Why Peacemaking Requires Guts

Peacemaking may sound like a cop out to some. You may picture the soldiers of the losing army waiving a white flag.  But when God calls us to make peace, He is not encouraging us to give up the fight.  Rather, He is calling us to fight the good fight.  Peacemaking in the Biblical sense requires guts of the highest order.

Peacemaking requires great courage and faith.  It requires a man or woman of God that is willing to fight: for unity, humility, peace, love, and grace to triumph.  It may be a fight for my brother’s restoration to God.  (2 Corinthians 5:20.) Or it may be a fight to be honest with my own sin.  While the command to be a peacemaker is clearly given in scriptures such as Romans 12:18 and Matthew 5:24, my hope is that the reasons I list below will inspire you to think of Peacemaking as a high and noble calling, to be done with boldness, fear and trembling.  So I proceed…

How Does Peacemaking Require Guts?

• It takes guts to lovingly confront a brother or a sister, rather than run away from conflict. We often default to avoiding confrontation.  The truth is, we often don’t confront a person because we don’t love that person enough.  Before engaging in peacemaking, we need to pray to God that He increase our love.  Perfect love casts out fear.  (1 John 4:18.)  We must distinguish between hurting someone and harming someone.  The two are different!

• It takes guts to be willing to face a person’s sinful response.  While we aren’t responsible for another person’s sin, we may certainly face a person’s wrath when their sin is exposed or we may be taken advantage of when we give a person another chance.  But this is not a reason to hide.  Love bears all things.  (1 Corinthians 13:7.)   We must distinguish between what is our responsibility before God and what is my brother’s responsibility.  We are called to speak the truth in love.  (Ephesians 4:15.)

• It takes guts to own your contribution to a conflict before God and before your brother, before you confront your brother about his sin.  John Piper calls this gutsy guilt and bases his argument off of Micah 7:8-9.  Gutsy guilt means that I can say, Yes I have sinned, but so what, God has forgiven me!  It means I can take ownership of my sins and get the planks out of my own eye… and then, go and help my brother.  (Matthew 7:3-5.)

• In the course of dialoguing with your brother, more of your own sin may be exposed.  It takes guts to believe that your brother has nothing on you that God can’t forgive. It takes guts to realize that God can use you despite your weaknesses.  (2 Corinthians 12:9,10.)

Peacemaking recognizes that even if my brother doesn’t recognize his wrong doing, God is ultimately just and will right all wrongs. There are only two categories of people: those forgiven by God because of the blood of his Son and those that will pay for their own sins.  In either case, we pray for their repentance and reconciliation to God.  May God give us the grace (and guts!) to live out the call.