This year, I’m pondering the traditional Advent themes—HOPE, PEACE, JOY, and LOVE—found in the apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians (my recent Bible study). Last week we examined the “hope of righteousness.” Today we look at PEACE.

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Advent 2: PEACE

Peace shows up in the beginning, middle, and end of Paul’s letter to the Galatians. He starts with his customary greeting:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Galatians 1:3 NIV

As with the word “hope,” we get tripped up by the common definition. We think peace means tranquility or freedom from disturbance. But in scripture, peace is a state of wholeness and thriving, encompassing harmony, contentment, well-being, and safety.

Paul says that peace, accompanied by grace, comes from God and Jesus because Jesus “gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age” (1:4). Jesus was “born of a woman” (4:4) to make peace between us and God.

In doing so, he also gave us the Holy Spirit (3:14) so that we walk by the Spirit (5:16), not the law (5:18) or the flesh (5:16). When we do, the Spirit produces fruit¹ in us:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace …

Galatians 5:22

As we choose to live by, be led by, keep in step with, and sow to the Spirit (5:18,25; 6:8), we will reap all the fruit, including peace.² Spiritual fruit enables us to live in peace with others (5:26–6:2).

Paul then concludes his letter with peace:

Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule …³

Galatians 6:16

This time peace is paired with mercy. It is ours when we live by the foundational rule of not relying on religious rule-keeping but instead living as the new creations we are (6:15). This brings peace internally as we no longer have to strive to be good enough.

This Advent, I pray that you will experience the peace Jesus brings with God, with others, and with yourself.

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1. Paul’s noun is singular here meaning that collectively the fruit will grown in us. Fruit are character qualities formed, not by our own efforts, but by the Spirit’s work in us. ↩︎
2. While the first Advent theme, hope, is not a fruit of the Spirit, the next three are. Fruit are character traits whereas hope is a mindset, a way of thinking. ↩︎
3. This rule is found in the previous verse: “Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation.” (Gal 6:15) ↩︎