Blessed the peace-makers, for *they* shall be called sons of God.
Kommentar zu diesem Vers
I have enough rich material from three distinctive voices. Composing the commentary now.
The seventh beatitude — "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God" — crowns the group of graces that flow outward toward others. It is not a passive temperament being blessed, but an active ministry that reflects God Himself.
Not keepers of peace, but makers of peace
Andrew Miller is careful to draw out this distinction, which is easily missed:
Andrew Miller"Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the children of God." It is not, observe, they who live in peace, walk in peace, or keep peace, that are crowned with the divine blessing, but they who make peace — "peace-makers."
He presses the point, because a quiet disposition is not at all the same thing as the grace the Lord is describing:
The distinction is important, as many who have a peaceable nature are the least qualified to make peace, and are in danger of being unfaithful for the sake of peace. But peace-making is quite another thing. It is the grace of the Lord Jesus in blessed activity, pouring oil on the troubled waters — on the tumultuous passions of men. And this, mark, without compromising the holiness of God, or saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace.
The work, he insists, is costly and spiritual, never cheap:
It may occasion much self-denial, much anxiety, much waiting on God much disquiet to one's own mind… But the peace-maker must be impartial; he must see that "mercy and truth meet together, that righteousness and peace kiss each other." There must be truth as well as grace, purity as well as peace. Time must be given for God to work: peace cannot be forced.
Why it must follow purity of heart
Miller also shows why this beatitude is placed seventh, and not earlier. It requires the previous graces as its foundation — especially the purity of heart that immediately precedes it:
The pure in heart are at peace with God through the precious blood of Christ. Cleansed from all sin — whiter than snow — they see God, and have learnt much in the divine presence that fits them for peace-making. He who walks with God must live in the spirit of self-judgment — must judge all that belongs to himself naturally, and thereby gain complete control over his own spirit, temper, words and ways… The sixth beatitude, we have no doubt, is the true preparation for the exercise of the God-like grace of the seventh; or as James says, "First pure, then peaceable."
A reflection of the God of peace Himself
The reason the peacemakers are called sons of God is that in this very activity they show the family likeness. Miller continues:
None of the Christian graces so distinctly reveals God in His children as this peace-making spirit. "They shall be called the children of God." That which God is, and delights in, is seen in them. The moral resemblance is manifest, and their sonship is declared… God is the great Peace-maker. This is what He has been doing, what He is doing, and what He will do until peace is established for ever in the new heavens and the new earth. He delights in the title "God of peace;" which occurs seven times in the Epistles. He loves peace: strife and contention cannot dwell with Him.
He roots it, as he must, in the cross:
The true ground of peace between God and man was laid in the great work of the cross… Christ made peace by the blood of His cross: and when His blessed work was finished, He returned to His Father, leaving behind Him the full blessing of peace for His disciples; "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you." The peace which He made on the cross, and His own personal peace which He enjoyed with His Father while passing through the sorrows of this world, He leaves as the rich legacy of His love for all who believe in Him.
J. N. Darby draws the same thread — that peacemaking is tied inseparably to God's own great work of reconciliation, and that this is why the peacemaker bears the family name:
J. N. DarbyIn Christians He glorifies Himself in reconciliation, to make them the first-fruits of His new creation, when He shall have reconciled all things in heaven and on earth by Christ. Therefore it is written "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children [sons] of God." They have His nature and His character.
The place of the beatitude in the Lord's teaching
William Kelly sets this seventh blessing within the shape of the whole Sermon on the Mount, noting how the beatitudes divide into two groups of four and three:
William KellyFirst of all He pronounces certain classes blessed. These blessednesses divide into two classes. The earlier character of blessedness savours particularly of righteousness, the later of mercy, which are the two great topics of the Psalms… The next three are founded upon mercy. Hence we read as the very first — "Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God."
For Kelly, then, the peacemaker's blessing is the climax of the line of grace — the overflow of mercy purified in heart that now goes out to heal breaches among men. He also notes how utterly opposed this spirit is to the proud and angry flesh the Lord condemns immediately afterwards in Matthew 5:21-22:
How too could it agree with being persecuted for righteousness' sake? how with being reproached, and having all manner of evil said and done against one falsely for Christ's sake, yet, rejoicing and being exceeding glad to be thus defamed and ill-used for His name?
And he marks that peacemaking is among the hardest graces to produce, because it demands the partaking of a divine nature:
Harder still was the actively gracious spirit of mercifulness, purity in heart, and peace-making according to God, with the persecutions which such righteousness entails.
Drawing it together
So the Lord's seventh beatitude is not a blessing on the mild or the conflict-averse. It is a blessing on those who, being themselves at peace with God through the blood of the cross, carry that peace into troubled situations without compromising truth — who, like their Father, reconcile where there is enmity. Peace-making is the Father's own work, supremely accomplished in the cross of Christ; and when His children take up that work in the power of a new nature, the family likeness is so unmistakable that heaven gives them the name — "sons of God." Miller's warning is worth keeping: a naturally peaceable man who buys quiet at the price of faithfulness is not the peacemaker Christ blesses. The true peacemaker holds mercy and truth together, waits on God, endures the cost, and in doing so shows whose child he is.