The Bible really does deepen our understanding of what true peace should be about. I suspect most people consider peace to be experienced when hostility is ended. That is, people are able to 'put up' with each other and get on with their lives without unfair interference from others. My 'peaceful' neighbourhood is where nobody bothers me or mows their lawn before Sunday lunchtime! This is a very cheap way of viewing peace.
How different gospel peace is though. It's not about simply ending hostilities so we can politely keep each other at a distance, but it's about coming near, building genuine relationship and partnership together as a new people.
But in order to even want to do that, you'd have to have a very good reason, and a very powerful motivation. Because although it all sounds nice in theory, who is actually going to bother with it in practice?
Well praise God for the transforming power of the Gospel! No prejudice or conflict or division is safe when the powerful Word of God is at work. Even my enemy and those I naturally can't get along with threaten to become my brothers and sisters in whom I can have genuine affection for.
How powerful indeed is the death of Jesus which brings about the miracle of true peace and relationship with God, and true peace and relationship with you. And if God's great and wise plan is to build a new transformed people out of many, then we treat peace very cheaply if we see church as a time where we 'put up' with each other. The price of peace was too high for us to see it and want it this way.
What this actually looks like in practice is what Paul gets into from chapter 4. Have a read through and you'll see so many ways we can be growing together and unified under the Lord Jesus....and you'll see so many things that muck it up. But don't just read and give assent to the rich peace on view, let's allow the Gospel to enthrall us into action.
Maybe we need to start with the person we find most difficult to get along with at church - and seek to be a true brother or sister to them. Maybe we need to approach and befriend certain people we naturally avoid. Maybe there's the person who's hurt you, or you've hurt them...and some reconciliation needs to take place.
I'd hate us just to look like a group of peaceful people when we get together. How shallow is that? How powerful a witness church is when it's genuine. When sinners can forgive and serve each other in the same way we ourselves have been forgiven and served so richly and graciously by Jesus. Let's be done with the cheap peace, give me the expensive stuff any day.
You suggest to 'make peace' with somebody you don't get along with that.
ReplyDeleteCan I add to that challenge?
For me, the problem isn't people who've given me grief-- there's nobody like that for me at Crossroads, at least not the evening service. The people I have trouble 'getting along with' are the ones I'm simply not interested in.
That can make people feel left out and alienated; and I suspect, they're much harder to get along with than people who've hurt you.
(Apologies if this is a rerun... working out the kinks in this program on this sunny afternoon.)
ReplyDelete"Maybe we need to approach and befriend certain people we naturally avoid. Maybe there's the person who's hurt you, or you've hurt them..."
May I add to the challenge? (Too late.)
The hard-to-befriend people might not be people who've hurt you. They could just be people who you're not interested in.
The challenge is this: if you're not interested in them, ask yourself, who is? If nobody, maybe it's time you reached out to them.
Not that I do that, either; it is, in some ways, a harder challenge than befriending those who've hurt you. They're harder to spot, for starters.