In Matthew 5:9, Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”
What does it mean to be called sons of God? In Jesus’ day, being someone’s son entailed more than one’s biological origin. It meant that you represented that person. Your actions would reflect your parents’ actions, and your character would reflect your parents’ character. This cultural value is depicted in the line from the movie Mulan, “Please bring honor to us all.” In Jesus’ day, sons and daughters were fundamentally linked to their families, such that people can judge parents based on how their children behaved.
Being a child of God, therefore, means that that person represents God. When people interact with God’s children, it is as if they are interacting with God. And the actions of God’s children bring honor or dishonor to God himself.
Matthew 5:9 depicts a very specific way this happens. When somebody sees you making peace, they should say, “I see–you must be a part of God’s family.” Peacemaking should signify to others that you are a child of God, because peacemaking is central to God’s character.
Unfortunately, the opposite seems to be true today. According to God’s design, the church is supposed to be characterized by its peacemaking. However, today the American church is perhaps more famous for its tribalism.
How Tribalism Develops
Most Christians with tribalistic tendencies usually start out with good intentions, but somewhere along the way, unhealthy habits creep in. This is how the path often goes.
The early years of the Christian faith are often characterized by rapid growth and transformation. The gospel is fresh and rejuvenating, and young believers seize the teachings presented to them with joy. But at some point many of them hit a plateau. They start to feel spiritually dry and stagnant, and their faith seems monotonous and superficial. Eventually, they start asking themselves, “What am I doing wrong?” Many then start to look for different things to take their faith “to the next level.”
This is where paths diverge. For some, they discover speaking in tongues. For others, they dive into issues of social justice. For others, they get really into the enneagram. And for still others, they undergo a theological deconstruction. And so on.
Whatever it is, they’ve now discovered the secret sauce to what it means to be a “Level 2 Christian.” But not only do these freshly discovered values provide new ways of doing things, but they also provide new communities. Each of these “secret sauces” offer exclusive subcultures of Christianity.
Social psychologists use the term group polarization to describe the tendency for a group of like-minded individuals to be more extreme than the initial inclination of its members. In other words, if several people have a certain stance on, say, gun control, and they come together to form a group, the eventual stance of the group will be more extreme than the average original stance of the group members.
It seems like a very similar dynamic happens with subcultures of Christianity. The more immersed people are in their new subculture of Christianity, the more they prioritize the distinct values of that subculture, and the more they start to look down on every other Christian who hasn’t yet discovered what they discovered.
It’s as if they’ve created two classes of Christians. “They are the Arminian Christians,” some say, “but we are the Reformed Christians.” “They are the water-baptized Christians, but we are the Spirit-baptized Christians.” “They are the emotionally burnt-out Christians, but we are the emotionally healthy Christians.” “They are the suburban Christians, but we are the inner-city Christians.” “They are the monocultural Christians, but we are the multicultural Christians.” And on and on.
Of course, it’s not bad to have certain stances, or to distinguish between what’s right and wrong. What’s potentially dangerous, however, is the level of gatekeeping that often happens as a result. In the name of protecting their tribes, many Christians come to functionally cancel out every other Christian who is not in their tribe.
“Don’t read that author—he’s too woke.” “Don’t attend that conference—they’re associated with that one pastor who is off the rails.” “Don’t read that Bible version—it’s compromised.”
It’s as if every theological tribe is its own suburban gated community. We have our strict HOA codes, and in order to live in this gated community, we have to abide by all of these codes. And as a result, our misplaced zeal has sometimes created disastrous consequences.
In many ways, our modern church has become like those Jesus condemned in Matthew 23:13: “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.”
This overly-vigilant boundary-drawing nature of the modern American church runs against one of the fundamental characteristics of what it means to be the church. Those who claim to follow Jesus are supposed to be peacemakers.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”
The Theology of Peacemaking
The work to reform our church is long and difficult. But one step that will set us on the right track is that we need to expose more Christians to the biblical theology of peacemaking.
Many churches have overemphasized drawing theological boundaries and underemphasized making peace with Christians who are different from us. In some circles, out of an earnest passion for robust orthodoxy, peacemaking is actually seen as a distraction from the gospel, rather than a critical part of the gospel.
In that light, the Matthew 5:9 Fellowship has created a public resource called The Theology of Peacemaking. This is a short PDF that explores how peacemaking is not just a peripheral activity, but it is actually a central part of the Christian gospel. Accompanied by reflection questions, the guide can be read individually or in a group context.
Our hope is that readers will come to embrace God’s heart for peace, and that they will be equipped to be peacemakers in their own communities, spreading the gospel of peace not just through word but through action, so that we would bring honor to our God of Peace.
Larry Lin is an outreach manager for the Matthew 5:9 Fellowship. Prior to working with the Matthew 5:9 Fellowship, Larry served as a college minister in the Washington, DC area and as an executive pastor in Baltimore, MD. Larry is passionate about mobilizing the Christian church to serve the poor and the marginalized, writing about the intersection of faith and current events, and helping people from different backgrounds find common ground together. Larry has degrees from Cornell University and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, he is married to his wife Van-Kim, and they live together with their two kids in Baltimore, MD.
Larry Lin is an outreach manager for the Matthew 5:9 Fellowship. Prior to working with the Matthew 5:9 Fellowship, Larry served as a college minister in the Washington, DC area and as an executive pastor in Baltimore, MD. Larry is passionate about mobilizing the Christian church to serve the poor and the marginalized, writing about the intersection of faith and current events, and helping people from different backgrounds find common ground together. Larry has degrees from Cornell University and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, he is married to his wife Van-Kim, and they live together with their two kids in Baltimore, MD.
