The problem with ‘peace’

  • I thought the Ortho­dox Study Bible foot­note to Luke 12:51 (“Do you sup­pose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather divi­sion.”) was worth extra attention.

    There are two kinds of peace. False peace, to which Chist refers here, is a shal­low har­mony that results from ignor­ing issues of truth. Gen­uine peace is a rec­on­cil­i­a­tion to God through faith in Christ and sur­ren­der to truth. Gen­uine peace has divi­sion as a byprod­uct, because not every­one wants truth. In the fallen world, divi­sions are nec­es­sary for truth to be manifest.

    That just seems … well, like some pure truth.

    To name just one man­i­fes­ta­tion of this dif­fi­cult process, I’ve heard peo­ple deride the bick­er­ing tone they hear in the halls of power, both national and inter­na­tional. But I don’t know if we’re always being patient or dis­cern­ing — prob­a­bly just not lik­ing the sound of dis­unity. But we have enor­mous prob­lems to fig­ure out right now, and courses to try to chart. And unfor­tu­nately for those who love the “third way” answer, I don’t think there are many easy com­pro­mises left. I don’t really want politi­cians and law­mak­ers and gen­er­als to be MOST con­cerned with har­mony; I want them to be con­cerned with the truth. And get­ting at the truth can be a very noisy process.


    Related posts:

    1. “Peace I give, not as the world gives”
    2. Vida loca and peace of mind
    3. Fast­ing and peace
    4. Inward peace
    5. Is the Mouse afraid of the Lion?

    September 1st, 2011 | Grace | 2 Comments |

2 Responses and Counting...

  • Melinda John­son 09.01.2011

    YES!! I agree whole-heartedly. It makes me nuts when peo­ple try to “nice over” the prob­lem to avoid solv­ing it. Solv­ing it always gets sweaty and gritty, but in the end, you SOLVED it. Instead of putting a lace cloth over it and hop­ing it won’t wig­gle too much and knock over the vase of roses.

  • Grace

    Amen and amen! I’ve heard women say amongst them­selves (some­what self-righteously, it seems to me) that if women ruled the world, there wouldn’t be any wars. I’m not sure that’s true, but even if it is, there are worse things than wars. Like end­less, end­less cold wars with con­stant “dia­logu­ing” and no hope of deci­sive resolution.

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