"And the peace of God..."

Men,

During our Bible study of Philippians this morning, my brothers and I were working on Philippians 4:4-7. We kinda camped out on verse 7 a bit and discussed a little more thoroughly "the peace of God" and "guard your hearts." It was rich and we were able to work through to the understanding that God had intended. Afterwards, I was killing some time at our Seminary Library and decided to pickup the Word Biblical Commentary, by Hawthorne and Thomas Nelson publishers. If you haven't read any of the Christian classics published by Thomas Nelson, you ought to. They do a fantastic job of introducing you to the authors.

Anyway…to the point. I went straight to the section that we kinda parked on this morning and I wanted to share some deep stuff I read. Through this commentary God had reaffirmed what He helped us glean during our study this morning, but the section regarding "the peace of God" blew me away. I always understood as a believer I would know peace, but I'm here to tell you, the level of peace that Paul is referring to in this verse is BEYOND comprehension.

I wanted to share Enjoy.

“the peace of God,” This expression is found nowhere else in the NT. With it Paul is not referring to the peace with God that the Philippians had as a result of their being justified by faith in Christ, such peace is presupposed. Nor is he exclusively referring to that “inward peace of soul which comes from God, and is grounded in God’s presence and promise…the fruit of believing prayer.” Paul seems here to be referring to the tranquility of God’s own eternal being, the peace that God himself has, the calm serenity that characterizes God’s very nature and that grateful, trusting Christians are welcome to share.

“will stand guard over your thoughts and feelings in Christ Jesus.” The verb "guard" is a military term picturing God’s peace as a detachment of soldiers “standing guard over” a city so as to protect it from attack. Philippi in Paul’s time housed a Roman garrison. Thus the metaphor would have been easily understood and appreciated by the Philippian Christians who read it: God’s peace, like a garrison of soldiers, will keep guard over our thoughts and feelings so that they will be safe against the assaults of worry and fear as any fortress.

“heart,” in the NT never means the physical organ that pumps the blood. Nor is it used solely to refer to the center of one’s emotions (Rom 9:2; 10:1; 2 Cor 2:4; Phil 1:7). It is sometimes used to describe the source of thought and moral choice—that which “gives impulse and character to action. Here, Paul places heart alongside thought, grammatically in such a way as to distinguish the one from the other “your hearts and your thoughts” heart, very likely has its meaning narrowed to the “seat of one’s emotions or deepest feelings” or simply to the “emotions” and “feelings” themselves. Thoughts, however, are the products of the “mind” and hence thoughts.