This essay continues a sequence. Read the previous one here.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
— KJV, Matt 5:9
Some things are not as optional as they appear…
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The following questions arise:
- What is a peacemaker, and why is peacemaking so central to being called a child of God?
- Who is doing the calling?
- Why is it said “called the children of God” and not “be the children of God” or “are the children of God”?
In this essay, we shall examine the first question.
Inner Peace vs Outer Peace
We have established that the spiritual gives rise to the material (ref. “Creating Is Perpetual“). True peace is an inner spiritual state that eventually manifests materially.
Peace is the presence of harmony. Inner peace indicates harmony between our will and that of the Almighty i.e. alignment with the Laws of Creation.
This means loving the Almighty.
The human being who has attained a measure of inner peace may, out of love, work towards helping others to attain the same.
For I have given you an example,
that ye should do as I have done to you.
— John 13:15
The working towards it is the peace making. It can express itself in countless ways.
Real peacemaking is not a “job”. It is all very well to be a conflict resolution expert, a military peacekeeper, etc., but if the individual does not view the job as an expression of his inner peace, he is not a peacemaker.
What Happened To Peace?
In earlier essays (including “Faith Is A Halfway House” and “Fall Down and Worship Me“), we mentioned the fact that we lost spiritual awareness and became materialistic at the prompting of Lucifer.
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The combination of spiritual ignorance and materialism narrows our awareness to things materially beneficial to us, and makes us overrate ourselves. This gives rise to vanity, callousness, selfishness, greed, and envy. These are primary roots of disharmony.
Therefore, in the first group of peacemakers are those who work against these wrong characteristics through personal example and by disseminating spiritual knowledge in the right way.
- A peacemaking individual works to bring about peace and harmony in his immediate circles of family and friends. This involves self-sacrificing love manifesting in patience and tact.
- A peacemaking scientist contributes to peace by expressing his discoveries in simple language that conveys a joyful recognition of God and His Will. Not vain, complicated jargon designed to show how clever he is.
- A peacemaking artist contributes to peace through art that expresses idealism and encourages inner reflection. Not art designed to stir up base passions and whip up sensation.
- A peacemaking entrepreneur contributes to peace through products whose primary purpose is to contribute to wholesome human and environmental development, not selfish money accumulation.
- Those pastors who teach and demonstrate The Word as a gift meant for personal spiritual repentance and improvement, and not as a tool for earthly rewards, are peacemakers.
Since the spiritual gives rise to the material, our earthly human systems (political, legal, commercial, etc) also reflect and aggravate these wrong human attributes.
Therefore, another group of peacemakers are those who are working to develop improved, balanced human systems based on spiritual values.
- There are people who are trying to develop balanced educational systems that develop the inner person and not just the brain.
- There are people who are trying to develop balanced money systems that do not encourage selfishness or the urge to accumulate.
- There are similar innovators in all spheres of human life. People who are striving towards a spiritual ideal that will have a beneficial effect on human behavior are peacemakers.
Peacemakers do not work for recognition, money, reputation, or other material rewards. Their work emerges spontaneously from their spirit, from that place of inner peace.
A General Requirement
We must conclude that every truly mature human being will be a peacemaker, because his activity will suppress those evil traits that disturb the peace.
As with all the Beatitudes, Christ was describing an ideal that every human being must eventually achieve to be of full spiritual value.
Today’s Resolution:
- We will work on ourselves and seek insights from The Word to help us evolve into peacemakers in all our activities.
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