Power Verses

Power Verse B

As Christ began to prepare for His death on the cross, He began to share very powerful farewell messages and John 14:27 is perhaps one of the few under-emphasized ones. To understand what makes this a power verse, I will begin by quoting three versions of the Bible to capture the powerful truth Christ is communicating here, highlighting the power words/phrases, and expounding on each component.

John 14:27 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

27 Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.

John 14:27 Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC)

27 Peace I leave with you; My [own] peace I now give and bequeath to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. [Stop allowing yourselves to be agitated and disturbed, and do not permit yourselves to be fearful and intimidated and cowardly and unsettled.]

Yochanan (John) 14:27 Orthodox Jewish Bible (OJB)

27 Shalom Hashem, I leave with you, my Shalom I give to you, not as the Olam Hazeh gives, I give to you; let not your levavot be troubled, nor let them be ones of morech lev.

My Peace

Let’s dive into this divine buffet the Lord Himself “bequeath” to us as believers. The English or Greek translation of the word “Peace” does not come close to doing justice at all to what Christ would have said in Aramaic to the disciples in this verse. This is where I lean on the Orthodox Jewish Bible (OJB) completed by Phillip Goble in 2002, which applies Jewish cultural expressions to this verse.

The phrase “My Peace” in the original language is “Shalom Hashem”.

Shalom Hashem literarily means God’s Shalom. This my friends is a blank cheque from God, which only Christ can give because He is God.

So what is Shalom?

Strong’s Greek concordance in its definition of the Greek 1515. Eiréné defers to the Hebrew for a fuller understanding of what our Lord is saying here which is why a close examination of the word Shalom is important.

God gave Aaron specific pronouncements to say over His people in the book of Numbers

Numbers 6:25–27 Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)

25 Ya’er Adonai panav eleikha vichunekka.

[May Adonai makes his face shine on you and show you his favour.]

26 Yissa Adonai panav eleikha v’yasem l’kha shalom.

[May Adonai lift up his face toward you and give you shalom.]’

27 “In this way, they are to put my name on the people of Isra’el, so that I will bless them.”

Pay attention to verse 27-This is how God imprints His name on His people to target them for His blessings. Therefore, one can say shalom is a product of being brought into acceptance, intimacy, the very presence of God and being made aware of this fact.

When Jesus used the term “bequeath” or “leave with”, He is saying this is your inheritance from Me. This means while He was here on earth He survived on Shalom Hashem and now that He is going back to the Father, He won’t need it anymore but He gave it to us as a parent wills their estate to their children upon passing. If something is a will to us-It is ours completely, outrightly, and legally. We don’t have to beg for it, cry for it, or even pray for it, we simply use it.

Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew lexicon defines Shalom in 7 components:

· Completeness in number which refers to wholeness of being as supposed to being fragmented. Every bit whole, one within oneself, one in God and one with God.

· Safety and soundness physically

· Welfare, health, prosperity

· Peace with emphasis on quiet, tranquil, and content state of being

· Peace with emphasis on the absence of strife in friendship and human relations.

· Peace with God, especially in covenant relation as in Isaiah 54:10 which states:

o Isaiah 54:10 Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)

For the mountains may leave and the hills are removed, but my grace will never leave you, and my covenant of peace will not be removed, “says Adonai, who has compassion on you.

· Peace from war

Perfectly stated by Susan Perlman of Jews for Jesus, “The ancient Hebrew concept of peace, rooted in the word “shalom,” meant wholeness, completeness, soundness, health, safety and prosperity, carrying with it the implication of permanence.”

There isn’t any part of our well-being that was not covered in the “Shalom Hashem” that Christ has bequeathed to us as believers.

Not as the world gives

Having bequeathed us with Shalom Hashem, our Lord goes on to say “Not as the world gives”-Placing strong emphasis is on how it is given by God. How our God gives and how the world gives are polar opposites of each other. To understand how the world gives, let’s see in the scriptures how God gives:

Romans 8:32 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?

In Christ, God gives us all things freely/graciously in keeping with His goodness, generosity, and liberality.

It can be inferred then that the world gives at a price to the recipient. In other words, the world’s way of giving is based on merit or earned basis.

What our Lord is saying here, is the key to receiving all God has for us. Many Christians shoot themselves in the foot by trying to earn from God what He has freely given in His Son and we end up circumventing the Shalom that God has freely given us in Christ.

Let not your heart be troubled

I love how the Amplified reads “Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. [Stop allowing yourselves to be agitated and disturbed, and do not permit yourselves to be fearful and intimidated and cowardly and unsettled.]”.

The Orthodox Jewish Bible (OJB) uses the word “levavot” instead of “heart”. The heart is an apt translation but levavot gives a more robust context to what the Lord is saying. Levavot carries with it the notion of your insides, thinking, soul, mind, memory, inclinations, resolutions determinations of the will, conscience, seat of the emotions and passions, seat of the appetites, courage, and beyond.

The Lord says, “Don’t let them be troubled or act cowardly.” For the Lord to say “Do not let”, it means everything inside you want to be troubled or agitated by what it sees or experiences-The latter is our default setting. There is no shortage of triggers in a fallen world that the enemy employs to get us all rattled up but the Lord said “Do Not Let” and we have His Holy Spirit to help us.

In conclusion, I will liken Shalom Hashem to an impenetrable fortress. I’ll share a testimony:

In 2018, I was fleeing to Canada for protection, I had to leave my job, and my father passed away all while single parenting a toddler. Get this: I had also turned to Christ from occultism and was under some serious spiritual attacks. To say this period was a stormy time is an understatement. I remember it was so turbulent at times that I felt my body would simply collapse but two things still amaze me till date:

1. That impenetrable peace that sheltered me. I kept thinking it does not makes sense I am so calm in the middle of all this but I knew it was the Lord’s peace because it didn’t matter how crazy things got that peace was immovable. It was definitely not dependant on my situation and not reflective of my own mental prowess.

2. Not only was it enduring, but it was also preserved me because there was a strong presence of the Lord with me. I experienced healing, nurturing, deliverance, and lots of intimacy with the Lord.

It truly is like an underground bunker. One never knows its true value or how powerful it is until a storm hits. Here are a few things I learned:

A. It is not dependant or originates with the beneficiary but the benefactor God Himself.

B. Even Christ used this to face all persecutions, pain, and ultimately the cross. It has been tested and full proof.

C. It is very powerful-I testify to this.

D. It is inevitable for the sanity of any believer in Christ.

E. It is ours for the taking because God in His grace has willed it to us.

What this power verse is saying is we’ve got Heaven’s best and the world has nothing on us, let’s live boldly in Christ without apologies or regrets. Let’s see the face of God with joy, enjoying the light of the living, and giving thanks to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ because the chastisement that brought us this shalom was upon him [Isaiah 53:5b].

Now,

Philippians 4:7 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen!