Listening to Handel's Messiah this morning, I thought about how Jesus is "the Prince of Peace." When "the government shall be upon His shoulder," and He shall reign as "King of kings and Lord of lords" (in the earthly sense of those terms), Jesus Christ will quite literally be the king of the world. This will make Him royalty, making it appropriate to call Him a "prince," though it would probably be more appropriate to call Him a "king." Also, with Jesus Christ at the head of all the governments of the earth, there would be no wars anywhere on earth, and the world will experience a Millennium of peace.
However, while we can certainly look forward to Jesus' second coming and the peace the earth will experience then, we can also experience peace now, because of Jesus Christ. This is because all the things that detract from our peace can be reduced or eliminated through the power of the Atonement and the effectiveness of Christ's teachings. Sin, which robs us of our personal peace, can be avoided through careful adherence to the teachings of Christ, and can be removed through the Atonement. Other hardships can also be reduced through the Atonement and the eternal perspective the Gospel gives us.
By being both the ruler who will bring peace in the Millennium and being the source of the peace that's in our hearts now, Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace.
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