Philippians 4:7Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

It is as though he said: May He Who delivered you in a way incomprehensible to the mind preserve and establish you, so that you suffer no harm. Thus the Apostle either explains this, or he means the peace of which Christ said, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you” (Jn 14:27). May this peace preserve you. This very peace surpasses every human mind. If you ask how, listen. When the Lord commands us to have peace with enemies who offend us, arm themselves against us, and hate us, is this not beyond the human mind? But let us pay special attention to the first words: “the peace which surpasses every mind.” If peace surpasses every mind, then far more does God Himself, the giver of peace, surpass every mind. He surpasses not only our mind, but even the mind of angels and the powers on high. And what does “in Christ Jesus” mean? May He preserve you in Him, he says, so that you may be unshaken and not fall away from faith in Him.

Therefore, verse 6, always “in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving” for everything that befalls you, “let your desires be made known before God.” After such prayer, verse 7, peace from above, from God, will descend into your soul. It is “beyond every mind,” that is, incomprehensible to the mind. It is felt only by the heart and is shown in joy, calm, and freedom from malice toward enemies. Such peace “will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.” It will not allow you to undertake any rash measures against your slanderers and enemies.

But perhaps he called God Himself the peace which surpasses every mind. He is the “Prince of Peace,” incomprehensible and beyond understanding (Is 9:6). Like an invincible guard, He keeps the hearts and thoughts of His servants from the assault of fleshly passions, worldly vanity, and demonic delusion.

Hear what Luke tells of the Apostles: they went rejoicing from the presence of the council, because they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for His name (Acts 5:41). If scourges and bonds, which seem hardest of all, produce joy, what else can cause them sorrow?” Our more recent interpreter adds that the Apostle exhorts them to Christian joy, “whose essential property must be constancy. Inconstancy is the lot of earthly joys.” According to St. Basil the Great, “the Apostle invites one always to rejoice, but not just anyone. He invites the one who is like himself, who does not live in the flesh, but has Christ living in him.” Explaining why the Apostle, after exhorting them to meekness, recalls the nearness of the Lord, Bishop Theophan says: “What does an injured man usually say to comfort himself? There is God the Judge; He will repay. If to this one adds the conviction that this Judge is about to appear, there can be no better means for calming a troubled heart.” “But not only in afflictions, but in every circumstance of life, one can cast all one’s sorrow upon the Lord. The Apostle exhorts us to complete surrender to the will of God. He cuts off ruinous over-anxiety, which torments the soul and takes away the heart’s peace. For though you labor, the Lord will give the fruit of your labor. Cast all your sorrow upon Him, again because He is near. Enter with awareness into this truth. When you enter it, and contemplate the majesty of Him Who is near, can you fail to pray? The first condition for success in prayer is to pray in everything, that is, in every need, spiritual and earthly. This is the essence of surrender to God. Second, pray with prayer and supplication, that is, from the depth of the soul. Faith and hope lie at the foundation here. Third, pray with thanksgiving. Fourth, pray by stating the requests themselves. Fifth, pray before God, speaking of things worthy of God, and knowing that you stand before God.” “Do all that has been prescribed, and the peace of God will guard you and be your sentinel. It will overshadow you and keep your hearts and your understandings.” “This peace surpasses every mind both because it cannot be brought within ordinary concepts, and because it comes apart from the mind, in Christ Jesus. To taste this peace is the same as communion with God. Communion with God takes place only in Jesus Christ, by the way held by the one Orthodox faith.”

They must constantly think on truth in general, “whatever things are true,” and give this truth its fitting and honorable form, “whatever things are honorable.” In relation to others they must show justice. Their conduct must be unstained. It must make them agreeable members of civil society and bring them praise. In general, they must make virtue their constant aim, together with that praise which falls to the lot of virtuous people. The best example for them in this regard is the Apostle’s life, which fully confirms his instruction and teaching.

When he fulfills these conditions, the peace of God through the Lord Jesus Christ overshadows him and fills his whole inner being.

There is a path to this peace, and one must walk it in order to taste it. Since not every believer walks it, or has not yet walked it completely, not everyone tastes this peace.

Therefore the Apostle desires that all should taste it, and that it should overshadow all. He desires that all should be counted worthy of this ineffable blessing by fulfilling everything required for it.

“May it guard” means: may it keep, protect, and be a watchman. This also gives the thought that the Apostle is expressing not a good wish, but the consequence of what came before.

It is as though he says: do everything prescribed, and the peace of God will surround you and be your guard.

If peace is the consequence, then all that precedes is the means to it. What then?

When you overcome every self-pleasing and enter the way of the cross through unsparing self-denial, when you extinguish every irritability in yourself and clothe yourselves in meekness, then peace comes.

When you cast away evil anxiety and surrender your souls, bodies, and your whole temporal and eternal lot into the hands of the Lord, peace comes.

He is near you and in you, and is present in all things. When in everything, at every time, in every place, and in every circumstance you rise to God in warm, reverent, undistracted prayer, then God’s peace will overshadow you.

It will guard your hearts and your understandings. In other words: drive out self-pleasing, irritability, and evil care, and you will drive out everything that disturbs.

Surrender yourself to the Lord and stand before Him in prayer. Then you will receive everything that calms and brings peace.

The consequence is clear: the peace of God will guard you. So long as the passions are not overcome, and the soul has not found rest in God, do not expect God’s peace.

Perhaps it will visit from time to time, to draw you by its sweetness further and further along your good path.

When the peace of God comes, it will guard hearts and understandings. “Understandings” means concepts, thoughts, and reflections. “Hearts” means feelings and dispositions.

In our usual state, thoughts jostle like specks of frost. The heart is constantly agitated, now under the influence of thoughts, now by the demands of self-pleasing, irritability, and care.

The more these enemies of ours are tamed, the quieter the heart becomes and the less thoughts boil over. When they are completely driven out, the heart becomes wholly calm and thoughts settle down.

Yet this happens only when, in departing from one thing, the soul attaches itself to another. Neither thoughts nor the heart can exist without activity and feelings.

As we wean them from one thing, we must at the same time accustom them to another, opposite thing. This accustoming produces that weaning.

The Apostle explains in the following verse exactly what we should accustom them to. Here let us say: to everything divine.

The divine, even while being in ceaseless activity, remains in peace. This peace surpasses every mind. Because it is ineffable, it cannot be brought into ordinary concepts or described to another so that he understands.

It can only be tasted. The one who tastes it understands it, but he cannot compare it with anything in order to explain it.

It also surpasses every mind because it comes apart from the mind. The mind does not know how to attain it. It is given, but how and why is incomprehensible.

It is given “in Christ Jesus.” Only true Christians can have it. The only path to it is the true Christian faith.

Whoever realizes this faith within himself becomes one spirit with the Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him he becomes one with the Godhead.

To taste the peace of God is the same as to taste communion with God. When God communicates Himself to the human spirit, the spirit is overshadowed by peace.

God is the God of peace. Communion with God takes place only in the Lord Jesus Christ, by the path preserved by the Orthodox faith alone.