The Lord of Peace

Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you. I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand, which is the distinguishing mark in all my letters. This is how I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

2 Thessalonians 3:16-18

The promise of God is that, no matter what our problem is, we can have peace in solving it! At times I have had to say to someone, I will be glad to help you, but you have another problem that has to be solved first, and that is your lack of peace. You are a believer, but you are not at peace, and you will never solve the other problem until you learn how to have peace.

When they were caught up in storms in the Sea of Galilee, Jesus told the disciples, Fear not, for I am with you (Matthew 8:24-26). I am in control, he was saying. This boat is not going to sink. The Lord of the ocean is in it. Do not be afraid. I am not going to stop the storm, but I will see you through it.

The Lord of peace himself is with you! We have the right to take from him a peaceful mind and attitude, and remind ourselves that he is with us and will help us work this out. Then you can come at the problem with a quite different attitude.

In closing, as he does in so many of his letters, he says, I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand, which is the distinguishing mark in all my letters. This is how I write. Paul apparently had trouble with bad eyes. Many feel that his thorn in the flesh (2 Corinthians 12:7) was poor eyesight. Thus, when he wrote letters he usually dictated them to one of the men who traveled with him. But when he came to the close of his letters, he would take the pen and, as he tells us in another place, write with large letters these words, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. That, he says, is the mark of authenticity in his letters.

It is more than that. It is also the mark that these letters are the very Word of God itself. The apostle everywhere stated that the doctrines he taught, the facts he imparted, the advice and counsel he gave, was not his own. It was God himself speaking through the man. Even in that early day people were imitating that, writing letters supposedly from Paul and signing his name to them. But when he wrote with large letters the words, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, that, he said, is the mark of genuineness; no one can imitate this. When you get a letter like that, says Paul, you know it is written by me.

The apostle has made his appeal to us to keep working, to occupy until the Lord comes, to face the problems of life, and to handle them all with the sense that the Lord of peace himself will give us peace in all ways and at all times. What better benediction could we ask!

I confess, Lord, that all too often I react to problems filled with worry and fear, missing out entirely on your peace. Teach me to surrender to you, the Lord of peace! Thank you that you are in control and will work for my good.