Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.
It’s no secret, I like things a certain way. I prefer
structure, organization, and well thought out plans. I prefer to take care of
the business tasks at hand before moving on to the recreation side. And often
times, this seemingly positive preference leads me into trouble. Not everyone
sees things the way I see them, and when that happens, conflict usually arises…and
one of conflicts closest friends is sin. When we allow our personal desires to
dictate our behavior, sin typically gets to play a part in our lives. We let
our selfish desires lead us to speak sinfully, act sinfully, or even dig up
sinful thoughts. And with that, we fail to live in peace with one another, as
we are instructed in the text above. If we were to examine every conflict that
we experienced over the past week, we would probably find selfish intentions at
the center of almost all of them. And it would probably be safe to say that for
at least half of the issues, if we stepped back, took a deep breath, and really
evaluated their importance, we would find that they are pretty trivial and insignificant
in the grand scheme of things. Yet in the heat of battle, they seem like all
that matters. When Christ came to this earth and died on that cross, he put the
well-being of EVERYONE else before himself. He pushed aside his comfort and emotions
and put the well-being of a whole world of sinners above his own. Imagine if we
practiced just a sliver of that kind of selflessness in our own lives. Imagine
if we pushed aside just a bit of our pride, if we didn’t have to “win” every
situation, and if we truly looked to the interests of others…what an impact
that would have towards living in peace with one another. This isn’t easy…in
fact, even writing this is a challenge for me as I keep wanting to revert back
to my selfish ways. But it’s a reality that should be embraced if we are to follow
the words written above. Thankfully, God doesn’t punish us for our sinful,
conflict making behavior. Now he doesn’t like it at all, but he doesn’t dish
out the punishment hammer on our heads that we are due. For through Christ…through
the one selfless, sin-free man…we are seen before the Creator as holy
creations. Let that be our motivation today…let that be our reminder that Christ
was completely selfless, so we should strive to be selfless in our own lives. After
all, we are in this life to serve God, not ourselves…and God says live in
peace, so we should work to do that each day. To God alone be the glory!
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