Blessed are the peacemakers

Matthew 5:9

I don’t think I can remember a time in my life when there wasn’t a war going on somewhere. When I was a child, we were in the midst of the Cold War. The Vietnam conflict came soon after, killing tens of thousands of American soldiers, a quarter million South Vietnamese troops, over a million North Vietnamese/Viet Cong troops, and countless civilians. As an adult, I’ve seen one conflict after another in the Middle East. These are just the wars in which Americans have been involved; there have been thousands of regional conflicts.

War has always been with us, so it’s nothing new. The Old Testament overflows with small kingdoms attacking each other. That’s why the New Testament is so refreshing. In the Sermon on the Mount (AKA The Beatitudes), Jesus pronounced the guidelines by which his followers should live.

Matthew 5:9 calls for us to be makers of peace:

' Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. '

Matthew 5:9

While we have no direct say in the affairs of nations, we can work for peace locally and globally through evangelism.

To quote Biblical scholar David Guzik, “This (Matthew 5:9) does not describe those who live in peace, but those who actually bring about peace, overcoming evil with good. One way we accomplish this is through spreading the gospel, because God has entrusted to us the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18). In evangelism we make peace between man and the God whom they have rejected and offended.”

Have you shared the Word of God today?

Photo by Alonso Reyes on Unsplash