PERFECT PEACE
Part 6: Peace on a Divided Earth
(Isaiah 26:3 NLT) You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!
(Luke 2:13-14 NIV) Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”
(Luke 12:51 NIV) Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.
(Matthew 5:9 NIV) Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
War
(Psalms 120:6-7 NIV) Too long have I lived among those who hate peace. I am a man of peace; but when I speak, they are for war.
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(James 3:14-16 NIV) But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such ʻwisdomʼ does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
(Ephesians 2:12-14 NIV) Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ…without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.
How to be a Peacemaker
(2 Corinthians 5:18 CEV) God has done it all! He sent Christ to make peace between himself and us, and he has given us the work of making peace between himself and others.
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(1 Timothy 1:13-15 NIV) Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners–of whom I am the worst.
(Isaiah 1:18-19 NLT) “Come now, let’s settle this,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool. If you will only obey me…”
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(Matthew 10:8 NIV) …Freely you have received, freely give.
(2 Corinthians 5:14-21 NIV) For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again…All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
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(Romans 5:8 NIV) But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
(James 3:17–18 NIV) But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.