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Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. (Colossians 3:15).

I recall reading a storybook to my young children in which a child tags along with a fire truck and gets very dirty at the scene of a fire. So dirty, her dad does not even recognize her when she returns home. When dad finally allows her into the house, she is subjected to taking a five-day bath.

The natural response to dirt is to wash it off. We wash until surfaces sparkle. This principle is often incorporated into our spirituality. Misbehaviour is confronted from the outside. We attempt to change our behaviour, scrubbing words out of our vocabulary and hurtful actions out of our relationships. Some moderate success encourages us onward. But most of us discover along the way that behavioural change is very difficult to come by.

But we Christians know change is necessary. Our faith naturally results in changed living. Today\u2019s text tells us that we are called to peace. But it also addresses how it begins: Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Becoming holy does not begin on the outside, but on the inside. To use our recent words, to live peacefully on the horizontal, we must begin with the vertical. When the peace of Christ reigns in our hearts we can live in peace with others. To live \u201cTogether in Faith\u201d, the peace of Christ is required.

Paul has already mentioned several things that break down peace in a community: evil desires, greed, anger, slander, envy. The dictionary says that the opposite of peace is war, conflict, strife. Our desire for things often brings us into conflict and strife with others, breaking down peace. Our wants become more important to us than our brothers and sisters in Christ. Somehow, they become enemies. Matthew Henry once wrote: \u201cBy their speech and actions some Christians show they\u2019d rather lose a brother than an argument.\u201d

So how does the peace of Christ rule in our hearts? The first answer is: by faith. We believe that we are forgiven sinners; that we are children of God. We confess that our only comfort is that we belong, body and soul, in life and in death, to our faithful Savior Jesus Christ. We may not always act or look like his children, but that does not change the reality.

As children of God, the Spirit leads us into the life of Christ through death and resurrection. Our old selves drown in the baptism tank. Our new lives are raised up. Envy is killed and gratitude is born. Resentment is cast away to be replaced with forgiveness. Arrogance is drowned so that humility can live.

Some of us think these things are still our natural bent. We make excuses for ourselves. \u201cThis is just the way I am.\u201d We also excuse others. He has an anger problem. Or she likes her drink; he\u2019s just power hunger; she\u2019s a gossip. We ought not to make excuses for non-Christian behaviour. Those who belong to Jesus are naturally patient, content, sober, and control their tongues.

The problem is that our old nature likes to assert itself and make an illegitimate claim to be our natural self. But it\u2019s not. It was. But not any longer. Our old self is hard to kill. We may think that it is dead, at the bottom of the Red Sea with Pharaoh and all his hosts, but it\u2019s a good swimmer, it keeps bobbing up again. We must tell it to get lost. \u201cResist the devil and he will flee from you,\u201d says James. In the same way, \u201cresist the old self and it will flee.\u201d

Paul says, \u201cGet dressed up in compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.\u201d Such things are part of a heart that is at peace. Peace means no more warfare with God, no more warfare with ourselves, and no more warfare with other people. Any suspicions or hostilities within the church are dealt with first, not on the outside, but on the insider. These are my family; I am not at war with them. Christ has reconciled us.

Dying and rising with Christ is a \u2018daily rhythm\u2019 for the Christian because doing it once isn\u2019t enough. The Spirit will lead us to die and rise repeatedly until all actions and motives that create strife are washed away; until our hearts are at peace.

We move forward with this confidence:

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21).