Editorial: Peacemaking is complicated and necessary business

Despite what you may have heard, peacemaking is not as simple as winning elections, passing certain laws, changing culture, growing the church, paying our debts, saying “we’re sorry”—just to name a few of the things people promise will bring us peace.

Peacemaking is more complicated than that.

If we can believe the news—and I believe we can believe enough of it to matter—the world is moving beyond conflicted to fractious. In such times, it is imperative that we who identify with Christ take on the complicated and necessary business of peacemaking.

Peace, if possible

“If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all people.”

Paul wrote that. Paul, the apostle we love to quote and memorize, the apostle whose writing systematizes so much Christian theology. That Paul.

Along with his exhortation to be at peace with all people, Paul instructed: “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. … Do not be wise in your own estimation. Never repay evil for evil to anyone. … If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all people. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written: ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord. ‘But if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink. … Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:14-21, NASB).

How are we doing with that?

In the midst of a tumultuous, angry, fearful, anxious, suspicious, busy time, how are we doing with that? In a time when leaders stoke those fires while using God’s name, Christian labels and biblical language, how are we doing with allof that?

It’s interesting that every other instruction in that passage is declarative: bless, do not, never, feed, give. The only qualification to those last two—feed and give—is if the person is hungry or thirsty.

But peace: “If possible, so far as it depends on you.”

We live in these days as if to say, “Thank you, Paul, for that escape clause.” We live as though it isn’t possible for us, as though it doesn’t depend on us to be at peace with all people.

Or maybe it’s just me.

Defining peace

I want to revisit an August editorial, perhaps because I need the reminder.

In August, I explored the meaning of peacemaking by way of Jesus’ teaching. Jesus called peacemakers blessed. The context—the Beatitudes, the opening of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-12)—indicates Jesus expected his hearers, which now includes us, to be peacemakers.

But peacemaking in a conflicted world is a complicated business. And ours is a conflicted world.

In August, I wrote in response to a host of things happening at the time, here and around the world. That list hasn’t changed much over the last nine months. Except to add the horrors of the Israel-Hamas war, more natural disasters and additional political strife, here and around the world.

Part of what makes peace such a complicated business is we don’t agree on definitions. “What one person calls ‘peace’ another derisively calls ‘pacifism.’ What is peacemaking in one situation is placating or avoidance in another,” I wrote then. It’s no less true now. This is just scratching the surface of disagreement about peace.

There is disagreement about what it takes to have peace. Some believe we must legislate it to have it. Others believe peace is internal work, not imposed from outside. Still others believe peace is pure gift, spiritual, supernatural.

In reality, peace needs something of all three. God does give us peace—that surpasses all understanding. We do have internal work to do in our hearts, minds and souls. And we do need guardrails to govern behavior for the good of society, even if we differ mightily on what those guardrails should be. Indeed, peacemaking is a complicated business.

But it’s harder than that. “All people,” Paul wrote. “Be at peace with all people.”

‘Be at peace with all people’

Some translations read, “Live at peace with everyone.”

The context doesn’t limit the reach of “all” to some people. The context indicates “all people” isn’t just fellow Christians or, more specifically, those Christians who think like us, worship like us and vote like us.

Given the rest of Paul’s instructions in the passage from Romans quoted above, “all people” means … all people.

If we don’t think it’s possible to be at peace with all people, then we need to ask for God’s gift of peace, and we need to do the internal work of discipleship, allowing the Spirit of Christ to shape us into the kind of followers who look an awful lot like the Lord who “emptied himself by taking the form of a bond-servant” (Philippians 2:7) and told us the disciple is not above the teacher (Matthew 10:24).

This isn’t just complicated work; it’s bloomin’ hard work. It’s no wonder we’d rather fight. At least fighting seems just.

We don’t want to bless those who persecute us. We want to give as good as we get, tit for tat. We want to believe we are agents of God’s wrath. We want to justify withholding from our enemies, bending the definition of “enemy.”

We do consider ourselves wise, at least wiser than those who see things differently. And in our wisdom, we overcome what we consider evil with what we consider good. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. We’ve been redefining God’s instructions from the first bite.

We’ve been at odds ever since.

We must give up that path and follow the footsteps of Jesus into the complicated and necessary work of peacemaking.

Eric Black is the executive director, publisher and editor of the Baptist Standard. He can be reached at eric.black@baptiststandard.com. The views expressed in this opinion article are those of the author.