"The Good Life" - Week 15

Week 15 - Matthew 5:9

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God."

What is peace? Most people assume peace is the absence of conflict.

But the Hebrew word, shalom, has a much more robust definition than that. Shalom is about wholeness. Rather than peace being defined by a negative description (the absence of conflict). Shalom is a peace that fills relationships and infuses conflict with resolution and completeness.

I know a lot of marriages and families that have the absence of conflict because they just stopped talking to one another. But under the surface, conflict and tension are a constant. Some might call that a peaceful family, but I'd describe it as a family that lacks any kind of peace.

They've merely learned to walk around conflict. They've learned to bury conflict rather than resolving it. They've learned to allow conflict to be the norm rather than peace.

Jesus blesses the peacemakers. And though it's counterintuitive, peacemakers spend a lot of time pointing out conflict and sorting through it. Peacemakers are conflict experts. And Jesus wants to encourage more of his disciples to find comfort where others fear to dwell, in the middle of conflict.

As you dwell in Matthew 5:9, here are a few questions to consider and comment on:

1) How would you define peace? Where in your life do you experience peace?

2) What is the difference between a peacemaker and a peacekeeper?

3) Who in your life would you point to as the greatest example of a peacemaker? What makes you describe her/him as a peacemaker?

4) How does power and position play into the discussion of peacemaking?

5) Why are the peacemaker's called "children of God"? Is that a unique designation from anyone else in the world? If we're all children of God, what makes that blessing unique?

6) Who do you need to make peace with this week? Do you need to make peace with a spouse? A parent? A sibling? At church? In the office? What steps will you take?

7) What are some ways that Christians (those committed to putting the kingdom on display) might seek to implement this passage in order to proclaim the good news in 2012?