November 20, 2011
Read: Matthew 5:9,38-48
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
This part of The Beatitudes can easily be misunderstood in a certain way: that anyone who makes peace regardless of faith or despite the lack of it becomes and should be called a child of God. We need to be reminded that this as as well as the other beatitudes are teachings of Jesus addressed to those that originally followed him as well as all communities of faith that would later read Matthews’ gospel. Peacemaking serves to authenticate the faith of those that follow Jesus, the Prince of Peace.
So if we consider ourselves followers of Jesus, we need to ask ourselves if peacemaking is part what we do. If people treat us with contempt and hostility because of our faith in Jesus, do we respond in such a way that the peacemaker in us shows? If we do, then we truly are children of God and deserve to be called as such.
The Christian response to hostility is not retaliation but reconciliation.
PENnED 
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