The previous Beatitude spoke of the purity of heart commanded of every Christian in their approach to God. In verse 9, Jesus teaches Christians about their proper attitude toward others. Believers are to be peacemakers in their relations with other people. Christians more than any others know of the reconciliation with God which they all received through Christ. Jesus Tells all Christians that they must by their thoughts, speech, and behavior endeavor to give the gift of reconciliation to others. Not only to other Christians, but to non-Christians and even to their enemies (Matt. 5:44).
“Blessed are the peacemakers.” The pattern for Christians in this regard is God Himself. Scripture refers to Him as a God of peace (1 Cor 14:33; 1 Thess. 5:23). Peace has been defined as a state of order within a community provided for by law or custom. A disharmonious and contentious character is void of order and peace. Without God, there could be no order and no peace in the created world. God is the true source of peace (2 Cor. 5:19).
From the beginning, God has intervened in the chaotic natural world to give order that results in peace. Scripture states that “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void´ (Gen. 1:1, 2). God took the formless void of the creation and gave order to it and by doing so He invoked a peaceful state of absolute bliss in the creation.
Jesus, of course, was the ultimate peacemaker. His merited righteousness and atoning death on the cross made possible the reconciliation of regenerated sinners with God resulting in peace with God for eternity (Rom. 5:10; Col. 1:20). It is the incarnate life of Christ that is the Christian’s pattern for living that produces a character of peacemaker.
Christ came as incarnate man to reconcile sinners to God and to make peace on their behalf with Him. This statement may seem to be contradicted by Jesus’ statement in Matthew 10:34-36 which states “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.” We know Scripture cannot contradict Scripture when properly interpreted and that holds true here. As one Christian commentary stated:
Although coming to Christ brings peace to the heart (11:29) and even between generations (Luke 1:17), embracing the gospel also makes life more difficult in some respects, for Jesus demands allegiance that takes priority over the natural ties of life (Matthew 10:37-39).[1]
Christ was consistent in calling for reconciliation and peace with God. The apostle Paul also urged reconciliation on behalf of Christ (2 Cor. 5:20). Jesus taught peace with God. The inevitable conflicts that occur amongst people, even those related to one another, is of the people’s making. These un-peaceful conflicts arise from a person’s sin of rejecting the Gospel of Christ.
We should also understand that being a peacemaker patterned after Christ is not a “peace at any cost” kind of peace. The peacemaker spoken of here in verse 9 is one who speaks of and holds to the truth of the gospel of Christ in love. There is no acquiescence or compromising of the truth by the peacemaker.
In sum, the peacemaker that Jesus refers to in verse 9 is the Christian who is willing to confront anything and anyone that comes against the truth of the gospel as revealed in the Word of God. But this confrontation is approached in peace with gentleness and love, not in a spirit of contentiousness and quarrelsome conflict.
“For they shall be called sons of God.”
We have already seen that God is a God of peace (1 Cor 14:33; 1 Thess. 5:23; Heb. 13:20) and Christ, the Son of God is the Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6). And Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7) that Christians are to be perfect like God (Matt. 5:48). So all Christians are called to be peacemakers in the image of God.
Believers must possess the characteristics taught by Jesus in the Beatitudes, including the character of peacemaker. These characteristics are not optional. When God justifies and adopts the believer, he or she is deemed God’s children and heir to the divine inheritance (Eph. 1:14). Scripture even refers to Christians as sons of God (Luke 20:36; Rom. 8:14, 19; Gal. 3:26).
Thus Jesus is stating what Scripture confirms repeatedly―that they (the Christian peacemakers) shall be called sons of God.
[1] R.C. Sproul, gen. ed., The Reformation Study Bible, Matt, n. 10:35, (Reformation Trust Publishing, 2015 (ESV)), 1689.
