PEACE

C. F. Dadd

Luke 10: 2–6; Romans 14: 19; John 16: 33

I have been thinking a little today, beloved brethren, of this expression that the Lord uses in Luke 10: 6, “a son of peace”. The Lord here is in the act of sending out His servants, sending them out two and two. Not the twelve this time, but seventy others. We are in a time when the Lord

is still sending out His servants. The harvest is great but the workmen few. Therefore I feel, beloved, we should be very concerned about the workman, and whether we could qualify to be one of the Lord’s workmen. And as they go out they are to be regulated. I think what has come to us already in this occasion is something of extreme import. That is, that we ourselves are prepared to be regulated, regulated by the word of God as it has come in, as our brother has reminded us. God’s people are all to be regulated. The Lord was regulated. We speak guardedly, but the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, as coming into the place of a Servant, was regulated by what He received from God, what came in from heaven.

I believe, beloved, that this is something we need to consider seriously, not only from the viewpoint of service, but from the viewpoint of every area in our lives, that we are prepared for the great thought and principle of regulation. We speak about the principles that govern the house of God, we speak about the law of the house, and it has come to us, it has been given by God. And whatever the law of the house is, whatever the principles may be that govern the house of God, we should be prepared to be regulated by them. I think this idea of lifting up a steel tool is a very, very apropos application in what our brother has had to say, because it might be only in small areas of our lives that we reserve the right to do what we think, and as we do that we will find that this will spread and it will not be confined to so-called small areas of our lives.

So these men go out as under the direction of Christ and they come to a place and “into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace to this house”. I believe, beloved brethren, where persons are peaceful they are finding regulation from the word of God.

We will find unrest in our own hearts if we are kicking against the goads. I believe the absolute satisfaction of Christ was that He fully committed Himself to the will of God. He regulated Himself by the things He heard the Father saying and the things that He saw the Father doing. This was how the regulation in the life of Christ came in, that life of perfection.

So, beloved, let us think about what we have heard, what has come to us. This son of peace, I believe, would be one characteristically taking character from the God of peace. He is a son of peace, he is the kind of man that would pursue the things which tend to peace, which is what Paul speaks about in his epistle to the Romans. “So then let us pursue the things which tend to peace, the things whereby one shall build up another”. What a holy atmosphere would be introduced! The currency of the locality would be that we are pursuing the things that tend to peace. We have seen the opposite, but now, as coming under the direction of God and the direction of the word of God, we are persons who are characterized by being sons of peace, and we are pursuing the things that tend to peace. It would introduce an atmosphere and a relationship into the locality in which things can be built, “the things whereby one shall build up another”. That is fine, is it not?—one building up another. How am I going to build up my brethren if I myself am not marked by the principle of regulation and am not pursuing the things that tend to peace? How then can I build up my brethren? But Paul says, “things whereby one shall build up another”.

So that as the Lord comes to the latter part of John’s gospel He says to His own, “These things have I spoken to you that in me ye might have peace”. Now it is not a question here of pursuing peace, but that we are arriving at something that we have derived from Christ. It is really His

peace. He says earlier, “I leave peace with you; I give my peace to you—not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it fear”. We are getting through as understanding the purposes of God and being affected morally by them. We are getting through to the enjoyment of peace that really comes in from Christ, not something we pursue. I think it is the product of our knowledge and understanding of the Person, our nearness to Christ, which, needless to say, relates to our link with the Spirit of God. If there is to be nearness to Christ experienced and enjoyed by us, it must be as we promote our link with the blessed Spirit, of whom the Lord has spoken so extensively in this gospel. So it becomes characteristic of the persons that the Lord is taking up and John is dealing with and working with in this book. So later on He says to the Father, “The men whom thou hast given me out of the world”. These are men that would be characterized by these features that we have been speaking about—regulation and the characteristic outlook of peace and rest in our localities which would tend to build, and not have a tendency to alienate or tear down. It would build what is of God.

Well, beloved, may we all be encouraged and edified by what the Lord has brought us tonight, for His name’s sake.

Words at meeting for ministry, Plainfield, N.J.
2 September 1986