Do you ever read a familiar Bible verse in a different translation and have it speak to you in a new way? That was my recent experience with this verse about peace.
“Turn away from evil and do good. Search for peace, and work to maintain it.” (1 Peter 3:11, NLT)
Search! Work! These are active words. It struck me that pursuing peace is not a passive endeavor. This verse tells us to search for peace. If we are asked to search for something, it likely means it is not obviously lying in front of us. When we walk into a situation, we must be prepared to actively seek out peace, looking for where peace can be found in that particular scenario.
This verse also tells us to work to maintain peace. It’s work! Peace brings a tranquil end, but getting there often is not tranquil. After all, it can be easier and less work to avoid or distance ourselves, but that only brings a façade of peace. The kind of peace Jesus represents will require purposeful, often difficult actions and conversations. It requires a willingness to go toward people in humility: a willingness to first seek to understand, then share truth with love and reconciliation as our motivation.
In fact, reconciliation is so important to God that he teaches us in Matthew 5:23-24 to go reconcile with the person who has something against us before we offer Him our worship. Wowza! Yup, that’s where the title came from.
Jesus is called the Prince of Peace. He is the person who made peace between mankind and God. He is described by this word and says we are to be peacemakers too. Did you know that Jesus said we are blessed when we work for peace?
“God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God.”
(Matthew 5:9, NLT)
Christians ought to be the people who are able to make peace with almost anyone. Even if people disagree with us, we are to be the peacemakers. We ought not categorize ourselves so deeply into a corner that we are unable to do this. When we enter a conflict-ridden moment in our culture, in our families, or with our friends, we should be the ones who walk in and everybody takes a breath of fresh air because we have been mentored in peace by the Prince of Peace.
Jesus teaches us not to fuel the conflict in the world we are living in, but to bring peace into it through following Him. Let’s be people who are active in the pursuit of peace by searching and working for it, knowing that peace is what God has called us to.