Article December 14, 1987 Issue

Unworldliness and peace

The Christian Science Monitor

A Growing chorus of voices around the world speaks of peace—asking for it, virtually pleading for it. But not many people are asking if peace is really desirable. It's an important question, because the answer is "Not necessarily."

After all, it was Christ Jesus himself who thrust upon mankind such statements as, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword," ^{Matt. 10:34.} and "Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division." ^{Luke 12:51.} And yet with profound authority and compassion this same man insisted, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you." ^{John 14:27.}

No, Jesus didn't come to give us a worldly kind of peace. In fact, the presence of the saving, regenerating Christ-power actually stirs up the worldliness that continually tries to settle into human thought and action. The world's kind of peace has been tried again and again. It has always proved to be short-lived. Surely the time is approaching for humanity's wakening to the kind of peace that will last.

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