The Peacemakers Series

SPIRITUAL GROWTH ENHANCERS

REF NO: 012

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Matthew 5:9

THE PEACEMAKERS

The world is in desperate need of God's peace. Our world is in urgent need of peacemakers, those who represent the heart of God to bring peace to broken a broken world and relationships.

The Bible has a lot to say about peace; it appears 329 times in the Bible, with the highest occurrence of 30 in the book of Isaiah.

In the beatitudes, Jesus educated us about certain good Christian conducts that when we emulate will invite the blessings of God upon us. One of them is "Peacemaking". As Christians, we are called to be "peacemakers" not "troublemakers".

Peacemakers in this passage are not those who choose to live in peace but those who choose to live in peace and campaign for peace, tranquility and harmony among people in the family, community and anywhere they find themselves.

In the light of this verse, I want us to look at what peace is in it's clear essence, who the peacemakers are, why are they blessed and why will they be called the children of God?

What Is Peace

According to Strong's concordance, the Hebrew word translated as "peace" is "shalom", meaning "completeness, soundness, and welfare". It comes from the root word shalam which means to make amends or to make whole or complete.

Therefore, to have shalom means to be in a state of wholeness or completeness, without any deficiency or lack.

In Jewish culture, people used shalom in greeting expressions such as shalom Aleichem which means “well-being be upon you,” or “may you be well.” Jesus and New Testament writers often greeted one another and said farewell with peace (John 20:19).

The Greek equivalent for "Shalom" (peace) in the New Testament is from the Greek word "eiréné". According to Strong’s, "eiréné" means, "one, peace, quietness, and rest". It originates from the root word "eiro", which means " to join, or tie together into a whole".

Therefore, "eiréné" means unity; it is to bringing multiple parts together to form a whole, or set it as one again. For example, two friends who reconcile after a fight make "eiréné", that is they come back together, and their relationship is whole.

Who Are The Peacemakers

We are peace ambassadors. We received His peace to promote His peace.

1. Peacemakers seek to reconcile people with God.

Peacemakers, in this context, are those who promote God’s peace. To promote God's peace is to seek to reconcile unbelievers and sinners with God.

God loves the sinner but does not love sin. He loves the sinner but hate his sins.

The Bible tells us the holy nature of our God. He is a holy God and therefore cannot have any relationship with sinful people.

We live in a fallen world. The world is in chaos and in total state of depravity. as it is written, ‘There is none righteous, not even one.’”

Therefore, all people are under the wrath of God because of sin. The current government of Ghana currently is under pressure to succumb to western cultures to legalize Gay and pass the LGBTQ bill to become a legal tender. If this initiative is not to receive foreign aids then what could that be? Foreign aid could mean peace to them. But this is misconstrued!

The Gospel message is the message of God's peace to the world and to the sinner. It is the proclamation of truth that Christ bore God’s wrath on the cross for our sins, so we can have a right relationship with God.

Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Peacemakers are those who devote their lives to sharing this message.

The message of salvation is the message of peace to the world. The great commission is the call to make peace between the world of sinners with God.

The peacemakers themselves are those who have experienced this peace from God and our Lord Jesus Christ and they in turn share it with others—hoping to reconcile people with God.

Are you sharing the Gospel message? This is what peacemakers do. The Gospel is God's peace!

2. Peacemakers seek to reconcile people.

This starts with us and our relationship with others. Matthew 5:23-24 says that if we go to the altar to offer a gift and realize that somebody has something against us, we should leave the gift, reconcile with the person, and then offer the gift to God.

Romans 12:18 (NLT) says, "Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone".

Solomon gives us wise counsel on some of the things peacemakers do:

They build-up. "The wise woman builds her house" (Proverbs 14:1).