MAKING PEACE

Not only is the relationship between God and humanity broken, but many of our relationships with each other—between people and people groups—are also broken or damaged. We have a deep-seated fear and suspicion of people who seem different.

There are even those who seek to emphasize or exacerbate those fears as a way of building a particular group identity, often for political advantage.

But our relationships within our families and in our communities are also not always as they should be. Instead, they often cause suffering and fear.

The faithful response to this human reality is to seek to build better relationships in all aspects of our lives, families, communities, and the wider world.

At its most intentional, we would talk about this as the call to peacemaking. Jesus taught His disciples, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9). We are to be agents of healing in the broken relationships around us. In some instances, this requires specialized skills and training, but ordinarily, this is something that each of us can contribute to in our personal interactions, committing to using our attention, time, influence, and resources to listen, learn, and understand. Jesus also said that different responses to Him and His message would cause division (see, for example, Luke 12:51–53), and Paul pointed out that we do not choose how other people react to us. He added provisos to his instruction about living at peace with everyone—“if it is possible” and “as far as it depends on you.” We cannot force people into living peaceably, but we can work for peace nonetheless.

We begin by being first to disarm, surrendering our instincts of fear and revenge, seeking to forgive, and “overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21).