Perfect Peace

But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable  James 3:17

Pure – The world is obsessed with peace, but, in spite of all its negotiations, has no idea why it reaps only conflict.  If we only understood God’s design of the universe, we would see immediately why our solutions fail so miserably.  In God’s moral government, purity comes first.  No peace will ever be lasting until human kind first deals with the issue of purity.  Why?  Because until the heart is clean, the hands will always be dirty.

The gospel is not designed to prepare us for another world.  Yes, it is true that the gospel has the perspective of another world’s kingdom, but the focus of the gospel is “thy will be done on earth.”  It is the Kingdom of heaven at hand that matters.  By redeeming this world for God’s purposes, we reap the corollary of heaven preparedness, but heaven is only the corollary, not the first objective.  If we forget the gospel emphasis on “thy will be done,” we will be of no use here and of less use there.

So, in order to bring peace on earth (as the angels declared), we, the followers of the King, must first bring purity.  And God always starts in His own house.  Do you want peace?  Do you want to see the end of personal, national and ethnic conflict?  Then be pure.  Put all your focus, all your effort, on purity and peace will come right along behind. 

This makes it absolutely essential to know what “pure” means.  The word is hagnos.  It is not the same as the word for religious or ritual purity (katharos).  In fact, you won’t even find hagnos in any of the Gospels.  It isn’t a word about the church or the church’s sacraments.  It’s a word about personal, moral blamelessness.  It’s a word that implies innocence and chastity.  Do you want peace?  Then first be blameless. 

No wonder the world finds peace so difficult.  The world has no stomach for purity.  The world does not want blamelessness.  It wants accusation, exoneration and judgment.  The world cries, “Peace, peace,” but there will never be peace until there is first repentance, restitution and cleansed hearts.  So James tells us that all of this must come from above.  We, the human blaming machines, are not capable of initiating the purity necessary for real peace.  Our hands are far too dirty and our hearts far too corrupt.  If we are to be pure, we must be washed by another.  Then peace is possible.

Peace begins when purity presides.  Stop negotiating.  Start confessing.  Peace is a by-product of another imperative called purity.