O yes, shun evil and do what is good; seek shalom - pursue the fullness of peace!
Present with those who do what is just are the watchful eyes of Yahweh, God's ears attend to their cries.
Remembrance of those who do what is unjust: the face of the Lord God is turned to wipe it off from the face of the earth!
- Psalm 34.14-16
Throughout human history the mechanisms of war and human violence have been put forward as a means to an end. And in modern times, media outlets send out daily reminders of humanity’s willingness to fight and kill. We’re told that we must be willing to go to war if we want to see peace. It’s said that armed conflict is inevitable if we want to see true development work happen around the world.
Really? Is it true that we must have military solutions to the problems we face in the world?
The difficulty with this view is that war and violence often play a false role in history. They parade as the true way to liberate people from oppression and to bring a sense of security. But the hard truth to which the history of civilization attests is that violence begets the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, violence multiplies evil.
In the words of Martin Luther King Jr., “hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.”
In contrast, God’s vision for peace centers on the Way of Jesus, which is marked by humility, compassion, mercy, self-sacrifice, non-violence, and peace.
God is love. And Jesus, God's only begotten Son, is the Prince of Peace. Peace (wholeness, well being, flourishing, the way of non-violence) is the divine gift offered to all people. For those who embrace God's peace, God promises to bless and keep them. God covenants to put wreaths of long-range promises and gentle love around the necks of his righteous people. No matter what our present circumstances, God always vindicates those who love and obey him. God is the protector of the poor, the defender of the defenseless, and the one who justifies those who are faithful to him.
But there will be no mercy for those who choose the way of exploitation, rebellion, and injustice. The mercy that ungodly people neglected to show others will not be shown to them. "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
(Romans 1.18).
God is just. Speaking of the Messiah, the prophet Isaiah says, "He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips she shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins" (Isaiah 11.3-5).
Thankfully, God is the Just Judge, who has dealt with sin in the body of Jesus and has won the victory over the grave through Jesus resurrection from the dead. Thus, God calls his people to follow the way of love, mercy, and peace.
But the implementation of God's love and peace involves much more than the end of armed conflict. God’s shalom centers on the redemptive acts of Jesus Christ and the redeeming work of the Holy Spirit. Shalom is the total restoration of life to what God intended it to be. Thus, true peace involves the human acts of making amends, peacemaking, restoration, and living in harmony. Shalom is a movement toward fullness and completeness and encapsulates a vision of wholeness for the individual, within societal relations, and for the whole of creation.
Consider the prophet Isaiah's words about the renewal of the earth...
God shall judge between the nations,
and shall decide disputes for many peoples;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore. (Isaiah 2.4)
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze;
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.
They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11.6-9)
Because our Creator God is the worker of shalom, we, his image bearing people, have peacemaking as our holy obligation. As those who have been recreated into the image and likeness of Jesus, it is our responsibility to “make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy” (Heb 12.14). Jesus says the peacemakers are blessed and they shall be called children of God (Matt 5.9). And Peace is a fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal 5.22).
In the power of the Holy Spirit, God summons all believers to follow Jesus as we choose love over power, the cross over control, peace over revolt. The vocation of every Christian is to be a peacemaker.
In the words of Henri Nouwen, “Nobody can be a Christian without being a peacemaker...What we are called to is a life of peacemaking in which all that we do, say, think, or dream is part of our concern to bring peace to our world. Just as Jesus’ command to love one another cannot be seen as a part-time obligation, but requires our total investment and dedication, so too Jesus’ call to peacemaking is unconditional, unlimited, and uncompromising” (Peacework, 16-17).
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