Matthew 5:9 The Beatitudes [7] Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Notes on the Scripture Notice that the people endorsed here are peace makers, not peace lovers. Certainly we must love peace, but that is not the subject of the verse. Making peace denotes an activity, not a passive state. The children of God are what theologians call the “Church Militant,” those who are willing to go forth and, if you will excuse the expression, fight for peace. This does not raise any political issue; whether (for example) Neville Chamberlain might have prevented WW2 by sending armed forces into Czechoslovakia in 1938, simply is not what Matthew is talking about. At no point does Christ tell us to pick up a literal sword. Christ will not even defend his own life; and when Peter picks up a sword to defend him, Christ tells him: “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword.” (Matthew 26:51-52) The first place we must make peace is within ourselves. In interpreting Matthew 5:9, the early Christian writers very much emphasized the battle for internal peace. Most people are a walking civil war, subject to an unending struggle between good and evil, pulled in two directions by the Holy Spirit and sinful instincts. Does this ring a bell? Popular cartoonists will depict a person in temptation with an angel on one shoulder and a red devil on the other, one per ear. We can make inner peace only one way: by giving our hearts entirely to Christ. And again, doing so is an active state, for we do not get a diploma that certifies us “Christian” and declare a cease fire. There will be no treaty made with evil; it will try to engage us in battle every minute of our lives. Later commentators have begun to emphasize the need for us to examine our relationships with other people, when discussing this passage. First, how well are we able to let the Spirit control our own one-on-one relationships and our behavior in groups? And secondly, how well have we learned to defuse tense situations between others? For every group, including church groups, will include people who are apt to stir up trouble. “The beginning of strife,” says Solomon, “is like the letting out of water. ” (Proverbs 17:14) So, it is our goal to learn to plug the leak in a dam before it widens. To be peacemakers. Some people have a knack for this — perhaps it might even be called a spiritual gift — but it is a skill that we can all develop, and that is certainly what this verse teaches us to do.
Posted on: Sun, 04 Aug 2013 15:52:11 +0000
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