Key Verse: For the sake of my brothers and friends, I will
say, "peace be within you.”
Psalm 122:8
"You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is
steadfast, because he trusts in You. Trust
in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord is the rock eternal.” (Isaiah
26:3-4) Focusing on God and not on our circumstances is God's prescription
for peace.
Yet, in this beatitude, Jesus is not talking to those who
are at peace. He does not say,
"blessed are the peace keepers.” Rather
He says, "blessed are the peace makers for they will be called the
children of God. This is because peace-making,
is what Jesus was all about.
In the Christmas carol, "Hark the Herald Angels Sing,”
we sing, "Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled.” Christ came to be the peacemaker between man
and God. True children of God, the
heavenly Father, should do as our first brother did and make peace among each
other.
The opposite of a peacemaker is a troublemaker. We know who they are. We are troublemakers when we insist on having
our own way. We are troublemakers when
we put our needs and wants above other people.
We are troublemakers when we give in to selfishness and our desire to
please our sinful nature. We are
troublemakers when we behave the opposite of Christ.
Peace-makers who sow in peace raise a harvest of
righteousness. (James
3:18) It is by peace-making that we
become healers. It is in peace-making
that we become imitators of Christ.
When you are a peace maker, you become the bridge between
two opinions to promote understanding. Peacemakers
are listeners, not dictators. They work
to help those in opposition see another point of view.
Perhaps the hardest peace-making you are called to do is not
when you are stepping in to mediate between two opponents, but when you are one of the opponents. That’s when Christ calls us make peace rather
than argue. What the other is saying must be considered thoughtfully to see if
there is any truth to be heard from them.
Yet, even in Jesus, who was perfect, we learn how this is
done. The commandments were His inspired
instructions about how things should be done and, as we all know, while He
certainly accepted the responsibility to let us know how we would be most
blessed to live, we didn't follow very well.
However, instead of dictating and demanding, Jesus the peacemaker came
to live among us and see life from our point of view. In so doing he earned the right to be heard.
Then Paul in teaching that our attitude should be like that
of Christ wrote, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but
in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own
interests, but also to the interests of others.” (Phil. 2:3-4) This is a peace making strategy if
ever there were one. Surely, those who
practice such are worthy to be called children of God.
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