Blessed are the peacemakers ...

“Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God,”

This is the only time in the NT when this word appears. I think this is the most practical of the beatitudes, but to exercise mercy is equally practical towards others. The active endeavour to achieve peace among fragmented and opposed people is the remit of God’s children. We ought to be known and marked out as peacemakers, - peacemakers between brothers who need to be reconciled and people groups who also need reconciliation. Showing kindness and mercy are basic ingredients for reconciliation. The subject is too big to be properly dealt with here, it certainly may include the exercise of discipline in certain cases which will include conditions which need to be monitored. Surely, Jesus’ statements beg explanation and require Him to return to such pronouncements at some future occasion when He may illustrate truth by means of a parable. Later, in this same chapter, Jesus advises a man to make peace with his enemy,

“Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and you be cast into prison” (Mat.5:25).

The prize of the activity of the peacemaker is reconciliation, the restoration of loving relationship and unity in the church. Matthew contains the only words spoken by Jesus about the church. Jesus’ primary instruction regarding the church is about church discipline, the objective of which is to gain reconciliation among brothers and sisters who are quarrelsome and hostile to one another – this was not always achieved, not even by the apostles.