Seeking peace without the foundation of truth is not peace. It is a mirage that will lead us to a dry and desolate place. It was a false peace that was being pursued by people in the time of Noah. That false peace was contrary to God’s peace. All who followed its lead drowned in the flood.

There is a vast difference between the peace of the world and the peace offered by the Prince of Peace. Discerning the difference will offer us true peace when a false and momentary peace is ruling the day. 

A false peace caused Jesus to weep. “As he came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began to weep. ‘How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from your eyes” (Luke 19: 41-42). True peace was hidden from the inhabitants of Jerusalem, as it is today when unbelief blinds the spiritual eyes of people who have defined peace apart from the Lord.

In His farewell address to the disciples just before His arrest, the Lord said, “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid” (John 14:27). True peace is a gift only Jesus can offer. Its presence mitigates the effects of fear.

As Paul addressed the human condition of sin, He said, “They don’t know where to find peace. They have no fear of God at all” (Romans 3:17-18). A lack of peace came because no fear of God existed in their hearts. Without a healthy fear of God, true peace is never possible.

In I Thessalonians 5 Paul addressed the consequence of a false peace, “When people are saying, ‘Everything is peaceful and secure,’ then disaster will fall on them as suddenly as a pregnant woman’s labor pains begin. And there will be no escape’” (vs. 3). The result of living in a false peace will someday bring a sudden and irreversible change to a person’s reality.

When the events of life are happening at an increasingly rapid rate of descent into darkness, the gift of God’s peace will become our mediator of how we interpret reality. Paul continued his discourse about God’s peace, “But you aren’t in the dark about these things, dear brothers and sisters, and you won’t be surprised when the day of the Lord comes like a thief. For you are all children of the light and of the day; we don’t belong to darkness and night” (vs 4-5). God’s peace will illuminate and interpret the disturbing events we see happening in the world because we are seeing them from God’s perspective. That illumination and interpretation will bring us peace in times of social discord.

Paul’s parting words in II Thessalonians 3:16 offer us wise instruction and comfort about God’s peace, “Now may the Lord of peace himself always give you his peace in every situation of life. The Lord be with you all.” 

God’s gift of peace is available “at all times and in every situation” because the Lord is with us, even in the seasons of life when invitations to compromise God’s truth will arise in an attempt to rob us of true peace.