Making Peace

Lately I have been learning just how important our relationships are to Jesus. For instance, if you have come to worship (‘presenting your offering at the altar’) and you remember that your brother has something against you, Jesus commands us to leave the offering and go to our brother. First be reconciled to him. Then come and worship (Mt 5:23-24)! It appears that God has no interest in our worship if there is no peace between us and our brothers in Christ. This same concept seems to be evident in the words of the OT prophets (Isaiah 1:10-17; Hosea 4:1-3; Micah 6:6-8; Zech 7:1-14). We must take our relationships very seriously. Our Lord wants us to make every effort to preserve peace within them (Eph 4:3). If we allow our relationships to break down and disintegrate because of sinful communication and a lack of humility, then we will be found working against what Jesus died and suffered for. His great redemptive work was not only to reconcile man to God but man to man as well. If the communities where our local churches exist see a divided and bickering church, then we are in essence telling them that God did not send his Son into the world (Jn 17:20-23). As those who have committed themselves to following the Lord Jesus, we must be pro-active in our relationships with those who are in Christ. If our sin destroys the unity and peace of our relationships, may we clothe ourselves in humility and the fear God so that we might first make peace with our brother or sister and then come before God to worship him.