Henry Krabbendam - James - World Evangelical Alliance

objective of peacemakers is to bring about reconciliation and thereby create
an atmosphere of peace by means of the very conduct that marks their own
life (Mt. 5:9; Heb. 12:11). When they succeed, they indirectly sow righteousness,
carefully, copiously and at times tearfully (Ps. 126:6). This eventually
multiplies in a powerful crop that is invariably harvested cheerfully (2 Cor.
9:6). In short, what is sown both in and by the peacemakers is reaped (Keddie,
124). Once again, this is not only an important reminder for teachers, but
also for all believers. If there is no peace, but rather divisiveness with all that
this entails, there is by implication no presence of gentle, entreatable, merciful
and fruitful wisdom to start with, and therefore no presence of abundant
righteousness to end with. On the other hand, when peace prevails, which is
predicated upon wisdom and its accompaniments, a harvest of righteousness
is guaranteed. The idea of a bumper crop easily suggests itself (2 Cor. 9:10).
It would indicate that the Revival fires are burning brightly!
All this, however, does not answer the nitty-gritty question how precisely
reconciliation is to be achieved as the precursor of peace. The first order
of business is to establish that the warring parties are regenerate, and
therefore have a hunger for holiness. If there is no evidence of any of this,
reconciliation cannot be achieved. In that case a tenuous co-existence is the
best one can hope for. However, if there is regeneracy and all that this implies,
there is light at the end of the tunnel. The second order of business is to
ascertain that there is at least a desire to reconcile. At this point the warring
parties should not be asked to vent their feelings and their complaints about
each other. This may be well-intentioned so as to get all the elements of the
conflict on the table. Nevertheless, I invariably found this to be counterproductive,
since it ripped open old wounds and with it aroused a chaos of emotions
in attack and counterattack.
No, the better part of wisdom is to request all parties to list their conditions
for reconciliation in written form. This forces them to be focused and
precise in their formulation. The negative emotions tend to die down, and peripheral
issues usually vanish from sight. What is left for the peacemaker to
handle, are usually two or three, and at the most, four central issues, shorn
from all mental, volitional and emotional peripherals. The final order of business,
then, is jointly to glean the wisdom from the Word in terms of the law
of God that can be implemented through faith and in prayer. The last component
element, prayer, enters into the picture in James 4:1ff. In this section,
which starts out with a focus on warring parties, it becomes soon abundantly
clear that reconciliation and peace can only be achieved if they, as I already
mentioned, are gifts from above by means of prayer that draws near to God.
This passage also discloses why prayer, and what type of prayer, is the indis-
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