Real, Christian peace only comes through Jesus (Col. 1:20; Eph. 2:14-15). True peace-making declares repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ in how we handle our other relations (Rom 10:15). For the fruit of the Spirit is peace (Gal. 5:22) which grows with the mind of God for making more (2 Cor. 13:11) and an endeavor for its unified bonding (Eph. 4:3).
In Matthew 5:9, Jesus preached, Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God, proclaiming that God’s children are shown to be His by extending their Father’s peace to others as something they enjoy, often by exertion.
Peacemaking is not keeping the peace at all costs, which really just leads to war.
When England and France signed the Munich Agreement to appease Hitler’s deceptive, insatiable aggression, it inevitably led to the Second World War.
Sometimes, the only way to make peace is war, as Paul recognizes in Rom. 16:20 that peace on earth only comes by putting down the Deceiver. Thomas Watson warns, “One bad member in a parish endangers the whole … There are many [who] would have peace with the destroying of truth … This is a peace of the devil’s making.”[1]
The Greek for “peacemakers” means not “peace-keepers” but “peace-doers.” A.W. Pink qualifies, it is “not a peace at any price … that is a false peace, unworthy to be called peace at all,”[2] of which Jer. 6:14, 8:11 and Ezek. 13:10, 16 bemoan.[3]
Jesus later explained, Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. (Matt. 10:34) We may not sheathe Christ’s Word (Heb. 4:12). Peacekeepers do not avoid conflict but confront and resolve it.
Peacemaking actively reconciles at great risk and personal cost, which alone creates real peace.
Mike Wallace reported this remarkable peace seeking in the Middle East:
On November 9, 1977 … the president of Egypt, Anwar Sadat, dropped a diplomatic bombshell. In a speech before the Egyptian parliament, he said that his desire for a permanent peace in the Middle East was so strong that he “would go even to the home of the Israelis, to the Kneset, to discuss peace with them.”
