Now, Paul’s vision is not limited to the vertical. The most important thing is that we would have peace with God, the peace between heaven and earth. But he also then says that we will have peace reigning where previously turmoil abounded. What about peace among the nations? Is that not what everybody clamors for today? We have lived through recent decades where the last thing you would say is that there is peace. You can not turn on the internet or the television without having a war or conflict in a new place far or near, a terrorist attack in the streets of our own cities. I saw a violent crime on the national news and it was in our area, right near us. And then what about our own homes, our own family relationships? The problem is we have division of every kind and strife. We have racial, economic, social, professional, regional, family strife—it all abounds.
Why? Because of sin. And the world has its answers. It has training, it has reconditioning. There is an awful lot of compulsion that goes on. But the problem is that the sin runs too deep; none of these will work. The problem is that man does not love God, nor do we love our neighbor. And the gospel declared in Ephesians, promises not only peace with God but a peace that is from God, that will actually work out peace into our lives.1
Dr. Richard D. Phillips
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.