Let the Peace of Christ Arbitrate in our Hearts and Settle All the Disputes

As believers in Christ, we need to let the peace of Christ arbitrate in our hearts, letting the peaceful oneness of the one new man – the peace of Christ – settle all the disputes in our being and have the final word. Amen!

This week in our morning revival we come to a wonderful topic, Allowing the Peace of Christ to Arbitrate in Our Hearts, Letting the Word of Christ Dwell in Us Richly, and Persevering in Prayer for the Genuine Church Life.

We may have read and enjoyed these three matters in the word of God, but we need to have a fresh appreciation and even renewed experiences of these matters.

For the one new man, we need to let the peace of Christ arbitrate in our hearts, let the word of Christ dwell in us richly, and persevere in prayer.

The peace of Christ must be enthroned in our being to arbitrate in our hearts, even as we were called in one Body.

The word of Christ must dwell in us richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in our hearts to God.

And we need to persevere in prayer, watching unto it with thanksgiving.

May the Lord grant us mercy and grace so that we would come to these familiar Scriptures in a new way, even in a deeper way.

We need to not only be reminded of these things but also check how these things are part of our habits in our daily living.

The shortage many times is not our seeing but our living, our practice. We may know that the peace of Christ must be enthroned in our being to arbitrate in us, but we may not practice this.

We may know that the word of Christ needs to dwell in us richly in all wisdom, but in our daily life we may not practice it.

We may know and clearly see the vision of the need to pray unceasingly, even to persevere in prayer, but we may not practice the matter of praying unceasingly.

May we be before the Lord concerning these matters so that we may be helped in our knowing, experiencing, and living the all-inclusive Christ for the genuine church life.

When we allow the peace of Christ to arbitrate in our hearts, when we let the word of Christ dwell in us richly, and when we persevere in prayer, even pray unceasingly, we have a practical and enjoyable way to enjoy, experience, and live the all-inclusive Christ for the genuine church life.

We need to Let the Peace of Christ Arbitrate in our Hearts

In Col. 3 we are told that we need to put on in our inward parts virtues such as compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and long-suffering.

We need to bear one another and forgive one another, if anyone has any complaint against anyone, and even as the Lord forgave us, so also we should forgive (Col. 3:12-14).

If we do not forgive one another in the church life, we will not keep the oneness, and we will not remain in the church life for a long time.

Some saints even stop meeting because they keep unforgiven offenses.

Above all these things we need to put on love, which is the uniting bond of perfectness, and we need to let the peace of Christ arbitrate in our hearts.

This word, Let, is not a passive word but quite an active one.

Our letting the peace of Christ arbitrate in our hearts is not something passive but quite aggressive.

We need to enthrone the peace of Christ so that this peace can reign, rule, direct, control, and govern us; this is an active and aggressive letting of the peace of Christ to arbitrate in our hearts.

Christ has made peace between us – He created the one new man in His body on the cross, and He made one out of two (Col. 2:15).

Now we simply need to let the peace of Christ arbitrate in our hearts.

This means that we need to deal with anything that is between the Lord and us and come to His word in a living way so that His peace would arbitrate in us.

The Greek term for arbitrate can also be rendered “umpire,” “preside,” or “be enthroned as a ruler and decider of everything.”

We need to let the peace of Christ arbitrate in our heart to the extent that this peace decides and rules in all the disputes in our being, and it arbitrates to make peace in everything.

The arbitrating peace of Christ dissolves our complaint against anyone (Col. 3:13, 15).

We may have a complaint against someone, and we may even hold on to the offense, for the more we think about it, the more serious it becomes in our eyes.

But we need to come to the Lord and let the peace of Christ arbitrate in our heart.

The peace of Christ is the arbiter, the referee, and the umpire; let the peace of Christ decide any dispute.

We need to let the peace of Christ preside over everything – over every kind of question, every kind of disagreement, any kind of quarrel, and any kind of argument that may happen anywhere.

Even in the family life, between the husband and the wife, we need to let the peace of Christ arbitrate in our hearts.

As things happen in the family life and the church life, we need to let the peace of Christ arbitrate in us.

We need to enthrone the peace of Christ as king, ruler, and decider of everything.

Just as in a football game there are two teams and there’s a referee, and whenever something needs to be decided it is not the players who decide but the referee, so we need to give the peace of Christ the ground to decide all things.

The peace of Christ should have the final decision.

It is not about what we think we are right or what they think it is right; it is what the referee says.

When the umpire, the peace of Christ, rules in us, there is peace.

We need to respect the peace of Christ to this extent, allowing Christ as our peace to arbitrate in us.

When we say that we enthrone the peace of Christ in us, this means that we enthrone Christ to be our peace.

This is not something that we only need to understand and agree with but even more, something that we should practice in our daily life.

Lord Jesus, we want to let the peace of Christ arbitrate in our heart today. We enthrone You, Lord Jesus, for You are our peace. May You as peace preside in us and decide all things in us. You be the decider and referee in our being. We want to practice day by day to enthrone the peace of Christ and let this peace arbitrate in our heart. Keep our heart in Your peace. Keep our family life and church life in Your peace. May Your peace rule and reign in us. May Your peace be enthroned in our being to be the umpire, the referee, to decide all things and bring in peace. Amen, Lord, even if we have a complaint against anyone, we want to let the arbitrating peace of Christ dissolve it and remove it forever. May peace preside! May peace rule and reign!

Give Place to the Presiding Peace of Christ to Settle all Disputes in us

We believers in Christ are complicated persons, especially after we were saved, because we now are conscious of three parties within us.

First, there’s a positive party, who is the Lord; then, there’s a negative party, which is Satan and all his ambassadors in us; and then there’s a neutral party.

We used to be fully under the control of the satanic party and therefore we could indulge in worldly amusements and entertainments without any sense of controversy within.

But now that we are saved, the Lord within may encourage us to do one thing, and the enemy will encourage us to do something completely different.

There are disputing parties within us, and many times we don’t know which one to listen to.

We need someone or something to preside over the disputes and conferences that take place in our being.

This arbitrator is the peace of Christ. We have the peace of Christ, which is Christ Himself as our peace, and we need to enthrone this peace to be the umpire, the referee, in our being.

We need to give place to the presiding peace of Christ to settle all disputes within us.

As believers in Christ who have been shown mercy by the Lord to return to the proper ground of oneness and meet in the church life, we are members of the Body of Christ and of the one new man.

In the new man there’s no Greek, no Jew, no barbarian, and no other person but Christ, for He is all and in all (Col. 3:10).

We need to let the peace of Christ arbitrate in our hearts for the one new man.

We need to let the peaceful oneness of the one new man arbitrate in our hearts.

The peace of Christ is our inward arbitrator to settle all the disputes within us.

Sometimes we may have an argument or a dispute with another brother or sister, and we may continue to not forgive that person for many years.

There may be an unresolved problem between us and someone else that is so deep and entrenched that we actually believe it, we don’t like that person, and we can’t stand them. Oh Lord Jesus!

There may be someone in the church life or in our group meeting that has a diametrically opposed personality, and we have many disagreements with them.

Whenever we see them, there’s a big black cloud that hangs over us.

How can we have the church life under such circumstances? We need to enthrone the peace of Christ in our being and let this peace settle all the disputes in us and among us.

Sometimes there are disputes in our very being; in the morning we feel one way, at lunch we may feel something completely different, and at dinner time we are again very different.

Depending on our feelings at the moment, our emotions and our thoughts, our judgment call may be one way, but then later, it may be quite different.

We really need an umpire, a referee, that arbitrates in our heart to keep us in peace both in our being and in the church life and the family life.

Whenever we sense that different parties within our being are arguing and quarrelling, we need to give place to the presiding peace of Christ and allow this peace, which is the oneness of the new man, to rule within us and have the final word.

It is not us who decide: it is the peace of Christ. It is not being right that matters: peace matters.

We may want to do all things right and we may be right, but we are dead right; what matters is not being right but being in the peace of Christ.

What matters is partaking of the tree of life so that life and peace would be present, not doing things the right way or being right.

Sometimes a situation may be so muddy that no one knows what is right and wrong; in such situations, we all need to let the peace of Christ arbitrate in our hearts.

When we set our mind on our spirit, the result is that we get life and peace (Rom. 8:6).

We have life and peace whenever our mind is set on our mingled spirit.

We simply have an inner sense of peace, and tranquility, with no turmoil.

But when we don’t let the peace of Christ arbitrate in our hearts, we may be in turmoil, disturbance, and tumultuous in our being.

We need to set aside our opinions, and our concepts, and listen to the word of the indwelling referee.

Sometimes this is not easy because our mind is so strong and it likes to argue and be right.

But the main thing that we need to have is peace and harmony; where the peace of Christ presides, there is peace and harmony.

May the Lord save us from trying to settle the disputes in our being on our own, and may we be saved from trying to settle the disputes and disagreements among the saints.

May we let the peace of Christ arbitrate in our hearts by allowing it to have the place to settle any disputes within us and among us.

Lord Jesus, we open to You. We let the peace of Christ arbitrate in our heart. We allow the peaceful oneness of the new man to arbitrate in our heart and among us in the church life. Oh Lord, we give place to the peace of Christ and allow this peace to rule within us and have the final word. We put our opinions and feelings aside and we enthrone the peace of Christ in our being and in the church life. We set aside our opinion, our concept, and listen to the word of the indwelling referee. Amen, Lord, keep us in Your peace. May there be peace and harmony in our being and among us in the church life. May the peace of Christ arbitrate in our hearts and in the family life and church life so that we may live the life of the one new man. Lord Jesus, we give You as peace the first place in us. May peace preside, arbitrate, and decide all things to settle all disputes in our being and among the saints in the church life!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Colossians, msgs. 47, 52-53, 55, 58, 63-65, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Knowing, Experiencing, and Living the All-inclusive Christ for the Genuine Church Life (2023 spring ITERO), week 6, entitled, Allowing the Peace of Christ to Arbitrate in Our Hearts, Letting the Word of Christ Dwell in Us Richly, and Persevering in Prayer for the Genuine Church Life.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Prince of peace, control my will; / Bid this struggling heart be still: / Bid my fears and doubtings cease: / Hush my spirit into peace. / Thou hast bought me with Thy blood, / Opened wide the gate to God; / Peace I ask, but peace must be, / Lord, in being one with Thee. (Hymns #425 stanzas 1-2)
  – Now He must have our cooperation. / We must set our mind upon the Son. / We must turn away from all that leads astray, / Till our mind is set on Him each day. / Lord, our human spirit now contains You. / Still Your purpose in us You would do; / If our wandering mind would leave old thoughts behind, / Then Your life and peace in it we’ll find. (Hymns #1193 stanzas 4-5)
  – And let the peace of Christ / Arbitrate in your hearts, / To which also / You were called / In one Body; / And be thankful. (Scripture song)