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We all want to live in peace, but are we willing to do what peace requires? 

Several years ago, as a Christmas gift, my mother gave me a copy of a famous etching by William Strutt. It hangs in my office, behind my desk. The focus of the picture is a young child holding an olive branch. A variety of animals—both domestic and predatory—surround him. Titled “Peace,” the etching draws its inspiration from Isaiah 11.6: 

The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them.  

For many people, peace is the absence of conflict. This can be achieved through appeasement or strength. If you lock up your domestic animals in pens and hunt down and kill their predators, you will experience the absence of conflict. Governments—which, according to Romans 13.4, have the power of the sword—produce this kind of peace. 

But in the biblical worldview, peace is more than the absence of conflict. It is the presence of harmony. It is not keeping enemies apart but bringing them together as friends. It is the wolf living with the lamb without hunger, and the goat lying down with the leopard without fear. Such peace is not natural. It is supernatural. It is the gracious gift of God. 

And it is also the responsibility of the church, which consists of people who have been graced by God. Paul writes about the church’s responsibility for peace in Romans 14.19-21:  

Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall. 

In the overall context of Romans 14.1-15.13, Paul is teaching Roman Christians how to live with their differences over personal preferences. Some of the Roman Christians were Jews who had scruples about kosher food and Sabbath-keeping. Other Roman Christians were Gentiles who had no such scruples. These differences in religious, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds no doubt led to numerous conflicts, hard feelings, and wounded egos. Rome was a graced, but not necessarily peaceful church. 

Paul saw the way to peace through neither appeasement nor strength but through “mutual edification.” Edification means “building up.” I build you up when I keep your best interests uppermost in my mind and act accordingly. Mutual edification means that you do the same for me. If all of us would develop an edification mentality, peace—the presence of harmony—would be the result. 

That same Christmas, my mother also gave me a framed copy of a famous prayer by St. Francis of Assisi. “Lord,” it begins, “make me an instrument of thy peace.” Amen.