The Peacemakers

1Seeing the multitudes, he went up onto the mountain. When he had sat down, his disciples came to him. 2He opened his mouth and taught them, saying, 3“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. 4Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 5Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. 6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. 7Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. 8Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 9Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God. 10Blessed are those who have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. 11“Blessed are you when people reproach you, persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 12Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Jesus, the King of peace, said that those who make peace will become children of God. The blessing we receive once we have become children of God is beyond what we dare imagine, but what is certain is that we will live forever in the place Jesus has prepared, looking on the glory of God. As the way to make peace with sinners, God had Jesus, who became flesh, nailed to the cross and made him pour out all his water and blood. Jesus, who knew the whole of God’s plan, became the peace offering himself and so became the instrument of peace. If we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, throw away human thoughts and ways, and keep our faith for Christ, God commends us as peacemakers and gives us the blessing of becoming his children. In the last moment, as he breathed his last, Jesus declared that everything was finished, and from that we can tell how hard the mission of making peace is. Unless we die and endure for God’s work as Jesus did, we cannot become peacemakers.

Luke 6:27-32 records how a peacemaker acts. Jesus told us to love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, bless those who curse us, and pray for those who mistreat us. He told us to offer the other cheek to the one who strikes us on one cheek, not to withhold our coat from the one who takes our cloak, to give to everyone who asks, not to ask for our goods back from the one who takes them, and to treat others as we would like them to treat us. He said that if we love those who love us, there is no credit in that, because even sinners love those who love them. He said that if we love our enemies, do good to them and expect nothing back, our reward will be great and we will be children of the Most High. When Jesus said this, he was showing that those who believe the kingdom of God is real can live by the will of God. Honestly, could you really live like this? If you were struck on the right cheek, could you offer the left and tell them to strike that too? If someone took your cloak, could you give them even the one coat you had and tell them to take that as well? Could you pray a prayer of blessing for someone who insults and curses you? It is something humans cannot do, but he said it is possible in faith.

Jesus was saying that if you know how precious it is to save one soul, you can throw away the world’s honor, pride and greed and sacrifice yourself. When Jesus said this, he meant that although it is utterly impossible for human nature, those who hope for the kingdom of God can show love as Jesus Christ did. If you put yourself at the center, you cannot do it, because you will not count the other person better than yourself, but a humble person who has gone down to the low place, as Jesus did, can do it. If one soul can be saved, you are not ashamed to embrace the other person, and you are not afraid of having less when you give away what is yours. God said that since he gave you life freely and gave you gifts and grace freely, you too must give freely to others. Selling the word and spiritual gifts for money is unbelief that hides the glory of God, and using the word as if it were your own is antichrist.

If we believers would at least try to forgive others as much as God has forgiven us, we could keep from sinning. If we embrace other souls, as Jesus loved and forgave sinners until the moment he died, we may well be able to enter the kingdom of God smiling. Of course such forgiveness and love cannot be done by human strength, so the Holy Spirit must help us to have a right faith. Making peace requires forgiveness, patience, love, reconciliation and mercy, and doing these things takes courage and will. How can a human being love someone who curses them, or turn the other cheek to someone who strikes them? When someone takes my cloak, who would take off even the coat that covers their shame and hand it over? But he is telling us that if we are born again as new people clothed with the fullness of the Holy Spirit, we can do it, as people of the kingdom of God. He showed us that while we can never do it if we cannot throw away our pride and human righteousness, it is not impossible if we keep our eyes on salvation.

We sometimes pray like this: God, I cannot understand how that person thinks and I cannot forgive what that person does, so please change them so that I do not have to suffer. Thinking our own judgment is right, we press it on God as his judgment. If you live thinking you are right, and one day stand before God and your thinking was wrong and the other person’s view was right, what will you do? If just once you put yourself in God’s place and in other people’s places and think deeply, you can become a peacemaker who does not stir up discord. Before complaining that someone makes you uncomfortable, look back and ask whether the enemy disturbing your feelings was not you yourself. Ask yourself whether you criticized and judged the other person because you have the same fault, or thought them wrong because your standard was yourself and the world. Only then can you become a gentle peacemaker. And the mistake people make most often is thinking that God’s will and their own thoughts are always the same. People who think they are always right see only everyone else’s faults and try to teach them, so in the end they do not grow either. Unless you give up the idea that you think and judge by the word, you will not understand even if Christ tells you himself. When the sunlight is strong it is hard to see ahead, but when you put on sunglasses the glare is blocked and everything comes into clear view. In the same way, when you are gripped by the thought that you are right about everything, that righteousness is like the blazing sun, so it is a good idea to shade your own righteousness with the word, as you would put on sunglasses.

When Jesus told us to love our enemies, he was setting out a law only God can keep, one that goes beyond the calculating relationships between human beings. People set their own limits and draw lines, but God embraces even his enemies, so he is giving us the courage to believe that we can do it too. Even we believers, who know we were saved by God’s unconditional love, do not find it easy to forgive someone without conditions and accept them as they are. But if we are sanctified by faith, we can love even our enemies. That is why the Lord said that only when you remove the beam from your own eye can you see the speck in your brother’s eye. As long as there is a beam in your own eye, all you can see is the beam. It is like the way what you see changes with the color of your sunglasses. If you do not realize that the beam is your own unbelief, your evil character and your lack of ability, you cannot see the good deeds of your brothers and sisters in faith, your neighbors and your family. It is not that you are wise and so good at seeing other people’s faults; you recognize them the moment you see them because you have those faults yourself. A believer mature in faith, on seeing another person’s fault, hears it as God’s voice telling them to fix their own fault, and repents. If you repent, thinking that the other person’s fault is your own fault, you can become a peacemaker and be called a child of God. People who know their own faults do not flare up or attack others, but plead to be born again through the word and wisdom, so they can carry out well the mission of a child of God.

When the apostle Paul pleaded that he die daily, it was, in the end, a struggle to be allowed to throw away his own sins and faults. As we grow in faith we realize how lacking we are, so we cannot help pleading with the holy God. You must know how to let go of yourself for the salvation of souls. How can you set your home and church right if you do not live by the word? If you shout when your temper rises and cry when your feelings are hurt, saying and doing whatever you like without hesitation, you cannot become a child of the holy God. The word, knowledge, honor and possessions piled up in the spirit of someone who has not been born again are like garbage. It is like food made with great care: once it goes into the garbage can, no one eats it. Even if you act cultured and principled on the outside, if you cannot love your enemies as Jesus said, then however much of God’s word you know, you cannot use it. This word means that loving your enemies is something you truly need, for your own sake. To deal with an enemy you have to carry out evil plans, so in the end you cannot help sinning against God. So if you endure in order to love even your enemies, you will not sin, and God, seeing you work to live a good life, will solve the problem of your enemies for you.

Exodus 20:24-25

24You shall make an altar of earth for me, and shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your cattle. In every place where I record my name I will come to you and I will bless you. 25If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of cut stones; for if you lift up your tool on it, you have polluted it.

A life that overcomes testing and hardship by faith is hard and painful. You cannot pull out even a splinter lodged in your hand without pain, so throwing away the righteousness, stubbornness and pride built up over many years is no simple matter. There is only one way to throw away human righteousness: to offer yourself to God as a living sacrifice and to carry the cross with Christ. Like the priests who blew the trumpets and led the people to the place of sacrifice, you too must blow the trumpet and lead many people to the place of worship. God’s love is a love that threw his only Son into death. Like Stephen, who prayed for the forgiveness of those throwing stones at him, if you live for the glory of God, you can show a good will wherever you go without forcing yourself. If you work from a low place so that believer and believer, and person and person, can be at peace, you will receive the precious blessing of being called a child of God. Even people hold nothing back from their children; surely God, who rescued us from death and adopted us as his children, will hold nothing back from us.

You cannot receive blessing from God without effort of your own. If you want to meet good people, you must first serve with love and sacrifice yourself to become a good person. If you want a good faith, you must first obey the will of God. For the sake of faith you must give time to reading the Bible and praying, and you must work at having a good heart that embraces people. If you do not change, it will be hard ever to live a happy life. God has always given back more than we devoted, and when we did good from a low place, he let us be honored by people instead, and when we carried out our mission, he let us be lifted up. The sacrificial animal offered to God as a peace offering was, according to the person’s means, a bull or cow without blemish, a ram or ewe without blemish, or a male or female goat. What stands out about the peace offering is that, unlike the burnt offering, doves were not offered. After a peace offering the people ate a meal together, and a dove was not enough for many to share, so doves were not used. Other sacrifices required only males, but for the peace offering male and female were offered alike. This is because the purpose of the peace offering is reconciliation and fellowship between God and humankind, and close fellowship among people. It shows that in enjoying peace with God through the precious blood of Christ, there can be no distinction of man or woman, young or old, rich or poor, high or low. Offering the peace offering is a way of giving thanks: although humankind was spiritually dead in sins and trespasses because of original sin, we have been brought to peace with God through the mediation of Jesus Christ. People offered the sacrifice to God with thankfulness looking back over the time they had lived, and thankfulness for the future. Of the animal that became the offering, what was to be burned was burned and lifted up to God, and the meat was shared and eaten by all the people together. Just as Jesus became the peace offering and made peace between God and sinners, now you too must take up the work of making peace. I hope you will think of the offering given to God as yourself. If you burn the self that lived without regard for God, arrogant and proud and unable to give itself up, and offer it as a fragrance he will accept, you will have new life.

Unless your evil nature dies on the cross with Jesus, you will keep reaching greedily to live for yourself. You will complain about people who do not recognize you, and you will sin to own more than others. Unless you die completely with Jesus Christ, you will simply remain, in God’s eyes, a sinner with blemishes. Everyone has a loneliness, worry and anxiety that others do not know, and if you do not lay these down at the foot of the cross, you will live a fearful life. If you lay down at the foot of the cross the burdens of the heart that tormented you with greed, temper and worry, you can enjoy a rest that is remarkably peaceful. What God wants is not a sacrifice that is only a formality, but your spirit, truly born again like a newly made vessel. God has said that he himself will bless those who believe that he is alive and work to become a living sacrifice like this. The Gentiles used stone or metal to make altars by human craft. They made lavish idols of gold and carved stone, so they were more taken up with outward appearance and form than with the sacrifice. When you are taken up with outward appearance and form, you lose the true spirit of worship, which is why God commanded them to build an altar of earth. Just as you must concentrate fully when offering sacrifice to God, in the time of worship you must worship with all your heart, in spirit and truth. God said that when they built an altar of stone, they must not use stones shaped with a chisel, because they were unclean.

Stones shaped with a chisel look much better, but God said that stones shaped by human hands are unclean. In the same way, if we shape worship with human righteousness, methods and devotion before offering it, God does not accept that worship. Many churches today, contrary to the will of God, are building lavish buildings of chiseled, cut stone to make their outward appearance splendid. And we believers offer worship that is only a formality and has nothing to do with God. Sadly, we believers work hard at a devotion that has nothing to do with the word and expect a great reward, but the glory of God cannot be lifted up by human effort or devotion. We must keep in mind that formal worship, offered without knowing God for certain and without true faith, can instead bring God’s rebuke. The chisel that splits stone means laying waste, destroying and killing. This also means that it is a tool that breaks peace. It means laying waste to God’s work, destroying the places working to build the kingdom of God, and killing the lives that were saved by the word. You must never become a chisel that gets in the way of God’s work. I hope you will not try to shape with a chisel the worship, offerings, prayers and service you give to God, but will live your life of faith rightly, in the truth and the Holy Spirit. Where there is a believer who makes peace, there is always an overflow of joy and thanks. A believer who makes peace restores broken relationships and fans the spark of faith, so they bring about the work that gives life to the church and the home. God tells such a believer that they are his child; he has blessed them so that they can enter heaven, and he has supplied everything they lacked for living in the world.

While there are people who make peace, there are also people who break a peaceful atmosphere. When such a person arrives, people grow restless and everyone scatters. The laughter stops, people are seized with worry and fear, and the happiness in their hearts disappears. People who are not mature act in ways that break the peace like this.

What kind of person are you? You are children of God. Are you people who always and everywhere have joy, hope and expectation, and help others love God and be happy? If you say you believe in God but wound the heart of everyone you meet, God will rebuke you severely. I hope you will become holy believers who take the low place and give yourselves up so that people can love one another. If you have such a faith, God will protect you so that you can take on more work, and give you the precious grace of heaven. Now it is your turn to show your faith. If you put people’s hearts at ease and bring peace to their relationships, you will become good people whom everyone recognizes, and you can live a life you need not be ashamed of as believers who have met God. A servant cannot understand all of the master’s will, but a son knows everything about the plans with which his father works, so as long as he obeys he will not fail. Even if at first he does not understand his father’s deep purpose, as he obeys with a humble heart he comes to understand his father’s will. You too, if you obey with a good and wise heart, as Jesus obeyed with his whole life, can live a peaceful and happy life. I hope you will always be holy believers who make peace in the grace of God, overflowing with joy and thanks.