The Daily Word

Today we have witnessed a horrific attack on a synagogue in Manchester. Daily, through our televisions, phones, and computers, we see warfare and killings take place more or less all over the world. We will shortly be remembering, at the beginning of November, those servicemen and women who have died in major World Wars and other more recent conflicts that our nation has been involved in and even though there is no official state of warfare within or outside our nation, there is unrest which manifests itself in sectarian, racist and criminal attacks.

When the First World War ended, people said that it was a war to end all wars and that peace would prevail from then on. The very opposite of that sentiment has prevailed since that hope was stated, and today there is limited and fragile peace or rather just not open warfare in our country but that cannot be said for many, many other areas of the world where open conflict is taking place.

The seventh and penultimate beatitude is “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God”. The Hebrew word for peace is Shalom, often used as a greeting between people. Shalom does not just mean absence from strife, it means completeness or wholeness. Apart from our Lord Jesus Christ it is impossible to live at peace with others for He IS our Shalom. Ephesians 2, that lovely passage of our transformation from sin to salvation, says this: “For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one, and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in His flesh the Law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create, in Himself one new humanity out of two, thus making peace”.

Those who seek to work for true peace as described above, who seek to win others for Christ and not just to create political treaties and armistices which can be broken because they depend only on men, are the true peacemakers, because they are the children of God. We should always seek to keep the peace of God within our fellowship and with whoever we come into contact with.

Article written by Brian Preston, Elder @SFGH Church