Blessed Are The Peacemakers Series

But that’s not to say that they turn a blind eye to wrongdoing. If you’re going to be the kind of peacemaker that is called a child of God, you need an even stronger commitment to truth and justice, because there can be no true peace without both.

No one is more committed to reconciliation than God. But he isn’t committed to it at any cost. He isn’t committed to it at the expense of truth and justice. He doesn’t cover up sin. In fact, part of the process of covering our sin is first exposing it. We have to confess our sin, make it public - maybe not to everyone, but at least to God.

Reconciliation with God also involves a commitment to justice, or righteousness, which have the same idea in the Bible. Righteousness is being right before God and justice is doing right by others. And that means we need to repent, or turn away from sin, and towards God in order to be reconciled to God.

Friends, whether it is human to human, or human to divine reconciliation we’re working for, we can’t afford to be afraid of exposing the truth for the sake of peace, because their can be no peace without the truth.

And then, not only does the peacemaker have to be committed to both sides, but both sides need to become committed to each other. Remember, this is the goal of the peacemaker. Peacekeepers try to keep the sides apart so that their won’t be conflict. Peacemakers bring the sides together, risking conflict, working through it, and bringing them into a reconciled relationship.

And I wonder if this is why so many of our relationships don’t go any deeper than surface level. We aren’t willing to work through the issues of truth and justice and the risk of conflict or rejection. We’re happy to skate safely along the surface. Because this is ultimately the cost of deep relationship. This is what peace is about. It’s not the absence of conflict in a relationship, it’s wholeness and completeness in that relationship.

CONCLUSION

Jesus said that the peacemakers are blessed because they will be called God’s children. In other words, they’re doing what their heavenly father does - bring peace and reconciliation. God owns them. People can see God’s image in them.

Peacemaking is grounded in a relationship with the Prince of Peace - Jesus.

So are you a peacekeeper or a peacemaker?

Are you committed to avoiding conflict or to working to reconciliation and wholeness in relationships?

What about us as a church? What do you think an outsider looking in would say? Would they see polite conversation and superficial relationships? Or deep, committed, honest and uncompromising friendships.

Blessed are the peacemakers, because they will be called children of God.