I heard the most marvelous sermon recently, which reminded me of Jesus’ words about “loving your neighbor as yourself.” The pastor was speaking about Jesus telling us to be peacemakers.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.” Mat. 5:9.
What an amazing call from God to Christians, especially in these times when what we often see in the world is everyone championing for their desires, their rights, and what they want.
Peacemakers resolve conflicts, as they give others the opportunity of insight into what God says in a loving way, and they make peace, God’s peace, which, for many, can be so very elusive.
I spoke with the pastor after church, and he said that sometimes we Christians see ourselves as crusaders rather than disciples. Crusaders wish to force change on others, so they comply with certain beliefs, whereas disciples go forth in the love of Jesus. Disciples follow Jesus and reflect His ways. When we go out as disciples, the Holy Spirit does the convicting.
This was confirmed for me when I recently heard from Tim, a relative of mine, who works for Youth with a Mission (YWAM) in Salem, Oregon. Each year, YWAM runs one or more evangelism internship opportunities. Tim shared that after the training, he likes to ask participants the question, “What was the biggest thing that you learned during your internship?”
One of his students this year answered, “I learned that for so long, I looked at evangelism as an opportunity to dismantle people’s intellectual arguments, rather than as an opportunity to connect with a human being in need of a Savior.”
What a wonderful lesson that student learned. The simple lesson that even though all of us need a Savior, we can’t ‘out talk’ or ‘convince’ someone into the Kingdom of God.
We must, as Jesus asks of us, love our neighbor as ourselves. We speak to others about our faith because we love them, and we want the best for them. We want them to know Jesus. As we love others in Jesus’ name, God’s Holy Spirit has more opportunity to convict their softened hearts.
We find some people today may be conflicted about Jesus and don’t understand why they would need a savior. They see religion mostly as a list of rules. I have encountered people who cannot comprehend what Christians consider to be sin or why a certain action is a sin. Even different denominations of Christians debate what is and isn’t sin. Hint: Sin is our disobedience of God’s will for our lives.
If we don’t grasp that our sin separates us from a holy God, then we don’t understand why we need to be saved from the penalty for our actions. The very acknowledgement that our disobedience is so appalling to our Creator is what makes us humbly accept His gift of salvation by way of Jesus’ death and resurrection as payment for our sin. Jesus took our punishment – our deserved sentence of death.
Our inner peace that we have from God will usually be the first thing others notice about us. That peace gives us an opening to speak to others about Jesus. In every situation we encounter, we want to live that peace and to be peacemakers for our Savior for then we will be “called Sons of God.” We will be doing Jesus’ work on Earth.
We see things a lot more clearly using Jesus’ eyes. We can use that clarity within a situation to be peacemakers. We also need to be discerning and have wisdom when we see a wrong being done. It may be then we might have an opportunity to use our peacemaking skills. We should keep in mind Bible verses such as, “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”
Peacemakers are from God and of God. We must allow the Holy Spirit to lead us as we encounter needs. Loving our neighbor as ourselves doesn’t necessarily make the neighbor love us back. We may never see the peace between quarreling family members, but we should be able to be at peace while we attempt to be peacemakers. Love and forgiveness have tremendous healing power.
If we can make peace with others by living out God’s love to them, then we will be called Sons of God – followers and disciples of Jesus.
This particular sermon brought a new vision of my role as a Christian and I have pondered many thoughts as how to become a peacemaker. Do people see the peace of God in me? If they do not, how can I ever hope to be God’s representative to them of a peace-filled life?
You may contemplate other questions or may yourself have already become an excellent peacemaker. One thing I truly know is I must have peace in God first before I step out into a situation and attempt to be a peacemaker to others.
It was nice to have a sermon that made me consider again my place in God’s design and to challenge me to continue to improve.
ED. NOTE: Amy Patsch writes from Ocean City. Email her at writerGoodGod@gmail.com.
