Everyone likes to have peace, but the Bible says peace is made. It doesn’t just happen. Ever since sin came in, the trend of nature and relationships is toward strife and separation, not peace. The greatest proof lies in the fact that Christ had to make peace “through the blood of His cross” before we could ever have a relationship with God (Col. 1:20). His death is also the basis for peace among Christians. As Ephesians 2:14 teaches, even the division between Jews and Gentiles has been broken down, “for He Himself is our peace, who has made both one”—and, on the same basis, every natural separation between believers has been overcome.

Yet the Lord Jesus had to enter the world, a place full of conflict, in order to make peace. This is a wonderful truth, but it also shows that those who make peace among believers today will likewise have to enter an atmosphere of conflict. This is not easy. If peace is missing, conditions will be marked by tension, suspicion, accusation, anger, argument, criticism, mistrust, slander, and discontentment. Who among us would willingly choose to be surrounded by such things? And yet it must be that some will take up the task, or the fruit of righteousness will never flourish. Those who merely demand righteous behavior from fellow Christians will never see it. The fruit of righteousness only grows when it is planted in peace.

Proverbs 15:18 says some can enter a quiet room and create trouble: “A wrathful man stirs up strife.” But others, the same verse says, can come into a quarrel and bring peace. If we feel God has not yet equipped us to make peace in some given conflict, at least let us not be those who make trouble! And may God grant wisdom to many of His own who will yield themselves, as Christ did, to the sacrificial work of making peace.