Be A Peacemaker

PeaceMAKING is a verb; an action that requires effort. It is not conflict avoidance at any cost, including enabling sin. It is not appeasement of the most angry or most vocal. U.N. peacekeepers may be interposed between enemies; when they leave the genocide begins. The goal of peacemaking is not a false peace; it is reconciliation and restoration of broken relationships (Matthew 5:24, Romans 5:10-11, 2 Corinthians 5:18-19).

John Calvin

By peacemakers he means those who not only seek peace and avoid quarrels, as far as lies in their power, but who also labor to settle differences among others, who advise all men to live at peace, and take away every occasion of hatred and strife.

C.H. Spurgeon "The Peacemaker"

https://www.spurgeongems.org/vols7-9/chs422.pdf 

(The peacemaker) prays that the Spirit of God, who is the Spirit of peace, might rest upon the church at all times, banding believers together in one, that they being one in Christ, the world may know that the Father has sent His Son into the world, heralded as His mission was, with an angelic song—“glory to God in the highest; on earth peace, good will toward men.”

Benjamin Jenks  Prayers and Offices of Devotion for Families

O Almighty God, teach and help us all to live in peace and to love in truth, following peace with all men and walking in love, as Christ loved us, of whom let us learn such meekness and lowliness of heart that in Him we may find rest for our souls. Subdue all bitter resentments in our minds, and let the law of kindness be in our tongues, and a meek and quiet spirit in all our lives. Make us so gentle and peaceable that we may be followers of Thee as dear children, that Thou, the God of peace, mayest dwell with us forevermore.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

The followers of Jesus have been called to peace. When he called them they found their peace, for he is their peace. But now they are told that they must not only have peace but make it.

Barclay's Daily Study Bible Commentary

https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/dsb/matthew-5.html  

The peace which the Bible calls blessed does not come from the evasion of issues; it comes from facing them, dealing with them, and conquering them. What this beatitude demands is not the passive acceptance of things because we are afraid of the trouble of doing anything about them, but the active facing of things, and the making of peace, even when the way to peace is through struggle.

George Whitefield’s “speaking the truth in love” letter to John Wesley in response to his "Armini­anism and Perfectionism", 1739

Dear Brother Wesley.

What do you mean, by disputing in all your letters? May God give you to know yourself, and then you will not plead for absolute perfection, or call the doctrine of election “a doctrine of devils.” My dear brother, take heed; see that you are in Christ, a new creature. Beware of a false peace; strive to enter in at the strait gate, and give all diligence to make your calling and election sure. Remember you are but a babe in Christ, if so much. Be humble, talk little, think and pray much. Let God teach you, and he will lead you into all truth. I love you heartily. I pray you may be kept from error, both in principle and practice. If you must dispute, stay till you are master of your subject; otherwise you will hurt the cause you would defend. Study to adorn the gospel of our Lord in all things; and forget not to pray for your affectionate friend, George Whitefield.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones  Studies in the Sermon on the Mount

It is only the man of a pure heart who can be a peacemaker because the person who has a heart filled with pride, envy, greed, jealousy and all such horrible things could never be a peacemaker. The heart must be cleansed of all that before one can possibly make peace.

To be a peacemaker obviously means that one must have an entirely new view of self, and here you see how it links up with the meek. Before one can be a peacemaker one really must be entirely delivered from self, from self-interest, from self-concern.

If you have seen yourself as poor in spirit, if you have mourned because of the blackness of your heart, if you have truly seen yourself and have hungered and thirsted after righteousness, you will not stand any longer on your rights and privileges, you will not be asking, ‘What about me in this?’ You will have forgotten self.

(The peacemaker) is ready to humble himself, and he is ready to do anything and everything in order that the glory of God may be promoted. He so desires this that he is prepared to suffer in order in order to bring it to pass. He is even prepared to suffer wrong and injustice in order that peace may be produced and God’s glory magnified.

(The peacemaker) should always view any and every situation in the light of the Gospel. When you face a situation that tends to lead to trouble, not only must you not speak, you must think. Ask yourself, ‘What are the implications of this? It is not only I who am involved. What about the Cause of Christ? What about the Church? What about the people who are outside? 

Let us be such people that all will come to us, that even those who have a bitter spirit within them will somehow feel condemned when they look at us, and perhaps will be led to speak to us about themselves and their problems.

CAUTION I

2 Corinthians 6:14b ...what fellowship (coexistence) does light have with darkness?