Who Is Really Blessed? A 9-Day Devotional from Skye JethaniSample

IF JESUS WAS SERIOUS . . . THEN PEACE IS COSTLY BUT WORTH THE PRICE.

JESUS SAID THAT peacemakers would be “called sons of God.” He did not mean this in any messianic sense. It was common in Jewish culture to use “son/sons” to attach someone to a characteristic or identity. For example, Jesus called a group of religious leaders a “brood of vipers” (Matt. 23:33) because of their lies and hypocrisy — qualities associated with snakes in the ancient world. He calls peacemakers “sons of God” because our heavenly Father is also a peacemaker, but the way God makes peace is important to recognize.

The popular perception of peacemakers, perhaps influenced by the word’s negative connotation in both politics and counseling, is that of weakness and avoidance. We view peacemakers as people who desire the appearance of serenity by suppressing any visible conflict and who avoid the difficult and costly work of forging real reconciliation. Such people, however, are not peacemakers. They are peace-fakers. Avoiding conflict is not the way of God, and doing so does not make us His children.

The apostle Paul tells us that God has “reconcile[d] to himself all things . . . making peace by the blood of his cross” (Col. 1:20). Through the cross, we discover God’s kind of peacemaking. It is costly and painful. Jesus forged peace not by denying the presence of evil in the world or by avoiding its power but by courageously facing it head-on. It was a hard-won peace worthy of God’s praise.

What difficult circumstance or relationship are you avoiding for the sake of “peace”? Pray for the courage to do the hard, costly work of real peacemaking.

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