Are we peacekeepers or peacemakers?

God’s peace flows ‘to’ us, but it should also flow ‘through’ us, says Malcolm Duncan

From the tumultuous atmosphere of American, French, British, Canadian, Russian, Ukrainian, Chinese and Middle Eastern politics, it would be easy to think that peace is a pipedream. With so much conflict in the world, a whole generation around us is wondering how peace might ever be achieved or protected.

Recently, the head of NATO declared that the world should prepare for a global conflict, and voices across the UK and Europe have been echoing these sentiments. Spending is being ramped up on arms, and the language of nations is becoming more confrontational, protectionist and aggressive.

How are Christians to respond to this febrile atmosphere given the biblical reality that we serve the Prince of Peace and we are called to be peacemakers? Jesus himself reminds us, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God,” (Matthew 5:9, NRSVA).

The Apostle Paul says, “If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all,” (Romans 12:18, NRSVA). In his farewell discourse (John 14–17), Jesus reminds us that he brings us peace and promises us that his peace will remain with us in the midst of chaos. In Ephesians 2, Paul reminds the Jewish and Gentile believers that Christ is their peace, and that Jesus breaks down the middle wall of partition between them.

God’s peace flows ‘to’ us, but it should also flow ‘through’ us. This is the call to be peacemakers. In situations of conflict, we are called to carry the presence of Jesus with us, and to be people who bring peace. That can be a difficult task in a family, a community, a congregation, a nation and between nations – but God calls his people to be those who bring his ‘shalom’ into the world. This is not simply the absence of conflict, but the presence of peace.

John Hume (1937–2020) was an Irish nationalist politician who, along with David Trimble (1944–2022), a unionist politician, was involved in peace discussions in Northern Ireland. They were considered peacemakers by some. Hume was described as a ‘hero and peacemaker’ by Rory Carroll on 3 August 2020 in an article in The Guardian. He was voted Ireland’s greatest person in a 2010 RTÉ poll. Bono paid tribute to him at a U2 concert in Belfast in October 2018, in which he said, “Blessed are the peacemakers. I remember John Hume and his vision. Let’s sing for him tonight.”

World of difference

The word for peacemaker in Greek is ‘eirēnopoios’ and it appears just once in the Bible, in Matthew 5, as one of the Beatitudes.

In his book, The Three Battlegrounds, Francis Frangipane wrote: “A peacemaker is not merely someone who protests against the war; he is one who is inwardly so yielded to Christ in spirit and purpose that he can be called a ‘son of God’. Where he goes, God goes and where God goes, he goes. He is fearless, calm, and bold. Peace emanates from him the way light and heat radiate from fire.”

There is a world of difference between being a peacemaker and a peacekeeper. Peacekeepers do things to keep people happy – peacemakers know that they cannot always do that. Peacekeepers sacrifice the truth to avoid tension and conflict – peacemakers know that sometimes conflict and tension have to be navigated to obtain peace.

Peacekeepers run from confrontation – peacemakers know that confrontation is sometimes unavoidable. Peacekeepers are more influenced by the temperature of the room than the issue that needs to be addressed – they are more like a thermometer than a thermostat. Peacemakers set the temperature. Peacekeepers prefer the status quo to risks involved in change – peacemakers are willing to take risks to bring about resolution, and they are willing to be unpopular.

It is possible that there has never been a more important moment for the church, Christian leaders and followers of Christ to choose peace-making than today, except perhaps during the years before World War II. FW Boreham, in his book, The Heavenly Octave: A Study of the Beatitudes, which was published in 1936, put it this way: “There is an unconscious influence about the true peacemaker that leads every man he meets to love his fellow men.”

As we seek to live out the call to be peacemakers, we are called to do so by seeking to put the example of Jesus into action, refusing to allow our faith to be simply theoretical (James 2:14–17). We are to seek God’s wisdom in our actions, reactions and decisions (James 3:17–18). We are constantly to keep peace, humility and holiness connected (Hebrews 12:14). We are to maintain a commitment to repentance and personal responsibility for our actions and our attitudes (1 Peter 3:10ff).

Worth the cost

It is a privilege to be a peacemaker – but there is a cost. Peacemakers must be willing to be a target, recognising that the result of their labour may cost them dearly. The early Christian Telemachus, who leapt into the arena to try to bring the gladiators to their senses, and Oscar Romero, the late Catholic priest in El Salvador who was gunned down as he celebrated mass, show us this. It is also true to say that peacemakers recognise that their efforts might well be in vain (Romans 12:18).

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in Letters and Papers from Prison, wrote: “The church is the church only when it exists for others... not dominating, but helping and serving. It must tell men of every calling what it means to live for Christ, to exist for others.”

But seeking to be a peacemaker is always worth the cost. Jesus is our ultimate peacemaker. His intervention rescued us, and he said: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God,” (Matt 5:9, NRSVA).

What would our families, our churches, our communities and our world look like, if we took this call seriously and lived it out in all of its raw power and beauty? May God help us to do so. In the pulpit, in the boardroom and on the pavement may each one of us be a peacemaker.

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.