Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Matthew 5:9
What is a peacemaker? Is the general who wins a war a peacemaker? Is the diplomat who negotiates a treaty a peacemaker? Is it the kid who stops a schoolyard fight? Or a parent who de-fuses familial tension? Or maybe a person who helps two sides negotiate a compromise?
Of course the answer is yes, but maybe we should check our intentions at the door. True peacemakers do that. But, true peacemakers don’t have their own intentions in mind. True peacemakers want for others what God wants: His peace, His truth, His justice, His righteousness: true peacemakers are the ones who want these for others and are willing to do what it takes to use their abilities, their lives, to let God work through them.
Peace is and isn’t the absence of conflict. We think of ‘peace’ in terms of war, thinking it is when the shelling stops and quiet returns. Me, I think of the Christmas truce of 1914, when the German and Allied armies stopped murdering each other along the Western Front if only for Christmas Day. That is, until the world war began again and the killing resumed in earnest. When the shooting stops there is peace, and yet that peace won’t remain if it wasn’t the result of the side of right being victorious over that of wrong. Without victory, there is no peace.
When Jesus talks of peace, He’s speaking from the point of victory. He is victorious over death. His life over death is victory over our sins. His atoning once-for-all sacrifice imparts peace to all women and men who put their faith in Him. Like the saying says, “no Jesus, no peace. Know Jesus, know peace.” It’s simply the truth. It’s the only meaningful victory or peace.
Hence, if you know Jesus, if you believe in Him, you have a little (or a lot) of the peacemaker in you. It has become your born-again nature to want for others what He gives to us. That means patience, seeking understanding, working for compromise, and avoiding unrighteous anger. It means selflessness and purpose instead of selfishness and chaos.
It means you’ve traded your old ways to be a child of God. He called mankind His “very good” creation, and we are the only thing He created through craftsmanship, through something other than simply speaking “let there be.” Because His very nature is love and “I AM” being, He imparted Himself into each one of us. That means that each one of us carries an ability and disposition to be a peacemaker. To be His child, His very good, created child in whom He delights and with whom He is well-pleased.
Blessed are you, and me, peacemaker friend, because God has made us His children.
For more reading: Romans 8:14, Romans 14:19, James 3:18, Matthew 5:10
Father, thank You for creating me and helping me to be a peacemaker for you.
Practical Proverbs 