The Mark – No. 7 Make Peace

The commands of Jesus are the Mark, the target for the perfect life. To aim for and to hit the Mark is to conform to the image and likeness of God. To ignore, neglect, or miss the Mark is to sin. The commands provide stepping stones through earthly life, upon which the child of God survives tempests and deflects the boomeranging darts of pride. Adhering to the Mark aspiring immortals gain victory.

 

Be at peace with one another.

Matthew 5:9; Mark 9:50

Imagine sitting in darkness on a wide cold sandy beach before the dawn. Imagine staring at the horizon where earth kisses sky until the speck of sunlight, no more than a pinhead illuminates the whole world. There is a peaceful eyeful, there is a powerful event.

God and the children of God know that sheer power, radioactive power, atomic power, holy power is required to make and maintain peace. To fight one another is to roll down a grassy hill; it is a natural gravity-fed activity, physical and emotional and simple. To make peace, that lily-white breeze of a feeling is to be victorious over nature’s gravity which would force the whole wide world down into hell if God blinked. Aspiring immortals make peace by using holy power over self, to forebear, to self-correct, to be merciful. Then they are capable of being at peace with others.

Except, to quash evil sometimes soldiers make peace with bombs and bayonets for the same reason that the cross gave life and that chemotherapy heals. Sometimes soldiers must climb mountains to give us peace.  In both cases peace requires power, power over evil whether in the world or in the soul.

Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God who will be welcomed with His open arms into His awesome eternally peaceful kingdom.