Peace!

The concept of peace is a big one throughout scripture. I'm fairly certain I touched on it before in relation between us and Christ. But that's not the peaceful relationship I want to touch on today.

Ephesians 2.14-16: For he himself (Jesus) is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

The entire point of this section of Ephesians is about the unity, or oneness, in Christ. It could be assumed that Paul is writing about the Jew/Gentile relations, but the main thing is that it expands to us today.

A while back I was interviewing with a church, and had a conversation with the minister. We disagreed on the finer points of baptism, and because of that I was not hired. Which was for the better because it brought me to where God needed me, despite what some people think. But while we disagreed, we still are able to have fellowship between us as brothers in Christ because we both have Jesus, our peace.

All throughout the world there are different groups of Christians, which we can call denominations, but some would go as far as to say that some are even other religions such as Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity. I still call them denominations. Some would be willing to have fellowship and would call me a brother if we sat down and had a conversation. Why? Because Jesus is our peace. He's the central truth, the common bond, the one thing that we can both agree on. If there's hostility between us, then chances are we don't agree on who Jesus is. And that's a problem.

As Christians we are called to be united in Christ. Meaning that we identify as Christians, little Jesus' running around, doing Jesus like stuff like telling people about this God and his Son who is our king. And that's what we should focus on. Jesus as our King that was crucified and rose again. And because of that we can go to ex-Muslims that we may have been scared of in the past and welcome them as brothers and sisters. We can shake hands with once rapist that found Christ, repented, and begged our forgiveness from inside a jail cell. We can embrace the man that murdered a loved one of ours for drug money, or because they get behind the wheel of a car impaired. All because we recognize the transforming power of the cross, which kills the hostility between us and those that have hurt us, shamed us, or even disagree with us.

The power of the cross not only has the power to change our personal lives, but also the relationships that we find ourselves in, be them good or bad. I got bullied a lot in high school, and I just gritted my teeth and took it. I had a hatred for the people, and that's the proper use of the word. I hated them. But through the transforming power of the cross I have forgiven them, even if they don't think they've done anything wrong. But I know that if any one of them came to me and told me that they accepted Christ I wouldn't even mention the past because it's gone, I've forgiven them, and the only thing that matters to me is the peace that stands between us that is Christ.

So no matter who you disagree with, no matter what it's on, if you can agree on who Christ is, you can have peace.