Are you a peace maker? Welcome to today’s little lesson, as we continue working our way through the Beatitudes. These are the characteristics of the blessed, and all the blessed people share to a greater or lesser degree in all of these characteristics.
If we have them, we know we’re blessed. If we’re lacking them, we’re not among the blessed. And so, this is a way to gauge whether your salvation is authentic or not. Are you really born again? Have you really believed in Jesus? Well, just read the Beatitudes and see if you can identify with them.
If you can’t identify with them, well, don’t feel too bad because you just need to get on your knees and ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins, and turn away from your sins, and tell Him that you believe in Him. Therefore, you’re going to start following Him. That’s all it takes. And, He goes right to work giving you the gift of His Holy Spirit, and starting a transformation process in you that puts you in this category of people we’ve been reading about, put you in the category of the blessed.
And so, on today’s Little Lesson I want to look at the next one, of course as I mentioned in the introduction, blessed are the peace makers. What blessing are they going to get specifically? They shall be called sons of God. So once again you see, these are salvation blessings. These are not unique blessings that you have to pinpoint, which one that you identify with. You should be identifying with all of them, because everyone who believes in Jesus becomes a son of God. I think Paul wrote, Galatians, I’m going to say 3:14, don’t quote me on that. “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus,” Paul wrote. “You are all sons of God.” He’s writing to everybody there in Galatia, who believed in Jesus. “You’re all sons of God.” Even the women, because in Christ there’s neither male nor female, so you all get to be sons, full fledged sons of God.
Back in the context of the Bible of course, the sons were the privileged ones, more so than the poor daughters. Anyways, take heart ladies. You’re a son of God. All right … If you believe in Jesus that is, okay? So, blessed are the peace makers for they shall be called sons of God. So, every Christian is a peace maker. If you’re not a peace maker, you’re not a Christian, you’re not going to be called a son of God one day, because you’re not one now. So, what does it mean, peace makers? Well, on several levels, every Christian is a peace maker. Number one, you’ve made peace with God yourself, because at one time we were at enmity with God. And, you were natural objects of His wrath, because of our enmity towards him.
But, Jesus Christ crucified for our sins, we’ve repented and believed in him. And we’ve made peace with God through the means that he’s given us to make peace, through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. And then of course, we’ve also made peace with others, with whom we were formally enemies with in this sense. Christian’s do have enemies, there’s certainly truth from scripture. But, scripture also makes a plane that previous groups that were at enmity with each other, once members of either side, are born again, that enmity ceases to exist, because they become brothers in Christ with the same father, in the same family.
And so, people that were formally at odds with each other, like for example in the new testament you have a big deal about Jews and Gentiles getting along, which is an amazing thing if you look at the history of how well Jews and Gentiles have gotten along. Well, in the body of Christ they get along. And guess what? The transformation of the Holy Spirit, he purges us of all that prejudice, and bigotry, and racism, and hatred. It’s a lovely purging that the Holy Spirit does in our life, and then he makes us then peace makers. We come to peace with people that formally we would have been opposed to, an enemies of. And, it’s so lovely to see Christians of different races, and different backgrounds and so forth, who at one time would have been members of groups that were choking each other’s necks, now loving each other, and caring about each other, because they’re not looking at skin color any longer. And, they’re not looking at cultural differences any longer.
When you’re in Christ, you’re a member of a family. You’re part of His body, and there’s only one body, right? Right, okay. And then, on a third level, Christian’s are peace makers because we absolutely hate strife. It’s not in our real nature. Now, this is not to say that sometimes Christian’s don’t get at each other because they get upset. But as I mentioned in a previous little lesson just a few couple times ago, when we do lose our cool, blow our top, you come to your senses, and you work for reconciliation. And so, when Christian’s see strife, or Christian’s fine themselves involved in strife, they shift into the peace making gear, right? Right.
And, we’re willing to arbitrate. Again, Jesus said, “If your brother sins against you, go to him. If he doesn’t receive you, take one or two with you, and go to them.” So, those one or two, who are they? They’re the peace makers. We know that two brothers of ours have having a dispute, they can’t reach an agreement by themselves. So, we come in as the peace maker, or peace makers. And, we’re not hesitant to get involved. And that’s why, again, we don’t want to meddle in other people’s strife. That’s a mistake. But, when people invite us in. We don’t say, “Oh no, I’m not messing with your problems. I’m not going to get in the middle.”
No, no. We’ll take the risk. And we’ll lay down the ground rules. And we’ll say, “Look, I’m going to try to remain as neutral as I possibly can. God gave me two ears, so I’m going to listen to both sides of the story. I’m going to do my best, to try to help you reconcile, because that’s my nature. I hate to see strife, I love to see reconciliation,” and we always want harmony in our relationships, okay?
So, if you are the person who’s always getting into fights, and you’re always contentious, and you can’t get along with anybody, and you’re holding grudges for a long time, guess what? You need another dip in the well of salvation. You actually need your first real dip, right? Right. Okay, because this part of the package of salvation. You become a peace maker, hallelujah, all right? Hope that you’re seeing yourself in these Beatitudes as we go through them, because it gives you great comfort and joy knowing that you’re blessed.
Okay, thanks for joining me on today’s Little Lesson. God bless you.
