Hello, everybody, and welcome back to the Fourth Wave podcast. This is a follow-up episode to the last two. So after two episodes of talking about biblical peace, I thought it might be good to talk a bit more about some of the implications of that as well as why reframing things this way is important. One of the ways that I think that recognizing the saturation of peace is important and helpful is that it can give us a clear direction of the Christian life. Let me give you somewhat of a parallel scenario.

I have a five year old. He knows exactly how he's supposed to behave, and I truly believe that he does want to behave that way. But for a long stretch of time, we really struggled with him every step of the day. He wouldn't behave properly at dinner. He'd procrastinate until he got in trouble to shower, had meltdowns when he had to brush his teeth, and on and on and on.

So my wife and I worked at our limits, and frankly, we'd used up all of our tactics to get him to behave how we wanted, and we're really at a loss. Finally, we decided to do a sort of behavioral chart form. We had some hesitations about it, but, it was our last resort, so we had to do it. And it's very simple. Every day, we have a list of five simple things he needs to do well in.

As he does them, he gets a small sticker and that's it. If he gets a certain number of stickers, I have a little poster that I that I drop on the board, and he has a little figure and he gets to move farther along the journey. And he can see if by the end of the week if he can finish the little journey. But that's it. It's not much of a motivator, to be honest.

But let me tell you, it has made a day and night difference. Obviously, it wore off somewhat after a while, but even now, the contrast is quite remarkable. And, again, it's not that this tiny sticker is such a massive motivation that he's willing to do anything for this reward, and it's not that he didn't know how he was supposed to have before. It's that now he has a visible structure. Maybe to us adults it was obvious that all these rules simply led to a nice orderly day where everyone does their duties because they're safe and healthy and respectful and, frankly, necessary.

But that was clearly a bit too abstract for him. To them, they were more or less arbitrary rules, and staying seated while eating certainly wasn't related to getting dressed without a fuss. They were just these separate things that he had to do that he didn't really understand why. And so this short list has provided him with the visual framework that he needs in order to perform each task. When dinner starts, he's aware of what needs to be done in order to achieve his dinner task.

He wants to see all five stickers, so now each task has a purpose and works together with the other tasks. Because, again, if he gets them all together, then he gets his little bonus reward of moving up in a story. So there's a connection now between all these tasks as well as his behavior, which makes it easier for him to be able to behave appropriately. It sort of comes together now. And I think it's similar for us when viewing the Christian moral life.

We know that to be a follower of Christ is to follow the path of agape love. When we go through our lives going from one agape action to another, missing the big picture, we often get a very fragmented life. It can feel quite directionless. It's also very easy to focus on a few areas where we need to love or maintain patience while leaving other areas of our lives completely untouched. However, when we recognize what peace is and see it as the culmination of all of what God is leading us towards, then our vision of love makes more sense.

Loving my neighbor isn't just kindness. It isn't just putting their needs before mine even. It's also not just some moral obligation given by God it's bringing them into a oneness relationship with God. The ends of all our actions should be shalom unity. And when it's viewed this way, it can also be easier to grasp the concept that every moment needs to be leading towards shalom, whether it's our inner thoughts, our mundane bus journey, or raising a child.

A recent scenario really brought this to life for me. There was a certain struggle happening within my household. It was already somewhat my job to keep things in order, but I also kind of naturally don't like to tip my toes into drama. So I may not have in the past, but I really felt I needed to here. And so I worked between the two parties.

We've had discussions and clarifications, and everything's been going a lot smoother and has continued to go smoother with some notable bumps along the way. But after the first discussion that I had between the parties, I realized that in doing this, was fulfilling my role as a peacemaker. After that realization, I was I happily stepped into that role. As a Christian, I'm to be a peacemaker, and that includes in my own home as well. Now I'm very far from a perfect peacemaker, and this situation is quite evident of that.

But my earlier notion of treating everyone with love was lacking quite a bit until I received or understood the vocation as peacemaker. So as silly and small as this example is, it's often these smaller roles which stack together for a more widespread movement of peace. And this isn't a real lofty example, but it was pretty important to me because it's the first time that I viewed myself as a peacemaker, and this revelation has led me to continue following up and making sure that this peace is broadened and maintained. Another benefit is I think it could have led to less war historically or other atrocious actions that we've seen from the Christian church throughout history. Had Augustine maintained a more holistic and biblical view of Shalom, he would not have been able to say that one could kill others so long as they also love them in the heart.

Because as we now know, Shalom cannot be separated from justice or righteousness. Once you attack a group of people, you've just made them the poor and the oppressed, the exact group we need to help defend and lift up in order for shalom to become manifest. In trying to maintain order and authority, which is normally how the world defines peace, Augustine was actually spreading unshalom by increasing the number of those we are commanded to lift up. Claiming an inward love means nothing when we step back and realize where that love should be leading, not safety for a certain group, but the coming together of all. Annihilation of a certain group at best could relieve tensions between two groups, but in destroying the one group, shalom between them has been destroyed as well.

I am certainly not so optimistic as to think that Christianity would have completely avoided the use of power, violence, or even necessarily war had the role of peacemaking been seen as more central to being a Christian, especially since it's a bit unfair and inaccurate to put all the blame on Augustine. Seeking preferential treatment from the empire sealed Christianity's fate to utilize coercive power in many ways. I do believe that this emphasis and understanding, though, would have done much to reduce the amount of evil that has been done in Christ's name, as well as allow space for a peace alternative within more mainstream Christianity to rise and challenge the more dominant and dominating stream. And I think this leads naturally to a more accurate understanding of scripture. Obviously, if we've not been emphasizing the correct themes and ideas within the Bible, then our theology and understandings will be distorted as well.

There are several things which make much more sense to me now that I have this piece hermeneutic. I mentioned exorcisms and healing in the New Testament episode as one example. Another is my understanding of Ephesians two:eight-nine. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

I've always heard this explain that basically the main reason we are saved by faith rather than works is to make sure that we know our place. This theology then pervades other parts of our theology and is often a very strong pillar in basically putting ourselves and others down. We're worms. We're maggots. We don't deserve anything but damnation.

Now I wouldn't deny for a moment that in no way could any of us earn salvation. But the type of humility and self understanding that this type of thinking has very often led to has been very damaging. Keeping a mind full of peace, we get a very different understanding of this passage. Right after that verse, we have an entire section on peace. Verses eleven and twelve talk about the breaking down of the division between Gentiles and Jews.

Verse 14 specifically mentions Jesus as our peace by making us one and breaking down the wall of hostility dividing us, which ultimately will kill the hostility between people. It clearly explains that this is because he has abolished the law of commandments expressed in ordinances. What he's saying is, if salvation were found in works, then we would still have divisions among us. Even if we could earn our way, that isn't how God would do it. Because in doing so, hierarchies and boasting is introduced and there can be none of either in the kingdom of God.

Where there is boasting, there is no shalom. We are saved through faith rather than works, so that we may finally live in peace with each other, rather than seeing others as competition in some way. So with this peace understanding, rather than focusing on our brokenness and sinfulness, we focus on God's redemption and ultimate vision for us. Lastly, the main implication of this emphasis is that we are to be a people of peace. Alan Crater notes that people rarely associate peace with the Church or the Church with peace.

But what if we work to change that? What if, he asks, when people asked us to tell them what our Church was about instead of saying that we're a bunch of sinners finding our salvation, we were able to say, we're a culture of peace. God is a God of peace, and we're learning what peace means. It's exciting. Would you like to come and see?

Of course, this doesn't ignore nor even minimize the fact that we are, in fact, all sinners and do, in fact, need God. Shalom won't come until we recognize this and fall into him. But rather than calling the person a sinner, which they likely won't believe anyway if they aren't Christians, which means it won't make any sense to them, won't seem relevant to them, and won't be particularly useful, instead we mention that we are searching after peace. Most people will resonate with a lack of peacefulness and the need for peace. We aren't focused on our deserving of the title sinner, but on the final redemption into a community of peace.

This will lead to a healthier and more enticing church, I think. So I just wanna end on this note. What if the term Christian became synonymous with peacemaker? The nearest Christian to you was who you would go to when a problem needed to be resolved. Then we could truly tell people that the kingdom of God was present.

And that's all for now. So peace. And because I'm a pacifist, when I say it, I mean it.