How to Be a Peacemaker in a World of Conflict

This summary, optimized for Google’s SEO standards, is based on Dr. Adrian Rogers’ sermon detailing the eighth Beatitude from Matthew Chapter 5: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God”. Rogers argues that the world desperately needs peace but cannot achieve it through human intelligence, commerce, or diplomacy alone because the root of all conflict is sin. True, godly peace is not merely the absence of war, but a positive state rooted in a right relationship with God.

I. The Desperate Need for Peace and the Root of Conflict

Rogers acknowledges that humanity is intelligent—capable of building vast shopping malls, jet airplanes, rockets, and global television networks—yet the world remains desperately broken. We have successfully made the world a “neighborhood, but we haven’t made it a brotherhood”.

The Three Wars Causing Global Conflict

Rogers uses James Chapter 4 to explain the source of all wars and fighting:

1. War with One Another: Men are constantly at war globally—religiously, economically, racially, socially, politically, and personally. Rogers notes that a truce is often just “that period of time when you stop to reload”.
2. War Within Ourselves: The external conflict exists because of an internal war—the “lusts that war in your members”. People are full of turmoil, making them “a fight going somewhere to happen”.
3. War with God: The inner and outer wars are rooted in the third, ultimate conflict: warfare with God. James states that “friendship of the world is enmity” (warfare) with God. Rogers concludes that until an individual is right with God, they will be a “troublemaker and not a peacemaker”.

II. The Attributes of True Peace (Shalom)

Rogers clarifies that true, godly peace is often misunderstood, asserting what peace is not before defining what it truly is.

Peace is Not Appeasement or Absence of Conflict

Peace is not appeasement. Rogers warns against the “gospel of appeasement,” emphasizing that a person who can get along with everybody has “something desperately wrong” with them. Jesus Christ did not seek appeasement; if He had, He would not have been crucified.

Peace is also not merely a truce or the absence of war (hot or cold). A cemetery is a place without strife, but that is not peace. It takes more than a grave marker to bring peace to a troubled soul.

Peace is Righteousness (Shalom and Irene)

The biblical word for peace is the Hebrew term Shalom (used by modern Jews), and the Greek word is Irene. Both terms are positive words.

Peace is fundamentally defined as a right relationship with God that leads to a right relationship with self and, subsequently, a right relationship with other people. Peace is a “sense of well-being” and the direct result and fruit of righteousness.

The Essential Link: Righteousness and Peace

Righteousness must always precede peace. Rogers provides several biblical illustrations of this non-negotiable link:

• Purity First: James 3:17 states that the wisdom from above is “first pure, then peaceable”.
• Divine Kiss: Psalm 85:10 confirms the marriage between the two concepts: “Righteousness and peace have kissed one another”.
• King of Righteousness: Jesus Christ, typified by Melchizedek (Hebrews 7:2), is first the King of Righteousness and then the King of Peace.

If a person is unrighteous, they can never have peace; as the Lord says, “There is no peace saith my God to the wicked”.

III. The Adversary of Peace: Sin

The lack of peace is always rooted in sin. Sin separates men from God, brings inner turmoil, and separates men from men.

• The World’s Problem: The world searches for solutions to conflict but ignores the root cause. Rogers challenges the idea of stating in great institutions, “Gentlemen, the problem is sin”.
• False Peace: Jeremiah 8:11-12 speaks of people who yell “Peace, peace,” while committing abominations and lacking shame. This generation of “unblushables” cannot understand why there is no peace, because they refuse to acknowledge their sin.

Jesus Christ: The Sword and the Standard

Jesus Christ, though called the Prince of Peace, stated, “Think not that I’ve come to send peace on the earth I came not to send peace but a sword”.

• Demarcation Line: Jesus was clarifying that He did not come to bring a false peace—an “amalgamation of good and evil”. He came with a sword to put a clear line of demarcation between truth and error, and between sin and righteousness.
• No Peace Treaty with Sin: Peace can never come where sin remains because God will never make a peace treaty with sin.
• Surrender First: Rogers likens conversion to an admiral surrendering to Lord Nelson. When the admiral approached Nelson with a smile, Nelson demanded: “Your sword first. Lay down your sword”. Similarly, Jesus demands surrender first. There can never be peace without first surrendering to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.