God’s Children Must Stand for Peace
And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass…For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom…all these are the beginnings of sorrows. Mt. 24:6 – 8. NKJV
Jesus is saying that right up until the end of time, there will be wars. We see it today. There are wars festering over the entire globe. Our own country has been creating a ‘perpetual’ war since 1952 in order to justify military overgrowth, to serve the associated defense contractors, to pander to ego and avarice-driven politicians, and to foster fear in our population in order to keep us in line.
Followers of Christ have received several imperatives to walk a different path:
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Rm. 12:2 ESV
But the meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. Ps. 37:11 NKJV
For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Is. 9:6 NKJV
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. Mt. 5:9 NKJV
If it is possible, as much as depends upon you, live peaceably with all men. Rm. 12:18 NKJV
The world is war-like. We don’t have to be. Nor do we have to support war. We are called to emulate Christ – the Prince of Peace. Uniting in Him, we can take a peaceful stand against any form of aggression by our respective governments by offering a better way, living out a spiritual path as an example of how peace might be attained.
We cannot be caught up in the patriotic jargon and emotion slathered over the death-face of war, or we just become additional nutrients for the disease. Other than self-defense, we can never consider that a war can be justified. (And it is in those self-defense actions that we can express our undying gratitude to the brave, selfless soldiers who took up our cause.)
Simultaneously, we must not forget our Christian love and compassion – even for the blind, faithless warmongers who are at the mercy of their flesh and its violent chaos:
Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. Jas 4:1, 2. NKJV
Yes, wars simply come down to someone wanting what someone else has. It is also the projection of the evil within the perpetrator upon the innocent victim, whom they call them the ‘enemy.’
“But I say to you, ‘love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be the sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” Mt. 5:44, 45. NKJV
When you love your enemy, you can better understand them, which makes them hard to hate.
And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth… Ac. 17:26 NKJV
Thus, we can see that we are at one with our enemy, who is also loved by God. And, just like our secular government and its multitudinous tentacles, we can pray for them, knowing that they too need the salvation that comes from the grace of God through Christ.
Aggressive military ‘solutions’ are becoming increasingly more formidable, lethal and potentially destructive on a global scale. Even what some consider a small military ‘action,’ almost always explodes into full scale war.
Wars don’t have to be a ‘given.’ We can look for alternate ways for conflict resolution – starting by living out our Christ-peace with everyone we know. We can elect people who want peace and let our desires for peace be made known – making it a national referendum by bringing Christ to more people.
Turn away from the mass media, who gleefully promotes misunderstanding, hate and war in order to sell news. Walk away from the ‘religious’ folks who say that God is behind any kind of war. Pay no heed to political ideology that expresses itself by saber rattling. By all means, don’t listen to the government ‘elites’ who have brought this country to the brink of ruin.
War can never bring justice. Military and governmental fear mongering is propaganda designed for instilling the desire of relief from that same fear into the populace that the monger’s say can only come through violent victory.
The one and only hope is to turn to God and pray for His intervention. He has repeatedly demonstrated that He wants to save us from ourselves and lay us in fields of peace. We can take that potential salvation to the nations, educating them about peace and create a unified movement that will demand peaceful resolutions from those who are doing the governing.
That begins by teaching and practicing peace with each other.
War is blasphemy, as is the production and sale of weapons of mass destruction. And war is always a product of the degradation of our souls.
We all suffer from fears fomented by anger, aggression, greed and insecurity:
For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! Rm. 7:22 – 25. ESV
Thus, we transcend ourselves and take on the cloak of the peace of Christ and shine that light out into the world. After all, the world only reflects its inhabitants…
“Peace, I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world give do I give peace to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” Jn. 14:27 NKJV
“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” Jn. 16:33 NKJV
Goodnight and God bless.