by Pastor Douglas Brauner

Purposefully Pursuing Peace

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.”
Romans 14:19 New Revised Standard Version

Whether it is climbing steps in our homes, places of work, or on a hike, working against gravity is not easy. Our legs ache, our breath grows shorter, and we tend to not like the experience. Yet there is often a reward for us when we climb the steps; a nice bed into which we fall asleep, a lounge where we relax for five minutes, or a vista that awaits us.

Paul encourages us to pursue peace as through we were climbing steps.

Without going into technical details, it is possible that what Paul wrote was, “we are pursuing peace and the mutual upbuilding of one another” instead of, “Let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.”  It could be that he is describing what he and his companions were doing when he wrote the Roman Christians about not letting food divide the body.

He leads by example by doing the demanding work of climbing the steps that lead to peace among sisters and brothers in Christ. Pursuing peace was challenging work not only among the Roman Christians, but among Christians in general.

The church is often its own worst enemy.

Undoubtedly, those of you reading this blog can recall a time in your Christian community when sisters and brothers were at odds with each other, sometimes over big things, but often over the minutia of ministry. Whether it is the big stuff or the little stuff that causes division, Paul encourages us by his own example to make the effort, to climb the steps that lead to peace.

It is Christ himself who is the author of peace as Paul wrote to the Christians in Ephesus.

“For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us…”
Ephesians 2:14 NRSV

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