Living In Peace Series

God’s Peace

December 4, 2022

We’re in one of the most drama filled months of the year. As we prepare for Christmas, planning menus, shopping, parties and family gatherings. And when we get together with family, that can lead to some interesting, some funny and some not so fun moments. I’m wondering, how many of you know someone that's a little difficult to love? Don’t point, just raise your hands!

Is it me, or does it seem that the past couple of years has made more of them. This is a great time of year, but it can also be a crazy time of year.

Even though family and Christmas go together, sometimes, they don’t. Sometimes, it’s best just to stay home and enjoy the peace. It can get complicated. You know what I mean?

It’s incredibly complicated right now. Because, so many subjects are taboo. It’s to the point that even talking about the weather may lead to a feud. People are so quick to be offended and angry. And if you say something they don’t like, they’re likely to unfriend you, call you out, block you or cancel you.

And there’s some people who always seem to be on the lookout to be offended. They enjoy complaining about things. They’re quick to point out how they’ve been wronged, even when they get a bargain, they’re still mad. It’s a no win situation.

Have you ever met a person who said - - - "My life is so much more productive because I'm always angry.” I’ve never heard that. We would think they’re crazy to say that. Everyone seems to be on edge. And this is where I’m heading,

being offended is inevitable, but living offended is a choice.

It's a choice. I want you to get that today. We’re talking about finding God’s peace and not being a Grinch! As followers of Christ, we need to choose wisely. In fact, we need to do the difficult . . . We’re going to see what Paul had to tell us in Romans 12. It’s a great section of scripture about how we should act. This isn’t an easy scripture, but it’s necessary. Paul said - - -

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.

15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.

17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

The practical instruction Paul gives in this chapter is honestly enough to get us to work on who we are for the rest of our lives. Because this isn’t easy. And we’re just looking at a snippet today.

In verse 14 Paul wrote - - -

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.

I want to start off with what Paul means when he says persecute. Because again, in our world, we can be pretty thin skinned. We think we’re being persecuted when someone disagrees with us, or doesn’t like our post on FB. But that’s not even close to what Paul’s getting at.

The word Paul uses in the Greek literally means TO BE ZEALOUSLY AND AGGRESSIVELY CHASED, LIKE A HUNTER PURSUING IT’S PRIZE. And what’s cool is we’re going to see this word on the flip side in a couple of weeks.

That’s aggressive persecution. So, when we’re being persecuted, we’re being hunted down. This is not a fun type of persecution. What does Paul say to do? I’m telling you upfront, you’re not going to like this! Just know I told you!

Bless them! Bless and don’t curse them. I mean, you’ve got to be kidding? I don’t want to bless them! Who wants to bless people like this?

But that’s what Paul tells us.

The word to bless comes from the Greek word E-U-L-O-G-E-O. YOO-lo-geh-O

It’s a compound word, made up of E-U, which means good! And the second part is LOGOS, which means word! So, literally it means to speak well of or to wish the best blessings for someone - - - it’s to say a good word about them.

Yup, just what you came to hear today. Go bless all those people who are against you, people who are rude to you, people who ignore you, people who won’t give you the time of day, people who cut you off and take your parking space. Those are the nice ones, Paul’s also talking about speaking well and wishing those nasty people who persecute the best as well.

Now, I have to admit, it’s easy for me to bless someone I like. It’s those difficult people who make it hard to bless. We all know it’s easy to bless people who bless us, to be generous with people who are generous to us.