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The seventh characteristic of a godly Christian leader sketched for us in the Beatitudes is peacemaking. "Blessed are the peacemakers," Jesus said, "for they will be called sons of God" (Matthew 5:9).
Peacemakers are those who strive to bring about peace. They are not people who simply enjoy peace, or talk about peace; they seek to establish peace. That is to say, they seek to resolve conflict and bring about normalcy in relationships.
The term "peace," like "purity" as we saw last week, has deep biblical roots. In its fuller Old Testament meaning it refers to wholeness, or even to salvation. It is the state of affairs that exists when people (and things) are in proper relationship - when they are relating in the way God intended them to. God himself is the God of peace (Rom. 15:33 etc.), and he made this world to function as a world of peace. Satan is the great peace-disturber, and when he is completely overthrown and every trace of sin removed from the universe, the everlasting kingdom of peace will commence (Is. 32:17; 66:12; Rom. 14:17).
In the meantime, God is at work as the great Peacemaker. He makes peace through his Son, reconciling an alienated universe to himself (Col. 1:20). And as his children, he calls us to imitate him in this regard. He requires us not only to live at peace with others, but also to do all we can to promote peace and pursue it (Ps. 34:14; Rom. 12:18). That's why Jesus says in the second part of this beatitude that peacemakers will be called "sons of God." They act in the way God does, and show they are his "sons," those who share his nature. Little wonder Jesus declares such people "blessed."
It should never be thought that peacemaking is easy work. On the contrary, it is often costly and painful work. It cost God his Son; it will often cause us time, effort, and considerable pain. John Stott puts it well when he writes, "Many examples could be given of peace through pain. When we ourselves are involved in a quarrel, there will be either the pain of apologizing to the person we have injured or the pain of rebuking the person who has injured us. Sometimes there is the nagging pain of having to refuse to forgive the guilty party until he repents… Or again, we may not be personally involved in a dispute, but may find ourselves struggling to reconcile to each other two people or groups who are estranged or at variance with each other. In this case there will be the pain of listening, of ridding ourselves of prejudice, of striving sympathetically to understand both opposing points of view, and of risking misunderstanding, ingratitude or failure." (The Message of the Sermon on the Mount, p. 51)
There is, of a course, a "cheap peace" that it is easy to settle for. Peace of this kind was a mark of false prophets in the Old Testament. Rather than addressing real causes and demanding costly repentance, they offered an easier way. They proclaimed peace when there was in reality no peace, and in this they turned out to be frauds. To quote Stott again, "cheap peace can be bought by cheap forgiveness... but true peace and true forgiveness are costly treasures" (p. 51). There can be no shorts cuts on the road to obtaining God-like peace.
Godly leaders will be marked by an agenda of peacemaking. They will be driven not simply by love of a quiet life, but by a zeal for God. They will want to see his peace everywhere. That means they will be ready to grasp prickly nettles and walk the pathway of pain. As difficult as the way of peace may be, they will purse it untiringly.