Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another. Romans 14:19
The old grey pickup truck beside the busy four-lane street had a large cardboard sign on the back: ‘Deer Apples’, and the back of the truck was filled with drop apples from an orchard. Puzzled, my grandson wanted to know what deer apples were. So I explained to him how hunters would buy some of those apples, and take them to some place in the woods where they would dump them and wait in a hiding spot for the deer to come and get them. At which point the hunter would shoot the deer. That is one way of hunting, but it is not the only way. A much more labour intensive way to hunt is for the hunter to enter the forest and search for the deer. Such a hunter will go to places where he knows deer are likely to be, and will search for their tracks. He will follow their tracks and stalk the animals carefully, using his knowledge of how deer behave. This is the type of hunter that Paul is looking for in today’s text.
We all recognize the need to follow after things that make for peace among the Lord’s people, and to follow after things that edify the Lord’s people. But how do we go after these things? Our text uses the words ‘follow after’. The Greek word for follow here is ‘dioko’, and it does not mean hunting for peace and edification like the first hunter hunted his deer, sitting and waiting for it to chance by. This word means to follow intensely and relentlessly, never quitting the effort, just like the second hunter. Peace among brethren doesn’t just happen by. It requires effort and planning. It requires getting rid of anything that will stand in the way of peace, patching up old differences and disposing of old prejudices. It’s the same with edifying each other, it needs to be diligently pursued and worked at. That requires knowledge of the Word of God and a willingness to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Notice that Paul does not ask us to follow after peace and edification; he asks us to follow after the things that make for peace and edification. Peace and edification are a bit nebulous and difficult to define and pursue in themselves. But the word ‘things’ is concrete. It refers to real actions and attitudes. It refers, for example, to going to a brother or a sister and asking for forgiveness or admitting to a wrong, even if we feel fully justified in how we treated them. It refers, for example, to being less critical of other Christians, offering to help them overcome their weaknesses instead of putting them down for their mistakes.
You might bag a deer by sitting and waiting beside the deer apples in the woods. But you won’t achieve any peace with fellow Christians or edify them that way. There is a better way to hunt. -Jim MacIntosh