{"id":2928,"date":"2011-03-16T01:00:08","date_gmt":"2011-03-16T09:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/?p=2928"},"modified":"2013-03-21T19:19:33","modified_gmt":"2013-03-22T02:19:33","slug":"peacemaker-3-chapter-2-live-at-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/2011\/03\/16\/peacemaker-3-chapter-2-live-at-peace\/","title":{"rendered":"Peacemaker Chapter 2: Live at Peace"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Cesar Vigil-Ruiz<\/em><\/p>\n

Editor’s Note: You can listen to the class<\/a> and download the handout.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.<\/em> (Romans 12:18)<\/p>\n

Sande continues to write in this chapter of \u201cthree dimensions to the peace that God offers to us through Christ: peace with God, peace with one another and peace within ourselves\u201d (p. 44).<\/p>\n

Peace with God<\/strong><\/p>\n

What brings peace with God has to do with what the Gospel is. We are all sinners who have strayed away from and fallen short of His perfect standard that leaves us separated from Him: \u201cBehold, the LORD\u2019s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear\u201d (Isaiah 59:1-2). The good news is that God did not leave it there; He offered a way of salvation through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ (John 3:16): \u201cBy sacrificing himself in our place on the cross, Jesus has made it possible for us to have peace with God\u201d (p.45). What Sande writes here is very important, and worth quoting in full:<\/p>\n

Believing in Jesus means more than being baptized, going to church, or trying to be a good person. None of these activities can erase the sins you have already committed and will continue to commit throughout your life. Believing in Jesus means, first of all, admitting that you are a sinner and acknowledging that there is no way you can earn God\u2019s approval by your works (Rom. 3:20; Eph. 2:8-9). Second, it means believing that Jesus paid the full <\/em>penalty for your sins when he died on the cross (Isa. 53:1-12; 1 Peter 2:24-25). In essence, believing in Jesus means trusting that he exchanged the records with you at Calvary\u2014that is, he took your sinful record on himself and paid for it in full, giving you his perfect record, which opens the way for peace with God. As you believe in Jesus, accept his gracious gift of salvation, and draw closer to him through the power of his Spirit, the study of his Word, the privilege of prayer, and the fellowship of his church, his peace can fill every part of your life (ibid, author\u2019s emphasis).<\/p>\n

Peace with Others<\/strong><\/p>\n

This type of peace is also called unity, which is \u201cthe presence of genuine harmony, understanding, and goodwill toward people\u201d (p.46). This is what immediately follows after having obeyed the second great commandment, \u201cLove your neighbor as yourself\u201d (Matt. 22:39).<\/p>\n

Peace within Yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cInternal peace is a sense of wholeness, contentment, tranquility, order, rest, and security\u2026Genuine internal peace cannot be directly obtained through our own efforts; it is a gift that God gives only to those who believe in his Son and obey his commands (1 John 3:21-24)\u201d (p.46).<\/p>\n

Jesus\u2019 Reputation Depends on Unity<\/strong><\/p>\n

What unity shows in the life of a Christian community is that you are not of this world, but you are sons of the Most High God (Matthew 5:9). What Sande continues to point out in this chapter is the direct relevance of our Gospel witness to our unity in our relationships within the body of Christ. It is a witness to a watching world that our kind of peace is deeper, purer, and more satisfying than the cheap imitation that is constantly portrayed in the media or at the theaters. Disunity in the church is a poor witness to our call for non-believers to come to Christ and be changed, when we don\u2019t show it ourselves. In Jesus\u2019 high priestly prayer (specifically verses 20-23), he had this in mind. Jesus prayed that his followers would get along with one another.<\/em> This was so important to him that he tied his reputation and the credibility of his message to how well his followers would display unity and oneness\u201d (p.48). In the oft-quoted passage (Matthew 13:34-35), \u201cThe love Jesus commands us to show to one another has little to do with warm feelings; in fact, he commands us to show love even when it is the last thing in the world we feel like doing (Luke 6:27-28)\u201d (ibid). It becomes so important to Jesus how we relate to one another, that to enter into a church to offer worship to God would not please Him if we knew we were not right with a brother (1 John 4:19-21).<\/p>\n

The Enemy of Peace<\/strong><\/p>\n

In thinking of our conflicts, we must not forget the lover of conflict, Satan, which means \u201cadversary.\u201d Among many things Satan does, what he loves to get involved in is our tension with one another:<\/p>\n

Satan promotes conflict in many ways. Among other things, he tempts us so we give in to greed and dishonesty (Acts 5:3), he deceives us and misleads us (2 Tim. 2:25-26), and he takes advantage of unresolved anger (Eph. 4:26-27). Worst of all, he uses false teachers to propogate values and philosophies that encourage selfishness and stimulate controversy (1 Tim. 4:1-3). (p.51)<\/p>\n

What Paul describes (in Eph. 6:13-18) as weapons in our arsenal that we readily have to withstand Satan\u2019s power are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Truth<\/li>\n
  2. Righteousness<\/li>\n
  3. The Gospel<\/li>\n
  4. Faith<\/li>\n
  5. Scripture<\/li>\n
  6. Prayer<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Even though we shouldn\u2019t blame Satan for all the conflicts that arise among us (since we must take responsibility for wrongs we have personally committed), we tend to overlook the role Satan plays and the influence he has in leading many astray (especially when Scripture reveals this to us).<\/p>\n

    Strive like a Gladiator<\/strong><\/p>\n

    In passages like Romans 15: 5-7, 1 Corinthians 1:10, Galatians 5:19-22, Colossians 3:13, 15, and 1 Thessalonians 5:13b-15 show us is that the New Testament epistles have a heavy emphasis on obeying God in your peacemaking. In Ephesians 4:1-3, Paul uses the word that is translated \u201cmake every effort\u201d in the NIV (\u201ceager\u201d in ESV), which means \u201cto strive eagerly, earnestly, and diligently\u201d (p.52). It\u2019s to be done with the same rigor as that of a trainer of gladiator would use when sending men into battle: \u201c\u2019Make every effort to stay alive today!\u2019\u201d (ibid) This is not a passive exercise of pretending things are ok yet never dealt with, or forced to be dealt with in a cold fashion. Peacemaking is the means to an end\u2014Christlikeness, or a display of the Gospel, and neither is easy to show.<\/p>\n

    We also need to avoid the idea that unity is equal to uniformity. That isn\u2019t the position of Paul in Eph. 4:7-13, since many in the church have a different set of gifts or talents, which is how God distributes His gifts, and that we can hold, as Rom. 14:1 says, different views on \u201cdisputable matters\u201d in the NIV (\u201copinions\u201d in ESV). However, it must not be done in a way which, if you remember from FOF, can grieve (Eph. 4:30) or quench (1 Thess. 5:19) the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n

    Lawsuits among Believers<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Peace and unity among Christians is so essential to our witness for Christ that God commands us to take unresolved legal issues to the church rather than to the civil courts. Many pastors have neglected to teach regularly on the this passage, so most Christians are completely unaware of this command or believe that it no longer applies. Worse yet, many churches deliberately ignore this passage and do nothing to help their members settle their legal disputes in a biblical manner (p.54, after quoting 1 Cor. 6:1-8)<\/p>\n

    Having lawsuits among professing Christians not only shows a lack of peacemaking promoted in the church, but also a lack of help for Christians in their conflicts, as well as a further black eye to the church\u2019s testimony of Christ. What Jesus has taught about conflict in Matthew 18:15-20 should serve as a launching pad of loving confronting among the body. With lawsuits, relationships can be seriously damaged, whereas the church can more readily provide and foster forgiveness and reconciliation to one another. What lawsuits resolves are issues of \u201cawarding damages, transferring property, or enforcing a contract\u201d (p.56), not the root cause of all conflict: our sin. Once that is dealt with, material issues become more easy to deal with.<\/p>\n

    By going to the church, our witness of Christ and His power to change sinners can draw more attention to Him than anything else. It is an evangelistic tool at our disposal: revealing the life-changing power of the Gospel to do what the world tries but simply imitates: real peace. Peace with one another, which comes from a peace with the true God of Scripture, and leads also to a peace within, since it\u2019s birth from a peace outside us, and that\u2019s the only peace that lasts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    by Cesar Vigil-Ruiz Editor’s Note: You can listen to the class and download the handout. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. (Romans 12:18) Sande continues to write in this chapter of \u201cthree dimensions to the peace that God offers to us through Christ: peace with God, peace with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":469,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,108],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review","category-peacemaker"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/469"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2928"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7591,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2928\/revisions\/7591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}