Read:

“Salt is good, but if the salt should lose its flavor, how can you season it? Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”
-Mark 9:50

Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to live worthy of the calling you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope at your calling—
-Ephesians 4:1-4

If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
-Romans 12:18

Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to give recognition to those who labor among you and lead you in the Lord and admonish you, and to regard them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. 
1 Thessalonians 5:12-13

Several years ago I was looking over my daughter’s world history review sheet, and it struck me that most of the major markers in history are wars. That realization arrested me, so I thought I would do a little investigation (googling). According to a 2003 NY Times article, in the last 3,400 years, the world has been at peace for only 268 of them.

It seems strange to me, then, that we live in a culture obsessed with getting along with one another. With humanity’s track record, the fact that we could ever imagine we could have peace is a little crazy. Yet, after every political cycle, the media lights up with renewed calls for leaders to work together. No one wants this, of course, if it means compromising their own points of view, methodology, or opinions. Instead, what is meant by “work together” or “get along” is "come to my side and abandon yours”. The reason I point this out is to demonstrate that everyone says they want to be at peace with others, but no one really seems to know how to make that happen. Our shared history is evidence that, as far as it depends on us, we cannot figure out how to create what we say we want—genuine, lasting peace.

Remember what we said shalom is— well-being, safety, completion, wholeness. To understand why we can’t seem to be at peace with one another, why we can’t create our own wholeness, imagine that every person is a puzzle that is missing a piece. If I try to make myself whole by taking a piece from you, you are left incomplete. In the end, you and I would keep wrestling over pieces to complete ourselves. That’s why the world can’t sustain genuine peace, because we are all incomplete puzzles stealing pieces from one another to complete ourselves.

We need outside help. We need Someone else to make us whole, to provide the pieces to our incomplete puzzles.

We learned yesterday that Jesus came to make peace between God and mankind. For those who receive his offer and enter into the peace treaty by the blood of Jesus, there is additional benefit. The shalom that you and I enjoy with God affects every aspect of our lives, because when Jesus makes me whole, sets me at shalom, I don’t need to take your puzzle pieces anymore. And when He makes you whole, you don’t need to take mine.

Don’t get me wrong. Peace with God is enmity with the world. Pledging allegiance to the Prince of Shalom is declaring open hostility with the prince of the power of the air. BUT those in the Kingdom of God can live differently than the rest of the world. We can live at peace with one another, as in, we can be one whole body. Don’t you see? The church is the only place where men and women, rich and poor, educated and illiterate, noble and humble, Duke and Carolina fans can all sit shoulder to shoulder in unity, not opposition! Being in Christ is the only place where mortal enemies are remade into bothers and sisters.

Shalom is a scandal to the world.

With whom are you in conflict right now? As far as it depends on you, seek peace with your brothers and sisters in Christ. It may mean having some long, painful conversations. It might mean counseling. Whatever it takes, seek to be at peace with other believers. It’s salt to the onlooking world.

Pray: Jesus, even now bring to mind the face of one with whom I am not a peace. Show me what is mine to do to restore unity in the bonds of peace and when I have done all you command, let me rest in the wholeness you provide. Forbid that I should rob from someone else to fill what I perceive as my own holes rather than resting in the wholeness that is mine now and forever in You, Risen King.