THE BEATITUDES – PART 8

 

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”

 

Jesus has taken the people on an exploratory journey of looking inward at themselves and understanding how they can become pure, such that they can have a good relationship with the Father. He tells them that they shall be happy [blessed] as they go out and take the peace of Jesus and spread that out into the world. Isaiah prophesied this: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6 NIV).

The word peace in Greek has multiple variations; they all come from the primary word ěirēnē [i-ray-nay], implying that everything is at rest again, there is peace and, with that, prosperity. The other words hanging off that are ěirēněuõ [i-rane-yoo-o], implying to be living peaceably; ěirēnikŏs [i-ray-nee-kos], implying having a sense of health due to being peaceable; ěirēnŏpŏiěõ [i-ray-nop-oy-eh-o], implying to bring about a level of harmony through making peace; and ěirēnŏpŏiŏs [i-ray-nop-oy-os], implying to be a peacemaker through the promotion of peace in a conciliatory way. And it is this role that Jesus is talking about here.

To be called a son of God, you will need to be one of those people who actively assist in bringing peace into situations by being willing not to engage in arguments and being diligent by not making people angry. A lot has to do with our heart attitude; again, the underlying concept is being humble, leading to actions and behaviour patterns that promote being a peacemaker. This should not be seen as an almost impossible ideal, for Jesus would never lay something upon us that is impossible to attain.

This would take us down the road of being gentle in discussion and persuasion when sharing the gospel message with someone. It is too easy to ‘ram’ or ‘Bible punch’ a person; it is a completely different thing to come alongside someone in a loving, merciful manner, to listen and thereafter share Christ with them.

In the Fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5:22-23, the fruit/character trait peace is found preceded by joy and then by love. I believe that Paul was expressing that you cannot have an inherent level of peace if you have not understood God’s love and carrying that love mantle and then living with a joyful disposition.

I ask you to join me as we humble ourselves and take the stance that we do not always have to be the one who is right in our discussions with others and that we learn to earnestly pursue a heart attitude of being meek, the third statement Jesus made when sharing these lessons.