If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Romans 12:18
A young man who had been recently saved was discussing how differently his life had become from his unsaved days. He had been accustomed to going to dances and other events that featured a particular element of rock music. He spoke of the effect of that music on him and the other young people who attended. He found the music made everybody aggressive and ready to fight at a moment’s notice. Fights were common at those events, because the music generated a combative atmosphere. That music would obviously be wrong for a Christian, in light of today’s text.
Peace is frequently spoken of in terms of the Christian. We are told that the peace of God should reign in our hearts. We are told that the Lord Jesus is our peace, and that He has made peace between us and God. If we have been brought into peace with our Heavenly Father, we should also be at peace with the world in which we live, even though that world is at enmity with God. God is reaching out to the world to give peace, and that should be our goal, too. Paul acknowledges that it might not always be possible, but it should be our desire and our bent of life to be at peace with everybody.
Avoiding animosity and conflicts is not always easy, especially when we have to deal with some very unreasonable people. But we should try to live peaceably with them, even if it costs us. Unreasonable neighbours often make demands or complaints that impose on us. These are touchy situations that we can often resolve by kindness and generosity. Unreasonable business attitudes, unreasonable school teachers, unreasonable service providers, these are all areas where we can find ourselves in difficulty, and need to be gracious even when we find ourselves being taken advantage of. It’s a good thing there are no unreasonable Christians, right?
Some of the most uncomfortable situations that we can get ourselves into are because of unreasonable Christians. For whatever reason, attitudes and feelings are aggravated, and the testimony of God’s Assembly is at risk. In such situations, the first thing we need to do is to make sure that we are not the ones being unreasonable. And the second thing is to revisit the first thing. May God forgive us and preserve us from being unreasonable to our fellow saints.
It would be a good epitaph to write on our tombstones, that we lived peaceably with all men. Could that be truthfully carved on yours? -Jim MacIntosh