Most of us don’t naturally welcome conflict. If we can avoid it, we will. Yet it still finds its way into our families, friendships, workplaces, and even our churches. Like me, you may know how easy it is to avoid confrontation and hope the issue will fade away. We call it “keeping the peace.” But Jesus doesn’t say, “Blessed are the peacekeepers.” He says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God” (Matt 5:9). So it’s worth asking, are you a peacekeeper or a peacemaker?
Peacekeeping often feels like the safer, kinder option. We don’t want to upset anyone, so we hold back. We leave messages unsent, avoid conversations, or convince ourselves that a difficult issue is not worth raising. What feels like peace on the surface can quietly create distance, as misunderstandings go unspoken and resentments linger.
Peacekeeping seeks the absence of conflict, whilst peacemaking seeks the presence of reconciliation. That is where the challenge lies. Our pride resists admitting our faults and failures. Our fear makes it hard to lovingly confront others. It often feels easier to live with unresolved tension than to risk the vulnerability that real reconciliation requires.
Part of the problem is that we can misunderstand what peace really is. In the Bible, the Hebrew word “shalom” describes peace in its fullness, as wholeness and restoration. It is life rightly ordered under God, marked by restored relationships with him and with one another.
As those who have received peace, we are called to pursue it.
This is exactly what God has done for us in the gospel. He did not create peace by ignoring our sin, but by fully addressing it in Jesus. However, peace came at a cost. At the cross, God confronted what separated us from him. Jesus took the penalty for our sin so that we could be reconciled to God and know true and lasting peace.
As those who have received peace, we are called to pursue it. This may mean initiating a difficult conversation. It takes courage to speak the truth in love. It requires humility to admit where we have been wrong. It calls for patience to listen when we would rather defend ourselves. Lastly, we need to trust God with outcomes we cannot control.
Unfortunately, on this side of heaven, not every relationship will be restored the way we want. Some responses will fall short of what we had prayed for, leaving tension unresolved. Regardless of how relationships turn out, peacemakers are not left without peace. We are to rest in the peace God has already secured for us in Jesus.
As followers of Jesus, we are not simply called to keep the peace, but to make it. It’s my prayer that God would guard us from the comfort of avoidance and give us hearts willing to do the work of reconciliation, as we seek to “keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Eph 4:3), living together as children of God.
