Peaceably

Romans 12 is one of those chapters in the New Testament that is so densely packed with goodness that many volumes could be filled by thoroughly exploring just about any single verse. It talks about the gifts of grace. It talks about our call to be different in this world and not lost in unhealthy patterns. It calls us to be filled with love for our neighbor. It isn’t always stuff that is easy to do, but it’s all stuff that we would agree is right.

The verse that stood out to me today was Romans 12:18, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” Even at a face value, surface level reading, I think most people would agree that living peaceably is a good idea. No one wants to live in constant fear of conflict or walk on eggshells around their friends and neighbors. We want to have the freedom to be open and honest. We want to share our ideas in a way that leads to discussions not arguments.

We know that we don’t always live in a world like that, so let’s back up a step in the verse. It says, “so far as it depends on you.” This puts the responsibility on Christians to be the ones who take the hard road of kindness. We can’t control how other people react. It’s hard enough to control how we react and sometimes we don’t do that either. However, we can be the ones trying to bring peace into the world.

Now we make it all the way back to the beginning of the verse, “if possible.” This is a hugely conditional statement that expresses to us that living peaceably with absolutely everyone might not be possible. There are people that, for whatever reason, just don’t like you (for the record I think they’re wrong, and you’re great). There are people that need to work through their own inner turmoil. This doesn’t remove our responsibility to put forth the effort of living peaceably.

We can only control how we treat people. So, let’s be the people that bring peace.