Billy Graham’s Last Crusade
Peacemaker Or Trucebreaker?
January 5, 2007
By Ron and Karen Schwartz
This particular subject area has and does
present us with many personal challenges. We
can truly say that we write with much personal experience. After reading, most of you will also agree
that you face similar personal challenges.
Peacemakers
Matthew 5:9 KJV
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall
be called the children of God.
The word “peacemaker” (the Greek
adjective eirenopoios) is actually a composite of two Greek
words: eirene, which mean “peace,” and
poieo, which means "to make."
As a side note, Eirene was also the goddess
of peace and the Spring season. She
became popular among the Romans about the same time Christ
was born.
Poieo (Greek: “to make” or “create”)
has a broad range of meanings and uses, but perhaps the
most interesting of its characteristics is the fact that
our English word “poetry” is derived from it.
According to Strong’s Concordance,
the word eirenopoios means “pacificatory” and “(subjectively)
peaceable.” It is found only in Matthew 5 where it
is translated in the KJV as “peacemaker.” From
this, we learn that a true peacemaker is one who crafts
peace as carefully and poetically as a poet fashions a
poem. Just as a poem is a work of art,
so is the work of the peacemaker. Consequently,
peacemaking should not be viewed as simply negotiating
compromise and consensus. It goes far beyond this. Peacemaking is the ability to find the
beauty of harmony and unity in the midst of chaos.
Consider the Psalms. In many of the chapters of this book,
we find numerous descriptions of a soul who is lost, confused,
fearful, or downtrodden. But
then, through a chorus of verses, the author paints a picture
of God’s love, mercy, and forgiveness. As
the chapter plays out, the poet turns tragedy into triumph,
defeat into victory, and rejection into embrace. Through
the words of the Psalms, you begin to see the sad eyes
of the lost soul as he slowly shifts his gaze away from
his problems to look up to his Creator. There he finds peace, love, and forgiveness. The
sin and loss that surrounds him vanishes into the brilliance
of God’s goodness. This is the work of a true peacemaker.
Trucebreakers
2 Timothy 3:1-5 KJV
1 This know also, that in the last days
perilous times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves,
covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to
parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers,
false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those
that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of
pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying
the power thereof: from such turn away.
We find here an odd description of the nature
of people in the end times: they will be “trucebreakers.”
Trucebreaker (Greek aspondos) literally
means “without libation.” Libation (dictionary: “a
pouring out of wine or other liquid in honor of a deity”)
was always a part of treaty-making with the Greek. Saying
that someone is “without libation” implies
that he will never allow a treaty to be made with him. That is why this word has come to mean “implacable
(i.e., not easy to be appeased, mollified, or pacified),
inexorable (i.e., unyielding), unalterable, and not persuaded,
moved, or affected by prayer or entreaties.” Trucebreakers
do not want a truce: it’s “my way or the highway.” They
look to self-interest rather than to the interest of others. To trucebreakers, relationships
take a backseat to their own self-interest. A
trucebreaker is therefore the antithesis of a peacemaker.
In contrast, the character of a peacemaker
is one of self-denial and the preference of others above
himself. Therefore, on a personal level, peacemakers tend
to overlook offenses. They do not respond or react to them. Many times, you will never know that their
feelings were hurt or that they were offended. This
is because they place the value of friendship and family
above their own reputation and needs. Peacemakers
are the expression of love: “charity suffereth long,
and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not
itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly,
seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no
evil (1 Corinthians 13:4-5).” Perhaps
no other verses in the Bible better describe a peacemaker.
It is on this personal level that we have
often struggled. Perhaps
at work or elsewhere, we are not fairly treated, and we
must guard ourselves from discord. Sometimes with friends, we hear
talk that causes us not to want to be around them. But
probably the most difficult place to be a peacemaker is
with those who touch us in the deepest parts of our hearts:
our family. As a result, many families are broken
and divided – not just between spouses, but also
between siblings and between parents and children. When
issues come about that affect the heart so deeply, it is
extremely difficult to be a peacemaker. To
fail to be a peacemaker in one’s own family is not
right, and it is not charity.
On a corporate level, churches can also
be peacemakers or trucebreakers. Churches that are led
by and filled with peacemakers have very thin barriers. The
traditional idea of “membership” is usually
optional. People feel free to come and go as they will. Churches
like this are evangelistic and look to grow their church
the way the New Testament teaches: bringing the lost to
salvation. Such
churches reach out to other area churches in hopes of fellowship
and unity.
In contrast, churches that are led by and
filled with trucebreakers are not looking for truces or
relationships with Christians of other doctrines. In
fact, none is possible. They
are looking for conquest and victory. They
do not want to fellowship with those who believe differently. They redefine unity to mean that all believe
the same way in everything. They want to convince others
that they are right and everyone else needs to change. They
attempt to recruit from other churches. Trucebreaker
churches are characterized by self-endorsement and marketing. Their
membership is tight, and members are not encouraged to
go anywhere else. They have many meetings and functions,
and everyone is expected to be in attendance. Sometimes they even attempt to strictly
prohibit the influence of other beliefs over their members – especially
when it comes to their children.
Trucebreakers insist on their way, and they
will have little to do with those who do not agree with
them on every little thing. In
fact, to them, little things become of major importance.
Trucebreakers rally around doctrine, whereas peacemakers
rally around God’s love and unity. You
can discover trucebreakers because they will not readily
associate with others who will not eventually adopt their
pet doctrines and beliefs. They hide behind the veil of denomination
and dogma. They
judge other Christians by how compliant they are to the
trucebreaker’s beliefs and whether they can be changed
to follow the trucebreaker’s doctrines. Trucebreakers
can easily be recognized by their flagrant promotion of
doctrine and dogma and are easily identified by their tightly
knit group that talks about the rightness of their church. But
the most distinguishing characteristic of the trucebreaker
church is that their doctrine is their cause.
The Poetry of Peace
God did not place us on this earth to be
right or to spend our days searching for the ever-elusive “Truth.” He placed us here to build relationships
and to bring the light of His goodness and mercy to the
world. Not understanding this is where trucebreakers
find confidence. Trucebreakers
believe that their mission is to deliver “Truth” – that
is, “Truth” as they interpret it. To
them, “Truth” is a sword, and they use it without
mercy. Therefore,
the trail of wounded people in their wake is just par for
the course. But is it
“Truth?”
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth…”
“Truth” is not your doctrine or system of beliefs. They are, at best, dogma. The truth is Jesus. If you know Jesus, you know the truth. If you want to share the truth,
then share Jesus, not your doctrine. This
is what trucebreakers never seem to get. The
truth is alive! It is not a system
of beliefs that seem to be backed up by scripture. Such
beliefs cannot free anyone or deliver him from sin. Only Jesus can.
Peacemakers understand this and therefore
rarely brandish their doctrine. They are preoccupied with
relationship. They understand that the Prince of Peace
would have all people come to know Him (not their doctrine)
and to love one another (not to separate along doctrinal
lines).
Try to imagine this: you have six children
and each believes he knows you and what you want. But because their views of you and
your ideas are different, they separate themselves from
each other, choosing instead to stay in different rooms
of the house. They spend their time arguing across the
house how they are right and know the truth, while you
sit idly by wanting them to spend time with each other
and with you. Your desire is for a happy family,
for your children to love one another. But
they each believe that their knowledge of you and what
you want is more important than their family relationships. The
division is so bad you are forced to spend time with them
individually rather than as a family. When
vacation time comes, you are forced to take a separate
one with each child or none at all. You can never be a family. You can never all eat together in fellowship. How long would you tolerate this? Yet this is the behavior of Christian
leaders, and they truly believe that God approves of this.
Peacemakers know that this type of behavior
is wrong. Therefore,
they are willing to set aside being right in order to embrace
their brothers and sisters. They
understand that the
“truth” is not about being right but in demonstrating brotherly
love to their brethren. When you
look at the scripture from this point of view, then it all makes sense.
But there is more to peacemakers than just
de-emphasizing personal beliefs. There is also the ability
to handle personal hurts. It
is not just beliefs that separate people. Sometimes
separation comes from offenses. Sometimes
pastors and congregations hurt one another. Sometimes husbands
and wives, parents and children hurt each other. Offenses
separate people. When
this happens, people usually respond in a very normal manner:
they separate themselves, they quit talking, and communication
breaks down immediately. Both parties believe that they are justified
in their feelings and actions. Sometimes
these hurts can be so deep that there is no chance for
resolution (trucebreaker). Sometimes
these hurts can transcend death and be passed along to
the following generation.
While visiting some friends not long ago,
I saw that they were watching “Apprentice.” Donald
Trump was explaining to someone his perspective of doing
business. He
said if people are honest with him, he tries to work with
them, but if you cross him, he said, “I’ll
hate you forever.” Such is the nature and action of a trucebreaker,
not a peacemaker. Peacemakers
have an inexplicable capacity to forgive. They find a way to set aside the hurts
they feel for the sake of the relationship. They
find a way to spin peace in an almost poetic style to fill
in the void of their pain. They
overcome all things by their love.
Perhaps you have been hurt. Perhaps you have done nothing wrong to
deserve how you were treated. Perhaps
you were misunderstood and mistreated. Perhaps
you were the victim of a trucebreaker’s actions. What should you do?
As peacemakers, we must rise above the rights
and wrongs and what we feel we deserve. When we are wrongfully
treated, peacemaking begins. Peacemakers
show love, kindness, respect, and patience to those who
strike out at them. There is no other way to survive.
This does not mean that a wife must stay
with an abusive husband or that a person must stay with
an abusive church, but it does mean that they must forgive. Peacemakers
- true peacemakers - rise above the anger, bitterness,
and hate that tries to drag a wounded soul into the deep. They experience the freedom that only
true forgiveness can bring. They
shed the mantle of revenge and retribution to experience
healing from their wounds that will come through the tender
embrace of our Lord. You see, He was also falsely accused,
rejected and punished for no wrong on His part, so He does
understand. He is waiting to hold you and to help
you set aside the pain and contempt you feel, to free you
from the bondage of hate and bitterness. Run
to Him!
How important is it to God that we forgive
one another and that we not allow doctrine to separate
us? Consider this: the first thing God
ever did in regard to humanity is build a relationship. He
created a man and his wife. It
was His design not that they live separately but that they
develop a relationship based on love. This
is the same relationship He wants with us. So
when we allow division to separate us, it is not His will.
Division always comes about by the institutions and selfishness
of mankind.
Conclusion
If you are a pastor who smugly flouts the
rightness of your personal beliefs (pet doctrines) and
separates your church from others, then you are a trucebreaker. If
you personally separate yourself from others because they
do not believe exactly as you do, then you are a trucebreaker.
Consider the story of Esther. Esther was an orphan. She had nothing but the kindness of an
adoptive relative, Mordecai. By
a unique turn of events, she found herself beloved by a
great and powerful king and became his queen. Her
life was perfect. She
would never have need of anything. She
must have been special to God, no?
But her perfect world was not to remain
that way. A
selfish man named Haman, second only to the king in power,
hated the Jews, especially Mordecai. He persuaded the king to sign a petition
to kill all the Jews, and He built a gallows outside his
house for the execution of Mordecai. Anything
Esther tried to do would endanger her life. If
she went before the king, her life would be forfeit since
going before the king uninvited was an insult that routinely
cost people their lives. If she tried to intervene in any other
way, her heritage would be exposed. Since
Esther’s heritage was not known, she was safe. After
Mordecai died, all trace of her heritage would be lost.
She only had to do nothing.
But God had not given Esther her beauty
and her position with the king in order to save herself. He made her queen so that she could
save others. Her
life, her royalty was not for her own sake but for the
sake of others. But to fulfill her destiny would require
the greatest self-sacrifice: to jeopardize her own life.
Esther became a peacemaker. She set aside her riches and security
for the lives for others. In
the end, the Jews were saved, and Mordecai was exalted
to Haman’s position, second only to the king. Esther’s
status did not change. After
risking her life, she was neither better off nor worse. Her
honor came only from God.
Christian leader, if you are to be a peacemaker
then you must be like Esther. Set aside your kingdom so
that God’s people can be exalted. You
are where you are, not because you are special, but because
God’s people are. You must humbly come to see it. Give the church back to God.
Christian brothers and sisters, consider
your relationships. They
are what your calling is all about. Not
to be right, but to love and forgive, to cherish those
around you. Your purpose is to nurture and cherish
those relationships you have with all the love and forgiveness
that you have received from God yourself.
You have a choice. You can be a trucebreaker and forever
hate all those who have crossed you, or you can be a peacemaker
and learn to forgive others, to give your wounds to God. Remember,
it is the mission of our Lord to “bind up [heal]
the brokenhearted (Isaiah 61:1,Luke 4:18).” Give
Him your wounds today, forgive those who have crossed you,
build again the bridges of broken relationships, and cherish
those whom God has put into your life. God has called you, as He called Esther,
not for yourself but for others. Be
a peacemaker. Practice
the art of the poetry of peace. If
you are not sure how, or if you are not sure that you can
forgive, do not despair. You can learn at the feet of the Prince
of Peace. All
you need to do is to let go of your pain and reach out
to Him.
Amen.
kmsrjs@triton.net (use
the same address for MSN Messenger)
· You
have my permission to post this article, publish and reprint
it, and to forward it to others and to your groups. This
permission extends to messages that you previously received.
· More
messages can be found at: http://members.triton.net/kmsrjs/thoughts.htm
· To
unsubscribe simply email me with the word ‘UNSUBSCRIBE’ in
the subject.
· To
subscribe email me with the word ‘SUBSCRIBE’ in
the subject. You may also send me your email list to
add to my subscription list.
