Is the Bible a book of peace? Many of its adherents say “Yes!” without hesitation. But Bible-believing Christianity seems to be at war with just about anything/anyone we don’t agree with. Seeing so many recent cultural developments as a threat to all things Christian, and driven by a litany of principles derived from scripture, we’ve taken a decidedly “anti-everything” posture towards the non-christian world.
The brunt of this derives from the Old Testament – ancient Jewish scriptures that seem to paint the picture of a God at war, responding with brute force to anyone who might disrespect His values. Admittedly, these are difficult to reconcile with the more peaceful posture of the New Testament. “Stone to death the disobedient child” can be found nowhere in the teachings of Jesus.
Regardless, the Old Testament is frequently viewed as a “how-to” manual of sorts, inviting us to wage war on God’s behalf.
It’s not.
While the Old Testament leaves some of us scratching our heads, wondering “What does the Bible say about peace?” it leaves the reader unable to gloss over things like injustice, rampant immorality, greed, etc., inviting God’s would-be followers to adopt a similar hatred towards these blights on humanity. It doesn’t invite us to hate the perpetrators, however, something St. Paul would later unpack in his letters.
But there’s a deeper truth – fundamental to our understanding of what the Bible says about peace.
These scriptures seem to think that there’s a brokenness attending humanity. We’re all “sinners,” unable to function as we should, and no amount of obedience, Bible knowlege, evolution, or religious adherence can fix us.
“The human heart is broken beyond understanding.” ~ Jeremiah 17:9
But the Old Testament also makes it clear that humanity is priority #1. Regardless of our condition, God still pursues, loves, blesses, reconciles, and redeems. Our brokenness doesn’t keep us from being “holy,” “beautiful” – the very representation of God Himself.
As such, the priority of humanity is a predominate theme.
Us religious folk get confused here, convinced that morality, Bible knowlege, faithful church attendance, voting a certain way, etc., are what God values most, devaluing the scads of religious ne’er-do-wells who can’t seem to get thier lives in order.
Seeing ourselves as the defenders of righteousness and waging war against the sinfulness or our world leaves us with a sense of purpose and significance that we’ll not soon give up. When people call us @$$holes, we don’t care. We’re fighting the good fight.
Peace? We’re at war.
What Does the New Testament Say About Peace?
The New Testament authors used the ancient Jewish scriptures to set the stage for their work, placing everything in the context of the stories of the Old Testament, ushering in a view of God and “righteousness” that turned the religious world on its head.
In a nutshell, the New Testament takes fundamental Old Testament themes – a hatred of wrongdoing, an emphasis on the holiness of people, our inability to fix ourselves – and adds one ingredient.
God himself comes on the scene.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, full of truth to be sure, but just as full of grace.” John 1:1-14
The God-man suffers and dies at the hands of his people, removing every infraction, personal and corporate, reconciling God to all of humanity, and all of humanity to itself. God’s attitude towards wrongdoing doesn’t change in these writings. It’s severely dealt with, just as it is in the Old Testament. But this punishment is, somehow, a once-for-all proposition, all aimed at one person.
It’s the final, deciding battle in God’s war on sin.
With the stage having been set, the New Testament has a ton to say about peace, more so than love itself, and helps to put the rest of the Bible in context. Here are a few examples:
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- Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way.
- Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called heirs of God.
- If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
- Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
- For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.
- What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
- Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.
- If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
- Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it.
What Does the Bible Say about Peace with People I Don’t Like?
Jesus had his enemies, and on multiple occasions treated them in a less-than-peacefulf fashion. This is the guy who, before entering the Temple, furious, fashioned a whip for those who had turned this place of peace into a market. They were getting in His way, threatening what He valued most:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
“I came so that everyone might have life, so much that it overflows in abundance.”
To Jesus, God was accessible. His doors were wide open for the worst sinner, blessings available for all. His detractors, however, had learned to make a living from making God inaccessible, throwing up barriers, stumbling blocks, and meaningless religious traditions, leaving people with the idea that only the most righteous people have favor with God.
To this, Jesus responded:
“If anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”
The Bible says that Jesus was an open, loving, kind person, except with the people who threatened the peace He intended to usher into the world. To that crowd, He postured Himself much more like the Old Testament version of God.
This leaves us with a difficult question as we try to figure out what peace looks like in our day-to-day lives. How should we respond to people who get in our way, who seem to threaten what’s most valuable to us? What does the Bible say about peace when we’re not interested?
Jesus made a whip. Can we?
I’d say no, mainly because we’re not Jesus.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t debate, vote, argue, etc. with people who we feel have gotten things wrong. It’s possible to resist in ways that are respectful, forgiving, and compassionate while clearly communicating our perspective. But when we rage against our adversaries, belittling them, and inciting others to do the same, we’ve completely forgotten the power of peace, it’s emphasis in the scriptures, and the utter hell that God has gone through so that we might live in it.
So, what does the Bible say about peace? If nothing else, it calls us to proceed with great caution when we feel led to do something that might threaten our peace, or the peace of others.
Your column brings a new perspective to my understanding of “peace.”
This was refreshing to read. Most of my religious friends and family on facebook proudly call for the president to lock children in cages and bomb the shit out of the middle east and then follow with a nice flowery quote from Jesus. Nothing infuriates me more.
One thing you said, however, caught my eye. You said “As such, the priority of humanity is a predominate theme [of the Old Testament].” I tend to disagree. It seems to me like the Israelites were a priority and that everyone else (such as the people of Jericho who were brutally murdered by God’s command) was not treated with any dignity at all and to some extent, it doesn’t even seem like God recognizes these people as human.
To me, this is where a lot of the people I mentioned in the beginning of my comment might be coming from. In their minds, they are the chosen people who are following the divine command of God, they are “fighting the good fight” as you say. The Iraqis on the other hand, are the enemy and so they’re deserving of no human dignity. We are the Israelites, the Iraqis are the people of Jericho. Or, as you so elegantly put it, “the Old Testament is frequently viewed as a “how-to” manual of sorts, inviting us to wage war on God’s behalf.”
But for me, this is a major problem. First of all, the Old Testament seems to depict God committing the first genocides, it’s hard for me to really understand why a loving God would do that. Second, it makes it seem like the people who want to constantly be “at war” with something, are interpreting the Old Testament correctly because God seems to be that way too.
Anyways, I would love to hear your thoughts on this. If you can’t tell from my comment, I’m not a christian but I hope you haven’t interpreted any part of my comment as being an attack on your faith or anything like that. Since you are committed to peace as well, I view you as an ally even if we disagree on the whole God thing. Great post, keep up the good work!!
Not sure where to begin. First, I don’t feel attacked. I’d prefer to process with non-Christians about these passages because they’re much more honest about the brutality involved. My camp moves too quickly from “kill everyone” to “look how God blessed the Israelites,” then finally, “and he wants to bless you, too…” unless you’re on the wrong side. Last night I watched the Ken Burns “Dustbowl” documentary and was left bewildered as to why God would allow something so brutal – 10 years of it. It doesn’t matter to me whether God causes suffering or allows it – it all seems patently unjust and unloving.
I don’t have an answer for your pushback that I think you’d appreciate, all I can speak to is how I approach this. And I’m happy to get a response, regardless of whether or not you land where I do. I’m totally fine debating this.
First, according to the story, It’s not mentioned why God chose Israel and not some other people group, but it is clear that it had nothing to do with their respect for God. The words “Isra” and “El” in ancient Hebrew mean “wrestles with God,” i.e., They were frequently found engaging in rampant jackassery. So it is with “God’s people” today. The idea that we’re better than anyone else, and as such can do whatever we want is a pretty blatant misreading. It’s also made clear that the purpose of Israel was to somehow “bless” the entire world – without boring you with details, that’s where I get the idea that humanity is an OT priority, and should be a Christian priority today.
Philosophically speaking (again, from the cramped recesses of my mind), if a sapient being of exponentially higher intelligence were to interact with humanity with a view to making it better, we’d lose our minds. By definition, this being’s guidance and leadership would, on occasion at least seem unjust. There’s no way for God to lead and guide us without our seeing him as evil from time to time, completely uninterested in my wellbeing, or anyone elses.
With regards to Jericho, do we see it as an injustice because it is one, or because we don’t have the ken to understand? I’ve chosen to punt on this stuff and go with the latter. If you lean more towards the former, who could blame you, and shame on us Christians for taking such a difficult passage and glossing over it for most of our existence. There’s so much truth we’ve missed for our fear of honesty.
Last, the OT seems to view humanity as one, united, interdependent organism made up of individual people (think cells in a body) – it doesn’t ascribe to the isolated free range individualist anthropology that our modern Western culture holds so dearly. If that’s true, it’s possible to view Jericho as a surgical procedure of sorts. But that’s insensitive because they’re innocent, they haven’t done anything wrong. If they had done something wrong, or if it was clear to us how the Jerichite’s existence somehow threatened humanity, we could say, “Ah, I get it. It’s still horrible, but it makes a bit more sense. It’s not the suffering of Jericho that bothers us, it’s the pointlessness of it.
Either way, is it possible that the destruction of Jericho could have something to do with God’s overall love for humanity? If so, we’re not told how. We’re a bit like Job who got crickets when he asked God for an explanation of his own suffering.
So – there you go 🙂 Again, fire back, I’m looking forward to your response.
Hmm, a lot to respond to here haha. I’ll just hit all your points one by one. So, if I’m understanding your first point correctly, you’re saying that you believe Israel is the chosen people because God chose them to spread love and peace to humanity not because they were especially good or anything like that? Interesting take, I still am very uncomfortable with any claims to one group being the “chosen group” even if there’s some sort of humanitarian model. I just think it’s an unhelpful way to view the world.
With regards to your second point about Jericho, as you can probably expect, I’m going to take the former position. I tend to think that if God is truly loving and just, then he’ll forgive me for calling out injustice where I see it, even if I’m wrong and even if he’s the one committing the injustice. If God can’t forgive me for not understanding the 4D chess he was playing, then he truly is the petulant, unreasonable child that folks like Dawkins and Harris have described him as and there’s not much I can do to please him anyway. That’s my view anyway, I’d rather be wrong on the side of humanity than accidentally right on the side of seeming injustice.
And as to your last point, I have a hard time believing it. If God is all powerful couldn’t he have come up with a way to serve the greater good of the body of humanity without amputating Jericho? Without killing women and children?
I would also like to put forward a different way of looking at the OT which I’m sure would be blasphemy to most Christians but it’s something I actually believed when I was in the faith. I did not believe that the Bible was a special book as most Christians do. In a sense, I thought it was special since it was the historical evidence for the miracles and the existence of Christ, but I didn’t believe that it was “God breathed” as many people say. The OT, then, isn’t necessarily a set of facts about God and it’s possible that the OT depicts God through the lens of the God that the Israelites wanted to exist. This is why God seems to ordain all of the Israelites conquests and forgive all of their blunders and it’s why the Israelites are the chosen people. Naturally, this is what I think, but I don’t think this view necessarily contradicts Christianity. I think you could still believe that Christ is God but not necessarily tether yourself to every single word in the Bible.
Anyways, those are my thoughts, looking forward to hear what you think!
I agree with your overall perspective, ie:
I still hear you saying that your biggest problem with the Bible is that it doesn’t jive with how you think God should operate. I think God’s probably more than OK with you/forgiving/etc regardless of what you believe, but to my original point – if there is a God, and it decided to reveal itself via some book, how could you agree with it all? How could it possibly jive with your/my point of view?