Albert Barnes Commentary Philippians 4:7

"And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus." — Philippians 4:7 (ASV)

And the peace of God. This refers to the peace that God gives. The peace particularly mentioned here is what is felt when we have no anxious care about the supply of our wants, and when we confidently go and commit everything into God’s hands. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee (Isaiah 26:3). .

Which passeth all understanding. This means that it surpasses all that humans have conceived or imagined. The expression indicates that the peace imparted is of the highest possible kind. The apostle Paul frequently used terms that had a somewhat hyperbolical quality , and the language here is what one would use when intending to speak of something of the highest order.

The Christian, by committing their way to God and feeling that He will order all things aright, possesses a peace that is unknown anywhere else. Nothing else will furnish it but religion. No confidence a person can have in their own powers, no reliance they can place on their own plans or on the promises or faithfulness of other people, and no calculations they can make on the course of events, can impart such peace to the soul as simple confidence in God.

Shall keep your hearts and minds. This means it shall keep them from anxiety and agitation. The idea is that by making our requests known to God in this way, and by going to Him in view of all our trials and wants, the mind will be preserved from distressing anxiety. The way to find peace and to have the heart kept from trouble is to go and spread out everything before the Lord. (Compare Isaiah 26:3-4, 20; Isaiah 37:1–7).

The word translated here as shall keep is a military term, meaning that the mind would be guarded just as a camp or castle is. It would be preserved from the intrusion of anxious fears and alarms.

Through Christ Jesus. This is by His agency or intervention. It is only in Him that the mind can be preserved in peace. It is not by mere confidence in God, or by mere prayer, but by confidence in God as He is revealed through the Redeemer, and by faith in Him. Paul never lost sight of the truth that all the security and happiness of a believer are to be traced to the Savior.