Blessed Are the Peacemakers: How the Gospel Transforms Conflict into Wholeness

The human heart beats as electrical impulses move through its chambers, telling it when to contract. When this natural rhythm fails, surgeons implant a pacemaker—a small battery-operated device under the skin—which sends pulses to stimulate the heartbeat as needed.

The church also has a heartbeat. Through Christ, believers have received mercy and pure hearts, enabling us to show mercy to others. This is the heartbeat of the church, and every believer contributes to it. Yet just as physical hearts sometimes beat irregularly, the church’s heartbeat can fall out of rhythm. Thankfully, God has given us a pacemaker for the flourishing heartbeat of the church: peacemaking. We, the church, are the heart, and we set the heartbeat by being peacemakers.

A peacemaker is not a peacekeeper. Peacekeepers maintain harmony by avoiding or smoothing over conflict—what we might call the escape response. They dress festering wounds with bandages while claiming all is well. Jeremiah 6:14 describes false teachers who “have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.” This is peacekeeping: wrapping a bandage around an oozing sore and pretending it’s healed.

Neither is peacemaking the opposite extreme—peace-breaking. Peace-breakers see every tension as a point of contention and jump in boots and all, dealing with conflict through blame, anger, and manipulation. They wrestle people into submission rather than listening and acknowledging their own contribution to the problem. Throughout the Gospels, we see the Pharisees exemplify this response, accusing Jesus and eventually plotting to murder him simply because he did good.

If peacekeeping is a heartbeat that is too slow, peace-breaking is one that is too quick—both are lopsided and unhealthy for the body.

Being a peacemaker means actively resolving conflict and finding solutions that work for both parties. Peacemakers see times of conflict as opportunities to solve tension in ways that benefit everyone while bringing honour to God and restoring the body.

The word “peacemaker” combines two ideas: peace, meaning wholeness and complete wellbeing (not merely the absence of tension); and maker, suggesting someone who actively pursues relationships as a source of peace. This person isn’t passive but deliberately pursues wellbeing in relationships.

How do we engage as peacemakers? First, there must be honesty. We know that tension sometimes exists—in marriages, between parents and children, among church members. We must be honest about these tensions rather than hiding them away or overreacting with attacks.

Second, there is a risk of pain—like ripping off a bandage covering a festering wound. Too many things happen in churches where people deny problems until they eventually explode, leaving situations almost too big to handle. Be honest, take the risk, come clean, and solve issues now rather than waiting until they become unmanageable.

Third, there is healing. Matthew 18:15 says, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.” Galatians 6:1 adds: “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.”

To pursue this healing, go higher. Pray and ask God whether this is something to overlook and forgive or a bigger problem requiring direct address. Get real—own your part in the conflict. It takes two to tango; there are always two parties involved. Consider where the other person is: Perhaps they have just lost their job, received a difficult diagnosis, or experienced bereavement. Get engagement—think through how to help the other person see their contribution gently. Then get together, eyeball to eyeball, seeking the most gentle, restorative way to resolve the situation.

Who doesn’t want peace? But more seriously, the Bible requires it. First John 4:20 states: “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar.” To love is to make peace.

Peacemaking also guards the unity of the body. Ephesians 4:2–3 instructs us to walk “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Romans 14:19 adds: “So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.”

Peaceful solutions to conflict don’t come naturally. So what enables us to be peacemakers? How do we commit to this radical expectation that seems above human nature?

We can only do this because of the Prince of Peace—the ultimate peacemaker who fulfilled the peace requirement between us and God. Jesus saw the contention and tension between people and God. He didn’t run away or react in anger. Instead, he humbled himself and served, coming to give us peace with God the Father.

Colossians 1:19–20 declares: “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”

Because of Jesus, the Prince of Peace, those who are in him are able to make peace. We can and are expected to be peacemakers because we have received mercy, a pure heart, and peace from and with God through our Saviour.

What fruit comes from fulfilling this radical requirement? Matthew 5:9 promises: “They shall be called sons of God.”

This indicates that God himself—the King of kings, the Prince of Peace—will call us his sons. God himself declares us part of his family, granting us divine inheritance. This is the wonderful fruit, the blessing, the flourishing: If you are a peacemaker, God himself calls you his family because you are in the ultimate peacemaker.

Because we are part of God’s family, we have peace with him. John 14:27 records Jesus saying: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you.” We have received peace; we are at peace with God. Moreover, John 13:35 tells us that people will know who God is through the love and peace we have for one another.

The opposite is also true. If you are not a peacemaker but rather a troublemaker, you stand under God’s judgement. We all struggle to be peacemakers sometimes, but if your character is to continually spread rumours and gossip that cause contention, to find joy in reports of trouble, to constantly fault-find, to refuse involvement in peacemaking, or to flee whilst growing bitter, you might not be a true believer.

The question is: Have you gone through open-heart surgery to receive your pacemaker in being a peacemaker? Is your heartbeat to make peace continually? We are called to be peacemakers—not to flee and avoid, not to attack and manipulate, but to actively and gently restore conflicts and find solutions that work for all parties involved.