“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:8)
Last week we looked at one background of peace and that was the enmity of man with God. There will be no peace apart from peace with God and that includes true peace with men. There are all kinds of ways that men try to find peace and unity and yet those are not possible apart from peace with God. That is why any form of unity or peace is nothing more than an illusion if it is not founded in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. No peace is possible apart from the Gospel: “But the wicked are like the tossing sea, For it cannot be quiet, And its waters toss up refuse and mud. 21 “There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked” (Isaiah 57:20-21). All men are wicked if they do not have the true Gospel because they are at enmity with God and others even though they may have much religion. Throughout history there have been many cessations of active hostility between nations. But we all know that just because people are not shooting at each other does not mean that a true peace has occurred. There is no true peace where true love is not present. The very nature of peace is that love must be present. Love is a necessary ingredient to peace and without it there is no true peace. We can at least catch a glimpse of this in the verses below.
2 Corinthians 13:11 Finally, brethren, rejoice, be made complete, be comforted, be like-minded, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.
Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Ephesians 6:23 Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
We can look at this from a biblical theology of sin as well. We know from all the texts given last week that humanity is born with enmity in the heart and at war with God. This shows the results of the Fall. In this each person is born a selfish and self-centered individual. There is no love for God and each person does all that is done out of love for self. This is why Titus 3:3 speaks of unbelievers like this: “For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.” Even when an unbeliever is outwardly nice to another person, the unbeliever hates the other person. Why is that? Because no unbeliever loves God and so is not doing what is truly good for other people with true love as the intent. God is what is best for another person and loving God and God alone is what is good for any person. If we are not leading another person toward love for God, we hate them in reality and practice.
The world is against God and the nicest of people leading others to do outwardly good things are acts of people that hate God. Anything not done out of love for God and His glory is being done in a way that is opposite to and opposed to God and His purpose of humanity in creation. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Morality is not determined by outward things and pleasing people, it is determined by whether it is out of love for God and whether it is an expression of the glory of God through human beings intended for His glory. There simply must be true love as defined by the love of God poured out in the soul by the Spirit (Romans 5:5) and a true working for the goal of other people to love God for there to be true peace.
What is being written here may sound very shocking to some people. But it will actually become even more shocking when this is seen in more detail. This is not given to shock or offend, but is done in an effort to show how important the Gospel is for there to be any peace at all. The Gospel is not just something that people hear and then are saved, but it is the only way there will be any true peace on this planet and universe at all. A peacemaker is not one that goes around and gets people to stop the outwardly bad things they are doing, the true peacemaker is only an instrument in the hands of Christ seeking true peace with God and then other humans. All war between people or nations is caused by war with God and so the only hope for peace is the Gospel which brings peace with God.
Did Christ do all that He did to bring peace? “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 “For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW; 36 and A MAN’S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD. 37 “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38 “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 “He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 10:34). Luke puts it like this: “Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division” (12:51). There will be true enmity and division on earth because the Gospel brings division. The Gospel necessarily brings division because those who have peace with God no longer love the world and are like God while the world loves the world and hates God.
Because of the fact that true peace is only found with other human beings when one has peace with God, there will be much division in the world. In all areas of life true believers will be at war. We know that we are at war with the devil and his children work for him. The believer who loves God and is at peace with God will find that there is no true peace with those who hate God in all that they do. II Timothy 3:4 tells us that unbelievers are “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.” Believers are to be lovers of God rather than the pleasures of the world. In fact, I John 2:15 sets this out and why this is true: “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” No one loves the world if the love of God is in him or her.
We may think of things that go on at what we call “church” are surely the things of peace. We may think that things that go on within a denomination are things of peace. However, religion is also one way that men express their enmity to God and true peace. Jeremiah 6:14 demonstrates this point: “They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace.” There are many within the visible church that are running around crying out for peace. But many of those same people do not have peace with God and are in fact at enmity with Him. The result of that is that “They heal the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace” (Jeremiah 8:11). Without the true Gospel even those within the visible church are at enmity with God while work at church, sing songs and profess love to Him.
The world ceases from hostility out of nothing but self-interest, but they do not have real peace with love built on love. When worldly people become religious, those people may be very religious but still not have a change from a worldly heart. “Worldliness is departing from God. It is a man-centered way of thinking; it proposes objectives which demand no radical breach with fallen man’s nature; it judges the importance of things by the present and material results; it weighs success by numbers; it covets human esteem and wants no unpopularity; it knows no truth for which it is worth suffering; it declines to be a ‘fool for Christ’s sake.'” When we understand that, we will know what it means when Christ tells us to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily and follow Him (Luke 9:23).
True peace will never happen apart from the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. People can strive for peace within a denomination in many ways, but it will not happen apart from the true Gospel. Without denying that people will cease hostilities and work together in certain ways, the Bible is clear that there is no true peace apart from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There can be no true unity in a church or denomination that is not founded on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When peace and unity are attempted apart from the Gospel, even if it is said to be for the sake of the Gospel, it is nothing more than the world’s way to obtain peace. The Gospel of Jesus Christ divides people because it demands that people repent of their very self. The practice of outward religion goes on and in great numbers because it pleases people as they do all for themselves in intent and motive. Preaching is done for selfish reasons and self-love too. Preaching in churches and work in denominations can be done out of self-interest and the things done for self rather than truly out of love for Christ. “Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from good will; 16 the latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel; 17 the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives” (Phil 1:15-17).
John 14:27 tells a different story: “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.” Jesus has a different kind of peace than the world offers. Jesus was also speaking to religious people when He said this. There is a kind of peace that people within churches and denominations seek that is truly the kind of peace that the world gives and is not the kind of peace that Jesus gives. The word “gospel” can even be used in an effort to find worldly peace, but the peace sought not be of the Gospel. The children of God seek a peace founded on the Gospel and therefore are true peacemakers and are blessed by being called sons of God. In the big scheme of things peace within churches and denominations can be nothing but a hiding of what brings true peace. Let us never forget that the true Gospel alone can bring true peace. Peace that is found apart from the true Gospel or with a watered-down version is something that will deceive souls into a false peace rather than find it. Those who are true peacemakers seek true peace with the true Gospel because that alone is the only method to find true peace.
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