I will begin with an apology. This is a long post. I’ve cut and cut…but I just couldn’t get peace about cutting anymore. So please bear with me…
Last week we began our look into the beatitude in Matthew 5:9 which tells us, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” We realized that first of all, peacemakers are at peace with God. Today we will look into the fact that:
Peacemakers are at peace with others. 2 Corinthians 13:11 says, “Dear brothers and sisters, I close my letter with these last words: Be joyful. Grow to maturity. Encourage each other. Live in harmony and peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you.” Romans 12:18 tells us to “Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.”
But then Matthew 5:43-45, which many of us are familiar with, makes it a little harder. It says, “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.”
I think it is sometimes difficult to pray for our enemies without falling into the trap of just spending our time asking God to change them instead of us. I don’t think that is what He desires for us to do. Instead, I think we could follow Christ’s directions when He tells us to “Pray like this” (see Matthew 6:9-10). We can pray that we and our enemy will revere God’s name. We can pray that God’s kingdom and His return will be foremost in our mind and in theirs. We should pray that we and our enemy would do His will the way the angels do it in heaven. If we remember that the basis of peace is purity, we should pray for our enemies and for ourselves that our hearts and lives will be pure…so there will be peace.
Then in Matthew 5:47 Jesus gives us a warning: "If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that.” In other words, if there is a rupture in one of your relationships, or if there is someone who opposes you, don't nurse that grudge. Don't feed the animosity by ignoring and avoiding that person. The natural thing to do is to just cross the street so you don't have to greet them. But that is not what the actions should be of a peacemaking, devoted follower of God. Peacemaking tries to build bridges to people. It does not want animosity to remain. It wants reconciliation. It wants harmony.
OK. Let’s put this into a scenario and bring it closer to home. Let’s say that someone has hurt you. They have said things about you behind your back that aren’t true. Why, they have even said things that aren’t true right to your face! They have been malicious, hurtful, and downright nasty to you. You may have even gone to them and tried to work it out, but they aren’t playing the game. They want nothing to do with reconciliation. And what really fries your fanny is that they profess to be a Christian! They go to church every Sunday morning just like you do, but yet they act this way.
Now, let’s imagine you are shopping in a store and you come around a corner, look down the aisle and you guessed it, there’s that person who has done these things to you. Would you duck back into another aisle to make sure you don’t run into this person? Our humanness would say yes, but we need to remember what we just read in Matthew. We are no better than pagans if we are only kind to our friends and not our enemies.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I really don’t think this is telling us that when we see a person such as this in a store, we should run up to them and give them hugs and kisses. Why? Because if nothing else, I think it would make the person very uncomfortable to say the least. But it is telling us that the least we can do is look them in the eye, greet them and do it not with a phony display of caring, but with a longing for peace and reconciliation.
There is something I think we need to realize. We should not equate peacemaking with peace-achieving. If we are truly living as a peacemaker, we are to long for peace, work for peace (which may include a simple greeting in a store) and at times even make sacrifices for peace...but the attainment of peace may not come.
It is also important to make sure we aren’t the one who is spreading lies and being malicious and nasty to someone else. Peace will never be found if we spend our time making someone else’s life miserable because of our actions.
It comes down to the fact that our goal should be to make peace: “If possible, so far as it depends on you….” In other words, don’t let the rupture in the relationship be your fault. We are to do whatever we can to reconcile the relationship, but we cannot make the other person have peace with us. It may never happen.
Finally, we need to realize that:
Peacemakers are at peace with themselves. Psalm 122:8 says, “For the sake of my family and friends, I will say,
“May you have peace.” Proverbs 3:1-2 reads, “My son, do not forget my teaching,
but keep my commands in your heart for they will prolong your life many years
and bring you peace and prosperity.” We read in Colossians 3:15, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.”
If you have peace with God and peace with others, so far as it depends on you, then you should have peace with yourself. Where we won’t have peace with ourselves is when we either have unconfessed sin OR we are still nursing a grudge against someone who has wronged us. If we aren’t feeling peace in us, we may need to look at these other 2 areas of our life.
A few basics things we need to remember:
1. The source of peace is God – that’s why it’s a matter of faith – we must trust and obey Him in order to receive and give peace. Peace demands that we turn to God and to His ways.
2. The enemy of peace is Satan and sin – wherever there is discord, or conflict you can know that Satan is having his way. It is always easier to create conflict than to strive for peace.
3. Christians should reflect peace in their lives both as a quality they have within themselves and as a blessing they share with others.
Blessed are the peacemakers…will you and I display God’s peace this week in everything we do? I sure hope so, because that is what He expects from His children.
Until next week…
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