewell. This is the sacred bestowment and Divine legacy of the Lord. "Peace" is always the result of equilibrated forces, the poise of antagonistic elements, held in check by one another. Of these the most placid lake, hidden in the hills and reflecting the sunshine and shadows, is a remarkable illustration. So the peace Christ leaves is power to hold the wildest fear in pause, to still a clamor or hush a cry it is the coming of mercy to a sense of sin, of life to the fear of death. But when he added, The peace that is mine I give to you, we are reminded of the tremendous conflict going on in his own nature at that very moment, and of the sublime secret of Jesus, by which the will of man was brought, even in agony and death, into utter harmony with the will of God. The afihmi , and didwmi of this verse show how the ordinary salutation may become invested with immense significance. There are moments when into one human word may be condensed the love of a lifetime. Christ does but pour through these common words the fire of his eternal and infinite love. Not as the world giveth, give I to you, both as to manner and matter and power. The mode of giving is real, sincere, neither formal nor hypocritical. "I say it, and I mean it." (Meyer, in opposition to Coder, thinks this unworthy of the Savior at this moment; but Godet is right.) The matter, substance, and value of the prosperity and peace I give stretches out into eternity; and I give it, I do not merely talk of it or wish it. "Christ"s farewell greeting is forerunner of the beatific salutation which shall accompany the eternal meeting" (Lange). Then, returning to the Divine words of Ver. 1, he seems to say, "Have I not justified all that I have said?Let not your heart be troubled, harassed by these mysteries or by my departure, neither let it be terrified (deliatw). This is the only place in the New Testament where the word occurs, though it is found in the LXX; deilov and deilia , in the sense of timidity from extrinsic fear, may frequently be found. He must have seen some rising symptoms of the carnal weakness which would prostrate them for a while.

The bequest of peace.

This promise of the Savior sank into his people"s hearts. From the first, inward peace, peace of conscience and of spirit, was valued as among the choicest possessions of the members of Christ"s Church. They gave their children names such as Irenaeus and Irene, which signify simply "peace." In the course of their communion services it was their custom to greet one another with the salutation, "Peace be with you!" In the catacombs of Rome may still be read on many a Christian"s tomb the brief but touching inscription, In Face ("In peace"). So did they value the gift and legacy of their beloved Lord.

I THERE IS IN HUMAN LIFE MUCH THAT IS FITTED TO DISTURB AND TO DESTROY PEACE.

1. Looking back to the past, many are troubled at the retrospect of their own errors, follies, and sins.

2. Looking round upon the present, many cannot fail to discern in their actual circumstances occasions of distress and alarm.

3. Looking forward to the future, anxious minds are perturbed by forebodings and fears.

II THE WORLD IS POWERLESS TO IMPART OR TO RESTORE PEACE TO THE TROUBLED HEART. The consolations of the world are delusive, its promises deceptive.

1. There may well be here a reference to the ordinary greetings of the East. "Peace!" is the common salutation, and has been from time immemorial. Like all such greetings, it often was and is altogether thoughtless and insincere. Our Lord"s "peace" is something quite different.

2. But there is a deeper reference, viz. to the pretence of peace as given by the world, to which no reality corresponds. The world says, "Peace, peace; when there is no peace." Superficial, deceptive, utterly false, is that insensibility to terrible realities which frivolity and skepticism offer to the troubled soul,

Far better storms of fear and care than such a calm as this! For terrible is the awakening, when the judgment of the All-righteous draws near.

III CHRIST"S PEACE, AND HIS ALONE, IS VALID AND LASTING.

1. This is spiritual peace. It is not to be supposed that the Christian is exempt from the cares and the calamities of life, that outward circumstances and human society are all to combine in order to his preservation from the troubles which are incidental to human life. But there may be calm within even while the storm rages without. The heart may be so free from fear.

2. This peace proceeds from the restoration of right relations between the soul and God. It is peace of conscience, the substitution of harmony with the government and the will of God for that state of discord which is the experience of the nature that is alienated from the eternal Ruler of all. To be right with God is the first condition of human peace. Such concord it is the work of the Redeemer to bring about.

3. This peace is both a bequest and a gift of Christ. It is a legacy, because it was dependent upon the Lord"s departure, and the subsequent establishment of a spiritual dispensation. It is a gift, because apart from the Savior"s provision there was no means by which this blessing might be secured and enjoyed. The peace in question is not to be earned by any effort or sacrifice of ours; it is the bestowment of the infinite love and grace of the Divine Mediator.

4. This gift is essentially his who bestows it. The peace which he enjoys he also imparts. That peace which flows from obedience and submission to the Divine will was naturally the proper possession of the Son of God; and it is that same peace which Jesus conveys to the heart that trusts and rests in him.

5. The peace of Christ is all-sufficient. In plenitude and in perpetuity it is alone.

"The world can neither give nor take, Nor can they comprehend, The peace of God which Christ has brought The peace which knows no end. T.

The special legacy of Jesus to his disciples.

Notice

I THIS LEGACY IN ITS RICH CONTEXTS. "Peace I leave," etc.

1. The great system of reconciliation. The gospel is pre-eminently the gospel of peace. It is peace on earth, and good will to men. This gospel Christ committed to his apostles as its special ambassadors, and to them was given "the ministry of reconciliation, to wit," etc.

2. This great system in its blessed effects on them. Our Lord sums up these effects in one word, "peace," and it is most significant and expressive. It involves:

(1) The peace of the soul with God. By sin it is at enmity with him, out of harmony altogether with his character and will, but by acceptance of the Divine system of reconciliation, peace with God is effected. This the disciples enjoyed. They could say, "Being justified by faith, we have," etc.

(2) The peace of the soul with itself. By sin it is at war with itself; there are painful discords, unrest and guilt throughout its empire. But peace with God brings peace within. Then there is order, good government, and harmony in the soul. They enjoyed inward peace.

(3) Their peace with each other, and a peaceful disposition towards all. There is nothing more remarkable in the history of the disciples than the almost perfect unity and peace which reigned among them, which was the wonderful result of the Divine system of reconciliation, and the personal tuition and influence of their Master. This he leaves with them.

3. This legacy of Christ has the peculiarity of being absolutely his own. "My peace.

(1) He is its Author. Think of it as a work, he made it; or as a scheme, he wrought it out; or as a purchase, he paid the price; or as a gracious interference between offensive man and offended Deity, he is the Mediator; or as a Divine principle, he imparts and inspires it. He is the Peace-maker and the Peace Offering. It is his so thoroughly, that with propriety the apostle says, He is our Peace, who hath made both one, etc.

(2) He is its absolute Proprietor and Dispenser. Being its absolute Author, he is also its absolute proprietor, and has an absolute right to withhold it from or give it to whomsoever he pleases.

(3) It is such as he himself enjoyed. "My peace the peace which is mine; the peace of his own soul, resulting from perfect obedience, self-sacrificing love, serene confidence in and fellowship with the God of peace; the peace which reigned in his own heart, which was exemplified in his own life, which was its strength and happiness. This he gave, and the gift was absolutely and practically his own.

4. This legacy is very precious.

(1) It is precious in itself. What is more precious than peace in families, in neighborhoods, in Churches, and empires? Take it away, society would soon become a Bedlam, and the world a hell. But higher in its nature, more extensive and lasting in its influence still, is spiritual peace peace of heart, mind, and conscience. "The peace of God, which passeth," etc.

(2) It is precious as it is the most needful blessing. It is ever so, and it was so now with regard to the disciples. Jesus was about to leave them, and they were surrounded with dangerous elements, and were to live in a hostile world. With regard to their personal and official wants, peace was an essential blessing. Nothing is more precious than what we absolutely need, and cannot do without. The disciples could do without many things, but not without this. How could they be the heralds of peace without the message; and how could they give it to others without its being given to them first? This Jesus gave them.

(3) It is very precious as coming from him. A gift derives value from the giver; and peace coming from him is a guarantee of its genuineness and worth. We value the gift of a dear friend, especially his parting gift and his dying keepsake. This is the parting gift of Jesus to his disciples; as if he were to say, "I have no riches, no fortune, no estates, to give you; but I give you something far better My peace. He gave them the most precious part of even himself his peace.

(4) It is very precious because it could not be had of any one else. The rarity of a thing makes it precious; and so rare is this peace that it could not be obtained of any one but Jesus, the Prince of Peace;" and could not be obtained of him but as the gift of his grace. His peace, like his commandment of love, is new and original.

(5) This legacy is given them as an absolute and personal possession. "Peace I leave with you, my peace," etc. They seem to be trustees under his first Clause, but actual possessors under the second. The ministry of reconciliation I leave with you, to publish and offer to others; but "my peace" I give unto you as your personal property your support and inspiration in life, your solace in death, and your fortune forever.

II IN THE DISTINGUISHING FEATURES OF ITS CHARACTER AND BESTOWMENT. "Not as the world giveth," etc. Here is a contrast. There is no comparison. They knew something of the world as a giver; and for fear they would look at him in the same light, he asserts a great contrast.

1. In the reality of the gifts and the giving. The world gives shadows; Christ gives substances. The world gives that which is not bread, and satisfieth not; Christ"s gifts are good, perfect, and satisfying. The world gives in vain wishes and empty salutations he with you;" but Christ gives substantial peace. The world pays in promissory notes, but they are all dishonored; Christ pays in hard cash. No sooner he says, "My peace I give unto you," than that peace is given and felt as a living principle in the soul, and all his promises are fulfilled.

2. In the heart of man which is supplied. The world gives to the body; Christ to the soul. The world gives to the outward and transient in man; Christ to the inward and eternal. The world only supplies music for the physical ear, and sceneries for the physical eye; Christ supplies music for the soul, and spiritual sceneries of unspeakable beauty to the eye of faith. The world supplies the lowest part of man his passions and animal propensities; but Christ furnishes the highest part of him his reason, faith, conscience and satisfies his immortal aspirations and wants.

3. In the manner of the giving. The world gives its best first, and there is a sad deterioration; but Christ keeps the best wine to the last. The world gives laughter which ends in weeping, joy which ends in sorrow, pleasures which end in pain, bright hopes which end in dis. appointment, a heaven which ends in hell; but Christ gives good things even at first, and they improve with time. He gives pleasures which sweeten with experience, joys which intensify with years, delights which increase with ages, prospects which brighten with eternities, and hopes which are divinely realized. Weeping is converted into laughter, the pains of birth into the pleasures of a new life, the pangs of repentance into the ecstasies of pardon, the gloomy doubts of faith into the brilliant visions of heaven, the streams of peace into an ocean of joy and happiness, and the struggles of the warfare into the hosannas of a final victory. "Not as the world," etc.

4. In permanency. The world only lends; Christ gives. What the world gives, it soon takes away; but Christ leaves his peace with his people, and gives them "that good part," etc. The world at best only gives a life-interest, and that life very brief and uncertain; but Christ"s gifts are eternal possessions and real property. The lease of his gifts is not for the life of the body, but for the life of the soul. The world"s fountains soon get dry, but those of Christ are perennial. "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh," etc.

III IN ITS PRACTICAL EFFECTS UPON HIS FOLLOWERS. "Let not your heart be," etc.

1. They were exposed to special dangers.

(1) From within, arising from their innate depravity, the imperfections of their spiritual nature, the youth and weakness of their faith. They were as yet but babes in Christ; they were exposed to inward trouble and doubts.

(2) From without. They were in a hostile world, and sent forth as sheep among wolves. The departure of their Savior and the terrible tragedy of his crucifixion were in the immediate future, and all this was but an introduction to more personal attacks and hostilities.

1. To strengthen their heart against trouble and fear was now Christs chief aim. "Let not your heart," etc. There may be trouble without much fear; still they are near relations, and ever attack the heart. The heart, as the seat of emotion, is the most vulnerable avenue to these foes. They were rushing in torrents upon the disciples already. The mere talk of his departure had filled their heart with sorrow. It was his chief aim to strengthen their heart.

2. This aim he accomplished by the bestowment of his own peace. "Peace I leave with you," etc. He prescribes and furnishes the remedy The Divine element which had been so infallible against fear and trouble in himself. "My peace I give unto you." This Divine peace is the only dement which can successfully combat trouble and fear. It sets the whole soul to music; and the music of the soul, like the music of heaven, makes sorrow and sighing to flee away. Filled with Christ"s peace, like him, they would be calm in the storm, joyful in tribulation, patient in suffering, and jubilant in death.

LESSONS.

1. All the movements of Jesus were in order to bless. H e came to the world to bless. He was in it for a while to bless, and left it in order to bless his people all the more. The legacy of peace could not be fully enjoyed while the testator was alive.

2. When Jesus left his disciples, he left the best part of himself with them. "My peace I give," etc. He left infinitely more than he took away. He took himself personally away, but left his peace the cream of his life, and the life of his death.

3. To enjoy his peace is to enjoy him in the highest sense, and to enjoy all we require in this world. It will raise us above our troubles and fears, into the calm sphere of Divine love, fellowship, and protection. T.

The propriety of the disciples" gladness at Christ"s exaltation.

HIS DEPARTURE CALCULATED TO CAUSE JOY, NOT SORROW. "If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto my Father!

1. True love rejoices in anothers good rather than in ones own. Our Lord"s words imply that the disciples were selfish in seeking his further continuance with them on earth.

2. The ground of a legitimate joy at his departure. "For my Father is greater than I

(1) He would share in heaven the omnipresence of the Father, and be thus able to bless his people in every place. He would be their omnipresent Redeemer and Friend.

(2) His exaltation, in union with the Father, would enable him effectually to carry out his redemptive work.

(a) The words, "My Father is greater than I," are not inconsistent with the Son"s Deity, as Arians affirm; for what mere man or mere creature would ever think of saying that God is greater than himself? Is it not a truism to say so? The very fact that Christ used these words implies his consciousness of possessing a Divine nature.

(b) The Lord refers here,

(i) not to the inferiority of his human nature,

(ii) nor to his mere Mediator-ship, as implying a servant"s position,

(iii) but to his subordination as a Son to the Father, in his essential Godhead. He asserts, in fact, his Divine essence.

A priceless legacy.

I THE NEED OF SOME SUCH ASSURANCE. Jesus had already said perturbing things. We know the disciples were so perturbed, for we find the Master himself referring to their manifest disappointment and consternation. "Because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart." And this was a sorrow that probably included vexation, chagrin, and humiliation. The Master was quietly demolishing certain castles in the air. This wonderful and profound discourse, which has brought light and comfort to so many generations of Christians, would bring little of either to those who first heard it and in the first hearing. But Jesus was thinking of the future rather than of the present; thinking of a day to come when the disciples would rejoice that he had shattered their delusions and vain hopes.

II JESUS POINTS BACKWARD TO THE PEACE OF HIS OWN LIFE. He directs his friends to his own experience and attainments. He intimates that his disciples were not altogether ignorant of the peculiar composure of their Master"s life. They had seen him again and again in all sorts of scenes and circumstances, but never in a hurry or a flurry. Goethe"s ideal of progress was to go on without haste, without rest; and Jesus turned that ideal into reality. The stream of his life was not a rushing torrent, like some Swiss stream fed from a glacier; neither was it made up of dull, sluggish, creeping, almost stagnant stretches of water. If the disciples had not sufficiently noticed this peace, it was just one of the very things the promised Paraclete would bring to their remembrance. They must have remembered how calm Jesus was when the tempest from the hills came down on the little boat. And then they would remember, too, how, when just delivered from the tempest, Jesus met the fierce maniac, possessed of many devils, so strong in his frenzy that he broke the bonds that bound him. Such was the habitual, profound peace of Jesus, and he never could have done his work without it.

III THE POSSIBILITY OF THIS PEACE BECOMING OURS. We need it not less than Jesus, and surely we can have it. His word was not a mere word of good wishes and kindly interest. He did make over something substantial to his friends. He predicted what assuredly would happen. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is peace, if only that Spirit is allowed to have free course. A mere possibility, a mere ideal, would have been a poor legacy. Through Jesus many have learned to go through this world of care and turmoil, yet keeping their hearts like that smooth, glassy sea which John saw before the throne.

IV THE MANNER OF MAKING THIS PEACE A REALITY. We must obtain it, as he obtained it. The Spirit of his heavenly Father, the Spirit that rules in heaven, was ever in him, full and strong. He was in the world, but not of the world. He belonged to a state of being where all is wondrous harmony. He was out of heaven, yet not for a moment did the communications between him and heaven get broken. He was like the diver who goes down into the water, a foreign and impossible element in itself, taking with him the tube that connects his mouth with the upper air, and so being able to remain under the water a long time and do very necessary work. Everything earthly was estimated by heavenly measurements. He belonged to heaven, and knew how things were going in heaven, and so, whatever the inconvenience of an earthly sojourn, his heart was at perfect peace. Y.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Peace I leave with you - Peace in general; peace with God and with your own consciences. My peace - In particular; that peace which I enjoy, and which I create, I give - At this instant. Not as the world giveth - Unsatisfying unsettled, transient; but filling the soul with constant, even tranquillity. Lord, evermore give us this peace! How serenely may we pass through the most turbulent scenes of life, when all is quiet and harmonious within! Thou hast made peace through the blood of thy cross. May we give all diligence to preserve the inestimable gift inviolate, till it issue in everlasting peace!

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Peace Cf. (See Scofield "Mat 10:34").

world kosmos = world-system. Joh 15:18; Joh 15:19; Joh 7:7. (See Scofield "Rev 13:8").

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The gift of peace:

v. 27. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

v. 28. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away and come again unto you. If ye loved Me, ye would rejoice because I said, I go unto the Father; for My Father is greater than I.

v. 29. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.

v. 30. Hereafter I will not talk much with you; for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me.

v. 31. But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.

This was the last talk of Jesus with His disciples, the last opportunity for speaking with them at length. And so He made a verbal request. He not only said His farewell by wishing them the blessings of peace, but He actually gave them, bequeathed to them as their possession, the peace which He was about to earn for them through His suffering and death, peace with God through His blood, Rom 5:1. This was not a peace after the manner of the world, a mere external, temporal blessing. It is a peace which will insure quietness and security in the midst of turmoil and trouble. It will take the terror out of the hearts of the believers, even when the enemies are threatening murder and every form of abuse. The person that has the peace of a good conscience in the full assurance of God’s grace and mercy will be unmoved in the midst of upheavals that threaten the very foundations of the universe, Psa 46:1-11. And Jesus testifies to the disciples that His announcement of His going away, far from filling their hearts with sorrow, should rather redound to their joy. Sorrow and grief in this case are indications of selfishness and a lack of understanding of His purpose in leaving them for a time. The Master is going to His Father, and that Father is greater than He in His present form, in the person and in the guise of a servant. By going to the Father, He will be given the full use of the divine power and majesty And the benefit of this would come to them in a very short time. He could then give them a much better protection, care for His whole Church in a much better way than at present. And all of these things the Lord told His disciples in advance, for the fulfillment of the prophecy would tend to confirm their faith; and in the meantime, when all things seemed to speak against the fact of Christ’s divinity, they would have the certainty of this promise as an anchor for their faith.

But the time was passing by rapidly; Jesus must make His conversation brief. The hour of His Passion is drawing near; the prince, the ruler of this world, the devil, is preparing for his onslaught. The Lord must die on the cross, after having been delivered into the hands of the heathen. But Satan, though he comes in the treachery of Judas, could not prevail. There was no sin in Jesus according to which the devil might have claimed Him as his subject; there was no cause of death in Him. In Jesus there was nothing which the devil could call his own, nothing which he could claim as his and thus use for his purposes. And therefore also the devil, with all his cunning and power, would not be able to carry out his evil design, to conquer the Lord. He Himself is innocent, and will therefore, by His vicarious sacrifice, be able to reconcile the world to God. His work, His Passion, will stand before the world as an evidence of His love toward the Father and as a proof of His total fulfillment of all commandments concerning the redemption of mankind. -At this point Jesus interrupted His discourse only long enough to suggest their leaving the upper room, where the Passover meal had been held. The various Hallel Psalms had been sung before, after the close of the meal, which John does not describe.

Summary.Jesus speaks to His disciples of His going to the Father, of the evidences of love toward Him in the believers, and of the work of the Holy Spirit.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

As if our Lord had said, "Whatever outward trouble the world gives you, be not afraid of it before it comes, nor troubled at it when it is come, for I will give you inward peace in the midst of all your outward troubles. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you."

Where note, That Christ’s peace is vastly different from that peace which is given or enjoyed by the world; the world may wish peace, yet never intend it; or they may wish it, yet not be able to give it: but Christ’s peace is real and effectual, solid and substantial; the world’s peace is only a freedom from outward trouble, but Christ’s peace is a deliverance from inward guilt: and though it doth not give us an exemption from outward trouble, yet it gives us a sanctified use and improvement of them, and assures us of a joyful issue and deliverance out of them.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

27. Peace I leave with you. A parting benediction. That night he was to be seized and taken from them.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

27. εἰρήνην ἀφ. This is probably a solemn adaptation of the conventional form of taking leave in the East: comp. ‘Go in peace,’ Jdg 18:6; 1Sa 1:17; 1Sa 20:42; 1Sa 29:7; 2Ki 5:19; Mar 5:34, &c. See notes on Jas 2:16 and 1Pe 5:14. The Apostle of the Gentiles perhaps purposely substitutes in his Epistles ‘Grace be with you all’ for the traditional Jewish ‘Peace.’ Τὴν ἐμήν is emphatic (Joh 8:31): this is no mere conventional wish.

οὐ καθώς. It seems best to understand ‘as’ literally of the world’s manner of giving, not of its gifts, as if ‘as’ were equivalent to ‘what.’ The world gives from interested motives, because it has received or hopes to receive as much again (Luk 6:33-34); it gives to friends and withholds from enemies (Mat 5:43); it gives what costs it nothing or what it cannot keep, as in the case of legacies; it pretends to give that which is not its own, especially when it says ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace (Jer 6:14). The manner of Christ’s giving is the very opposite of this. He gives what is His own, what He might have kept, what has cost Him a life of suffering and a cruel death to bestow, what is open to friend and foe alike, who have nothing of their own to give in return. With μὴ ταρασσέσθω comp. Joh 14:1. It shews that the peace is internal peace of mind, not external freedom from hostility. Δειλιᾷν, to be fearful, frequent in LXX., occurs here only in N.T.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

27.] This is introduced by ver. 25, which suggests the speedy close of the discourse. It was customary to take leave with wishes of peace:—so 1Sa 1:17: Luk 7:50: Act 16:36: 1Pe 5:14: 3 John 15. Also, to reassure by such words, see Gen 43:23: Jdg 6:23. But our Lord distinguishes His peace, true peace, ‘the peace which I have and give’ (see ch. 15:11), from the mere empty word used in the world’s form of greeting. Peace (in general) He leaves with them;—His peace He gives to them, over and above that other. The καθὼς ὁ κ. δίδ. must refer, I think (with Lampe, Lücke, and Stier), to the world’s manner of giving,—not to the unreality of the world’s peace, of which, however true, there is no direct mention here. The world can only give peace in empty formulæ, saying ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace: Jer 6:14. al.

Ver. 28 as far as ὑμᾶς is a reason why their heart should not be troubled;—then the rest of the verse removes all ground of δειλία, since it is an exaltation of Him whom they loved, which is about to happen; and therefore a ground of joy, and not of fear.

μείζων] And therefore the going of Jesus to the Father is an advancement. This word greater, as Luther well remarks (Stier, v. 228, edn. 2), is not here used as referring to the Nature or Essence of the Son as related to the Father,—but as indicating that particular subordination to the Father in which the Lord Jesus then was,—and the cessation of the state of humiliation, and entering into His glory, which would take place on His being received up to the Father. So also Calvin: “Non confert hic Christus Patris Divinitatem cum sua, nec humanam suam naturam divinæ Patris essentiæ comparat, sed potius statum præsentem cœlesti gloriæ ad quam mox recipiendus erat.” And Cocceius: “Non intelligitur hic minoritas secundum naturam humanam,—quia intelligitur minoritas quæ per profectionem ad Patrem deponitur” (Stier, ibid. Similarly, De Wette, Tholuck). And this removes all reason for fear, as they will be exalted in Him.

The whole doctrinal controversy which has been raised on these words (especially by the Fathers against the Arians, see Suicer, Thes. ii. pp. 1368-9), seems not to belong to the sense of the passage. That there is a sense in which the Father is greater than even the glorified Son, is beyond doubt (see especially 1Co 15:27 f.); but as on the one hand that concession is no concession to Arianism, because it is not in the essential being of the Son, but in His Mediatorial office that this minoritas consists,—so on the other hand this verse implies in itself no such minoritas, the discourse being of another kind.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

27. εἰρήνη, i.e. שלום “peace,” the ordinary salutation and the ordinary word of farewell in the East. The words παρʼ ὑμῖν μένων in v. 25 are suggestive of His departure, and He is not forgetful of the parting word of peace. Except in salutations (20:19, 21, 26, 2Jn 1:3, 3Jn 1:14), εἰρήνη is used by Jn. only here and at 16:33; and in both cases it refers to the spiritual peace which Christ gives. Just as in the Priestly Blessing (Num 6:26) the meaning of the familiar שלום is transfigured, “The Lord … give thee peace,” so here εἰρήνην τὴν ἐμὴν δίδωμι ὑμῖν conveys more than the customary “Go in peace.” The peace which Jesus bequeaths (ἀφίημι ὑμῖν) is His to give as a permanent possession (cf. 16:33), and is given, not by way of hope or assurance of good will only, as the world (i.e. the ordinary run of mankind; see on 1:9) gives it in farewells, but in the plenitude of Divine power. εἰρήνην δίδωμι ὑμῖν is no less absolute a gift than that other ζωὴν αἰώνιον δίδωμι αὐτοῖς (10:28).

It is noteworthy that in the Apocalypse εἰρήνη is used only of earthly peace (6:4; cf. 1:4), while in Jn. it is used only of spiritual peace. Paul has it in both senses, but more frequently in the latter (cf. Col 3:15, 2Th 3:16).

μὴ ταρασσέσθω ὑμῶν ἡ καρδία. This is repeated from v. 1 (see note on 3:17), and now is added μηδὲ δειλιάτω. This is the only occurrence of the verb δειλιᾶν in the N.T.; although we find δειλός (Mar 4:40, Mat 8:26, Rev 21:8) and δειλία (2Ti 1:7). μηδὲ δειλία is the parting counsel of Moses (Deu 31:8): so also μηδὲ δειλάσῃς is the counsel of Joshua to his warriors (Jos 10:25), as it was the word of Yahweh to him (Jos 1:9, Jos 8:1). μηδὲ δειλιάτω, “let not your heart be dismayed,” is, in like manner, the parting word of Christ. There is no place for cowards in the ranks of His army; and the seer of the Apocalypse ranks them with “the unbelieving … and murderers … and liars,” who, in his vision, have their portion in hell (Rev 21:8).

27. εἰρήνη, i.e. שלום “peace,” the ordinary salutation and the ordinary word of farewell in the East. The words παρʼ ὑμῖν μένων in v. 25 are suggestive of His departure, and He is not forgetful of the parting word of peace. Except in salutations (20:19, 21, 26, 2Jn 1:3, 3Jn 1:14), εἰρήνη is used by Jn. only here and at 16:33; and in both cases it refers to the spiritual peace which Christ gives. Just as in the Priestly Blessing (Num 6:26) the meaning of the familiar שלום is transfigured, “The Lord … give thee peace,” so here εἰρήνην τὴν ἐμὴν δίδωμι ὑμῖν conveys more than the customary “Go in peace.” The peace which Jesus bequeaths (ἀφίημι ὑμῖν) is His to give as a permanent possession (cf. 16:33), and is given, not by way of hope or assurance of good will only, as the world (i.e. the ordinary run of mankind; see on 1:9) gives it in farewells, but in the plenitude of Divine power. εἰρήνην δίδωμι ὑμῖν is no less absolute a gift than that other ζωὴν αἰώνιον δίδωμι αὐτοῖς (10:28).

It is noteworthy that in the Apocalypse εἰρήνη is used only of earthly peace (6:4; cf. 1:4), while in Jn. it is used only of spiritual peace. Paul has it in both senses, but more frequently in the latter (cf. Col 3:15, 2Th 3:16).

μὴ ταρασσέσθω ὑμῶν ἡ καρδία. This is repeated from v. 1 (see note on 3:17), and now is added μηδὲ δειλιάτω. This is the only occurrence of the verb δειλιᾶν in the N.T.; although we find δειλός (Mar 4:40, Mat 8:26, Rev 21:8) and δειλία (2Ti 1:7). μηδὲ δειλία is the parting counsel of Moses (Deu 31:8): so also μηδὲ δειλάσῃς is the counsel of Joshua to his warriors (Jos 10:25), as it was the word of Yahweh to him (Jos 1:9, Jos 8:1). μηδὲ δειλιάτω, “let not your heart be dismayed,” is, in like manner, the parting word of Christ. There is no place for cowards in the ranks of His army; and the seer of the Apocalypse ranks them with “the unbelieving … and murderers … and liars,” who, in his vision, have their portion in hell (Rev 21:8).

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Peace. "These are last words, as of one who is about to go away and says 'good - night ' or gives his blessing" [λυτηερ] . Peace ! was the ordinary oriental greeting at parting. Compare Joh 20:21.

My peace I give. Compare 1Jo 3:1. "It is of his own that one gives" (Godet).

Let it be afraid [δειλιατω] . Only here in the New Testament. Properly it signifies cowardly fear. Rev., fearful. The kindred adjective deilov fearful, is used by Matthew of the disciples in the storm (viii. 26), and in Revelation of those who deny the faith through fear of persecution (xxi. 8). The kindred noun, deilia, occurs only in 2Ti 1:7, "God hath not given us the spirit of fear," contrasted with the spirit of power, love, and a sound mind.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.