“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:8)
We have reached the last beatitude that we will deal with. This should take a few weeks as there are several issues that need to be dealt with. First, however, we need to try to clear the air and ask what kind of peace is being spoken of here. The United Nations seems to think that peace between the nations is what is being thought of here. Liberals within external Christianity seem to think that outward peace is the issue as well. But we must realize that Scripture must speak on its own terms and this beatitude will only make sense in light of Scripture as a whole.
What kind of peace is spoken of here? It could be peace between nations, peace between friends, peace in the church, or perhaps peace with God. Without trying to make an argument as to which one this text is speaking of directly, I will simply set out that if there is no peace with God there is no true peace with anything or anybody else. Peace with God is required for there to be true peace at any point in the whole of life. Therefore, I will argue that we cannot even speak of peace in any other way apart from having peace with God in reality.
In Scripture the big issue is that people hate God and are at war with Him. That means that people are at war with others made in His image, so they go around hating and being hated. To speak of being a peacemaker presupposes that people are at war in some way. Until people are reconciled to God, they will not really be reconciled with each other. It is laughed at in the world when it is said that unbelievers hate God and human beings made in His image. It is laughed at in the church when it is said that unbelievers hate God and human beings made in His image. It is hard to imagine these outwardly nice people hating God, but in truth when a person does not love God that person hates Him. Let me list several verses that will show this position.
Colossians 1:21 And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, 22 yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death.
Tit 3:3 4 we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts & pleasures, spending our life in malice & envy, hateful, hating one another
James 4:4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
Rom 8:7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Romans 5:10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
John 15:23 “He who hates Me hates My Father also. 24 “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.
2 Tim 3:4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God
Romans 1:30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
Psalm 81:15 “Those who hate the LORD would pretend obedience to Him, And their time of punishment would be forever.
John 7:7 “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.
Exodus 20:5 “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,
Deuteronomy 7:10 but repays those who hate Him to their faces, to destroy them; He will not delay with him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face.
Deute 32:41 If I sharpen My flashing sword, And My hand takes hold on justice, I will render vengeance on My adversaries, And I will repay those who hate Me.
While it may be hard to accept or believe that men hate God and human beings in His image, it is hard if not impossible to deny that Scripture teaches this. One may reject Scripture because it teaches this, but it does teach this without apology and without watering it down. But back to the issue at hand which is the beatitude concerning peace. All of these verses give demonstrable and irrefutable evidence that Scripture shows that unbelievers hate God and human beings made in His image. It is in this light that the real intent of this particular beatitude becomes clear. The real peacemaker is one that is an instrument of making peace with God and other human beings.
A true peacemaker, then, is one that has the Gospel. No matter how nice a person is and how good a person is at helping people who are at odds with each other, that person is not a peacemaker in the biblical sense if she or he does not have the Gospel. True peace is only found when one has peace with God. True peace between human beings is only found where there is peace with God first. We will never be at peace with God until we love what He loves and seek what He seeks. The world is His and all things in it. We will never have true peace with other human beings until we are seeking the same things with them either. Until both sides have peace with God there will be no true peace with each other because no two people will ever truly seek the same thing with the same motivations unless they are seeking God and His glory out of love.
One cannot really be a broker of peace until one brings people to God. There can be no real peace until we lay down our weapons of pride, self, and selfishness. Then Christ is in the heart and is the umpire or ruler. Then people have the same Umpire instead of a different one. It is hard for there to be real peace when people do not have the same love and the same Umpire. We must not be people who cry “peace, peace” when there is no peace. We must not be people that settle for a cheap peace when people have not thrown down their weapons of pride, self, and self-centeredness. Within this beatitude there are lessons for true evangelism as well. The practice of true evangelism is the practice of being a peacemaker.
The list of Scriptures given above should impress upon us the real issue in peacemaking and evangelism. It is not that people have done a little wrong here and there, but that they are enemies of God. It is not just that they have violated a law by a little, but in breaking the holy laws of God they have hated God and demonstrated that they are His enemies. It is a vital issue to get the fact that people hate God and are His enemies across to them. Sure that will mean less people will want to listen to us when there are times without revival and true spiritual understanding, but it will also mean that less people will be deceived. It seems that many of God’s enemies are running loose on the earth today believing that they have peace with God while they act with hatred for Him. They are also running around teaching a false gospel and convincing others that they have peace with God too. It is vital to get this issue across.
It is important to understand what two things keep people from seeing that they hate God. First, people will not understand that they hate God until they understand something of the character and glory of God. Second, people will not understand that they hate God until they understand the doctrine of original sin and the doctrine of the nature of sin. Without some understanding of these things people will go on in their blindness about who God is and about who they are. They will walk around in their hatred of God living in enmity toward God all the while thinking that they have peace with God and are living in holiness to some degree.
Those who are peacemakers, interestingly enough, must start off with telling people who the God they hate really is. Then they must describe to people who they really are. Teaching these issues can be enough to show people that they don’t like you and don’t like what you teach. Instead of taking this personally, we need to understand that people who hate God do not want to see what He is really like. They also, being people who love themselves instead of God, do not want to see what they are really like. However, to be a true peacemaker that loves God and others we must teach these things. There can be no other way to true peace and there is no other way to believing the good news of peace.
God Loves... Himself 
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