Once again violence dominates the news cycle. It seems that people are increasingly finding that the only resolution to their problems is violence. So an angry mob breaks through security at the nation’s Capitol building to demonstrate their frustration with election results. A man shoots another man because he couldn’t get what he wanted at a store. A father kills his wife and children because she left him after a dispute. Riots occur across the nation due to racial injustice.
Where will it all end? Does violence ever bring the desired resolution? Is there a tried and true way to bring peace to these and other disagreements?
God says that He is the only true way to bring lasting peace and justice. Ephesians 2:14-17 says, “For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and to those who were near.”
Jesus came not only to preach peace, but also to bring us together in one body. He has broken down the walls that separate us, so that hostility is done away with. Let’s not recreate those dividing walls, but rather allow Jesus to make us truly one in His grace and love.
Reluctant Retiree 