Yes we love peace, but we are not willing to take wounds for it as we are for war.
—John Andrew Holmes

We live in a world of strife, violence, war, and conflict. As much as politicians like to talk about peace, the default mode of our world seems to be agonistic struggle. At most, peace is a temporary cessation of hostilities—a brief period of catching our breaths between endless rounds of the fight.

I was shocked recently, in reading Niall Ferguson’s The War of the World (Penguin Group, 2006), to learn that there have been 18 wars involving more than a million fatalities—all of them fought in the 20th and 21st centuries. For all our supposed sophistication and advancement, we have not learned to make peace; we’ve only learned to be more efficient in the art of war.

A Great Opportunity

Christians have a great opportunity at precisely this point to show an alternative way of living, to honor and practice a sort of peace that shames the world and its violent ways. Sadly, we haven’t managed to model a peace that made the world sit up and take notice. We’ve been as addicted to war as unbelievers. Whether shattering the peace with bullets and bombs or with words and condemnation, Christians have been as pugilistic as non-Christians. Nor have we made much distinction between our victims—we fight each other quite as readily as we fight those outside the faith.

But imagine with me what might happen if we took these words of Jesus seriously: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God” (Matthew 5:9, King James Version). What if we made peace a priority? What if we lived out a kind of peace that moved radically against the grain of our culture? Would that make a difference in our world?

One of my favorite “Peanuts” cartoons has Lucy delivering that famous line: “I love the world. It’s people I can’t stand.” As one of the more profound philosophers of our age, Lucy puts her finger on a problem we all share. It’s easier to love people in the abstract than to love them up close and personal.

The peacemaking Jesus speaks of in the seventh Beatitude is not international shuttle diplomacy, or pacifism as a doctrinal position, or the work of reconciling the world to God. It is, rather, the capacity and the willingness to live at peace with those we know most intimately. Jesus wants disciples who know how to be peacemakers with their spouses, children, friends, neighbors, and brothers and sisters in the church. Peacemaking—like charity—begins at home.

Peace from Conflict

Even for Christians, relationships are a messy business. There are times when we don’t understand the ones we care about, when disappointments and frustrations threaten to overwhelm affectionate feelings, when we’re deeply hurt by the ones we deeply love.

Into every relationship, some conflict must fall. And certain conflicts force difficult choices on us. Will we forgive or resent? Apologize or rationalize? Reconcile or reject? Will we opt for relational war or will we do what is necessary to let peace break out?

What distinguishes followers of Christ from the world are not perfect relationships or the absence of conflict, but the commitment to take peace seriously and make it when it is disturbed. A stubborn, relentless urge to reconcile is the essence of peacemaking. In contrast to the disposable relationships we see around us, Christian relationships are granted a permanence that requires regular maintenance and repair. When once-healthy marriages or friendships begin to sicken and wither, disciples respond by nursing them back to new life. Peacemakers don’t jump fences for greener pastures. They do what it takes to put a little more green into the pastures to which they’ve been called.

A peacemaker is a person who comes to that difficult point in a relationship—when it’s time to put up or shut up, stay in or get out—and decides to “make every effort to do what leads to peace” (Romans 14:19). If that means forgiving “seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:22, KJV), the peacemaker will go that far. If it requires turning the other cheek, seeking out someone he’s offended, returning blessings for curses, enduring rebuke, making restitution, apologizing—all of these the peacemaker will do—and more.

There will never be big peace until there is small peace. There will never be peace in our culture until there is peace in our homes and churches. Christians have the chance to show the world a better way. But to show that way, we have to be willing to walk it first. And that will require that we be more than peace-lovers and peace-wishers. We’ll need to be peacemakers.

But, oh, if we could embrace peace like this, imagine the impact it would have on our world! |L

Dr. Tim Woodroof is senior minister of Otter Creek Church of Christ in Nashville, Tennessee.

OTHER COLUMNS:
November 8, 2009 - Why I believe in God
October 25, 2009 - Commuting in days of evil
October 11, 2009 - Poets and don’t know it
September 27, 2009 - How Hollywood proves abortion is wrong
September 13, 2009 - Significance
August 30, 2009 - Dance alternatives
August 16, 2009 - Gluttons for gossip
August 2, 2009 - Truth from Twilight
July 19, 2009 - Visitor-friendly churches
July 5, 2009 - The Shack
June 21, 2009 - When forgiveness fails
June 7, 2009 - Re-imagining Education (Part Six)
May 24, 2009 - We are not alone
May 3, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part five)
April 26, 2009 - Conviction
April 12, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part four)
March 29, 2009 - An evangelistic proposal
March 15, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part three)
March 1, 2009 - He makes me sick
February 15, 2009 - Re-imagining education (Part Two)
February 1, 2009 - Spiritual insecurity
January 18, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part one)
January 4, 2009 - Church and politics
December 21, 2008 - Heaven’s music
December 7, 2008 - The church and marriage
November 23, 2008 - God and the president
November 9, 2008 - A time for courage
October 26, 2008 - Likes and dislikes: the Prince Caspian movie
October 12, 2008 - What’s that noise?
September 28, 2008 - Modesty matters (part two)
September 14, 2008 - All it takes is some TLC
August 31, 2008 - Modesty matters (part one)
August 17, 2008 - What would you fight for?
August 3, 2008 - Staying through the credits
July 20, 2008 - Honor to whom honor
July 6, 2008 - Tyler Perry and the movies you’re missing
June 22, 2008 - The peaceable kingdom
May 25, 2008 - Another generation grew up
May 25, 2008 - Technology and the Bible (part two)
May 11, 2008 - Technology and the Bible (part one)
April 27, 2008 - What is truth?
April 13, 2008 - And the geek shall inherit the earth
March 30, 2008 - A charactered God
March 16, 2008 - The college choice (part two)
March 2, 2008 - Good news can be hard to hear
February 17, 2008 - The college choice (part one)
February 5, 2008 - Ten suggestions for a godly standard of living
January 20, 2008 - Expelled: that “Bueller” guy’s pro-God movie
January 6, 2008 - Choosing a lifestyle
December 23, 2007 - Teachable TV?
December 9, 2007 - Owners or stewards?
November 25, 2007 - Christians teaching Christians to change TV and film
November 11, 2007 - My money is God’s business
October 28, 2007 - Navigating under the radar
October 14, 2007 - The things God values
September 30, 2007 - Movie moments
September 16, 2007 - God’s economics
September 2, 2007 - The best books to read
August 19, 2007 - There’s a rat in ‘separate’
August 5, 2007 - The art of reading
July 22, 2007 - Atheist chic
July 8, 2007 - Why books matter: the sequel
June 10, 2007 - Books: why they matter
June 3, 2007 - The non-impact of “The Lost Tomb of Jesus”
May 27, 2007 - The universal gospel
May 13, 2007 - Loving Muslims through culture
April 29, 2007 - Hope
April 15, 2007 - God in the dark
April 1, 2007 - The gospel goes to the movies
March 18, 2007 - What the Bible movies can teach us
March 4, 2007 - What will you hurt for?
February 18, 2007 - Why Heroes . . .
January 21, 2007 - When fairy tales are true
January 7, 2007 - WYSIWYG lives
December 31, 2006 - What’s coming next?
December 17, 2006 - Mercy, mercy
December 3, 2006 - Proof of evolution!
November 19, 2006 - Hungering for God
November 5, 2006 - Violence and government, war and peace
October 22, 2006 - The mighty meek
October 8, 2006 - The Battlestar and the Bible
September 24, 2006 - Soap for the soul
September 10, 2006 - Right vs. cool
August 27, 2006 - The painful truth
August 13, 2006 - More Lies Hollywood Tells
July 30, 2006 - Christian counter culture
July 16, 2006 - The lies Hollywood tells