What in the World is a Peacemaker?

igger and nicer buildings and slicker and more polished sermons, flyers, and events? Courting the
wealthy at the expense of the poor is never an option as far as God is concerned. Never.
What cost does such favoritism exact from the Church and her witness to the watching world? I'd suggest
that the divisions in Christ's one Body are the biggest cost. Favoritism is the major reason why every sect
and denomination has become a self-affirming doctrinal eddy, as leadership protects those who remain
"faithful to the (insert your denomination name here) ______________ cause," and often mistreats any
who challenge the tenets of the eddy. Thus, rather than every church, denomination, or ministry being
drawn slowly into the great current of God's truth (Paul's "whole counsel of God") as revealed in scripture,
each is drawn slowly off to the side, into an eddy.
And what is the cost of these divisions to the witness of Christ's Church? From John 13 and John 17 we
have Christ's word that if we are not united, if we are not "one, as God and Christ are one," then the world
has every right to believe that we are not his disciples, and that Christ was not sent by God. Nothing
destroys our witness like the divisions in the church today.
But it's not just churches and ministries that play the partiality game. You and I, and everyone who
names Christ as savior are just as tempted to grant love, mercy, grace only to those who please us, who
have something to offer us. We are also tempted to be more harsh, judgmental, and less than loving to
those who bother us or who pose some sort of risk to us. James says that the cure for our favoritist
temptations is to fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS
YOURSELF." If you're doing this, he says, you're doing well.
Father, because of our selfish nature, we are so easily tempted to partiality, to playing favorites. Help us
see our neighbors through your eyes, and help us love them and minister to them as you would. Protect
us from those who would bribe us to go astray, who would punish us for doing what doesn't please them.
But God help us never return evil for evil. Help us show Christ, even when we're mistreated and
persecuted or abused. And help us teach others to do the same.