Make War | Make Peace

Well, it's 2009 and it's been a while since I last posted. I always find the breaks between semesters difficult. I get lazy and undisciplined on nearly every level. However, God has used several brothers to encourage me recently and it seems to be having some fruit.

This past weekend I attended a men's seminar at my church: Make War | Make Peace. The theme was taken from Hebrews 12:1-17 and captures two main thoughts of the passage: make war (on self and sin) and make peace (with others). These messages were challenging to me because on the one hand I realize how little I have striven against sin in my own life and on the other hand how weakly I have striven for peace with others.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood" (Heb. 12:1-4).

The conference began with an audio clip from John Piper on making war against sin and self. Key thought: My primary enemy is not someone or something else; my primary enemy in the battle against sin is me (James 1:13-15). How easy it is to pass the blame to anything or anyone other than myself!

Sin is the enemy of all that we are called to be and do as believers. This truth is easy enough to swallow. However, it is also true that sometime valid plans, activities, and desires become weights that slow us from the pursuit of God's purposes and His glory. It is entirely possible that virtues themselves can become vices that distract us from the main thing (i.e., fixing our eyes on Jesus). For example, if I become infatuated with an act of love, compassion, giving, humility, etc. it becomes a vice to me (incidentally, this is an awkward sentence for me to write because I am so slow to do these things or to do them at all). In this sense, humility can be a source of pride (C. S. Lewis depicts this well in his Screwtape Letters).

"Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord" (Heb. 12:14). In one of the discussion groups in which I participated it became clear that "striving for peace with everyone" ( means more than simply making peace with my enemies (although that is a major part), but it also means seeking and praying for reconciled relationships (vertically and horizontally). Those who have become God's children by faith in Christ are called to consider one another in such a way as to ensure that "no one fails to obtain the grace of God" and "that no 'root of bitterness' springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy..." (Heb. 12:15-16a). I should be concerned that friends, family, and acquaintances be at peace with God (vertically) and with each other (horizontally). This concern is not a peace-at-any-cost kind of concern, but rather, it is a concern centered in the Gospel. The Gospel is a message of peace at the highest cost...the life of God's only Son at the hands of sinful humanity (John 3:16).

I am grateful for the encouragement I received this past weekend; for Christian brothers who are faithful to speak truth into my life and to live it out in front of me. God has truly used them to "lift my drooping hands and strengthen my weakened knees" (cf. Heb. 12:12). I pray that I will be diligent this year to make both war and peace in the manner spoken above. I pray that I will be vigilant and aware of the spiritual war in which we are situated. I long for the day in which the victory (which is already ours in Christ) is realized fully. Father, grant us the grace to strive faithfully against sin and self and compassionately for peace with everyone to the end.

J