KEEPING THE PEACE

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.

Romans 14:19-21

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

The world could use more peacemakers.

Wouldn’t you agree?

It seems like everywhere we look these days, there is strife.

We see it politically.

We see it in our schools as parents seem to war with teachers and school boards.

And we see the trickle-down impact of all this discord as it invades our homes and even our churches, even though Jesus had this to say in His first formal public teaching at the beginning of His ministry:

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” Matthew 5:9

In this 14th chapter of Romans, we have found the scriptures reminding us of the truth that we all belong to God. He is the Maker and Master of all created things, the Heavenly Father of every single person. That makes everyone His children and as any good father does for his kids, God is always seeking to teach how to live right and righteous lives, lives that will be pleasing to Him.

This teaching has many important elements and one of them is definitely peace. For as Jesus stated so well, any child of God will be identified as such because they show themselves as a peacemaker rather than a troublemaker. Conflict breeds dissension and dissension results in disunity. The togetherness God desires for His people is torn apart at the seams as dissent and disagreement replace resolute tranquil harmony.

We have gotten to this place of dissimilarity and turmoil because we have stopped allowing God to drive the way we think and relate to one another. We have allowed our own ideologies to be greater than the One who blessed us with the gift of reasoning and intellect. Therefore, the path to getting back to where we need to be is to reverse our current course and turn back to the Lord who can show us the way to better days and proper relations with one another.

A big part of that turning back to the Lord involves reconnecting with His Holy Word and as we see in our passage for today, Paul has words of exhortation regarding the matter of peace. Look again at his words here:

Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall. Romans 14:19-21

Earlier in this chapter, Paul highlighted what was a point of contention within his audience in Rome. Some new Christian believers developed the belief that eating meat was improper and so they opted to only eat vegetables. More mature Christians criticized this viewpoint, assuming the stance that all food was permissible to eat. Even Paul wrote that the Holy Spirit had provided him instruction that all food was fine for consumption. Still, in order to keep the peace, Paul commanded against stirring up quarrels over matters that were trivial. Instead, the Roman believers were to keep the main thing the main thing and that meant ensuring their focus was on the Lord and the Lord alone, the One who would always show them the right way, whether it be eating or anything else for that matter.

Of course, an important piece of that right way was living in peace with one another. The children of God were told to “make every effort to do what leads to peace” and “mutual edification” but the only way they would be successful doing that is if they allowed the Prince of Peace to lead them. He and He alone helps us keep the peace. He guides us to where we can be the blessed peacemakers Jesus talks of.

If we’re ever going to get back to place where we live in peace with one another, we’re going to first have to allow the Lord to lead us to that peace, one person at a time. If we commit to this, then collectively we will return to truly be the children of God, one people living the way He expects through following His will and way.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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