The Peacemakers

In this passage Jesus proclaims that the peacemakers will be called children of God, and he sets out a concrete way of life: loving one's enemies and praying for those who mistreat you. The passage emphasizes that such love and forgiveness, which seem impossible by human reason and feeling, become possible through the leading of the Holy Spirit, and it teaches that true peace begins with the humility that lays down pride and human righteousness and goes down to a low place.

The sermon points out that believers must first remove the beam from their own eye before they can see the speck in their brother's eye, and it shows that the way of the peacemaker is to repent of one's own shortcomings rather than criticize the faults of others. It also warns that formal, artificially polished worship or devotion is not accepted by God, and it stresses that offering a truly born-again heart as a living sacrifice is what matters. It explains that just as Jesus became the atoning sacrifice, believers too will be praised as children of God only when they embrace one another and take up the mission of restoring relationships.

The sermon asks what kind of people believers are, and whether they can be peacemakers who bring joy and hope rather than people who break the peace.