You Will Be Called Sons Of God-Matthew 5:9 Series

And so you get the Kissengers and Carters and Chamberlains running around doing peace talks and winning peace prizes for getting countries to briefly agree to cease-fires, but Jesus said “Blessed are the peacemakers” not “Blessed are the truce-makers.” Listen to the words of the Prince of Peace.

Matthew 10:34-36 "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.

He is talking there about the world’s kind of peace. Jesus did not come to bring truce. The road to true peace is a bumpy one.

Cold war is not peace – not with nations, and not with individuals. The U.S.S.R. was destroyed because it lost a cold war – cold wars are deadly. Some of you might be in a cold war right now. You have agreed to a cease-fire, but the conflict is still there.

Biblical definition

So even if you define peace as the absence of conflict, the world cannot come close to achieving it. But from a biblical perspective the problem in this world is even worse, because the biblical standard for peace is a lot more than just the absence of conflict. In Scripture peace is not the absence of or lack of something – it is the presence of something. There is absence of conflict in a cemetery, but we don’t look to graveyards as the standard for peace.

A History of Conflict

If we want to understand the meaning of peace we need to understand the nature of non-peace. So let’s go back and take a look at the beginning of murder. In Genesis 4 we read about Cain and Abel, sons of Adam and Eve. The two brothers both came to offer a sacrifice to God, and God accepted Abel’s (because it was offered in faith and was the firstfruits); and God rejected Cain’s (evidently it was not offered in faith and wasn’t the firstfruits). Well, having his offering rejected really bothered Cain, and Cain and God had a bit of a heated conversation about it. One verse later Abel was dead.

That is not coincidence. It is not a fluke that Cain just happened to murder his brother immediately after having a conflict with God. As soon as he was alienated from God he found himself at odds with his godly brother. That is what causes breaches of peace. The farther someone is from God the more he will be at war with people. The reason there is violence in this world because people are at war with God.

And the inverse is true – the closer you are to God the more you love people. That is why whenever you read about unity and peaceful relationships in Scripture you don’t have to look far before you will see something about holiness and righteousness. Righteousness goes hand in hand with peaceful relationships. You cannot have this beatitude without the last beatitude – only the pure in heart can be peacemakers, because peacemaking is the effort to bring about purity of heart. You see that same sequence in James 3 and Hebrews 12.

James 3:17 the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving…18 Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.