God hath called us to peace

1 Corinthians 7:15

“…but God hath called us to peace.”

If there is one thing we learn from the seventh chapter of 1 Corinthians, we learn that every man and every woman has his own individual calling of God. We are to abide in the same calling wherewith we are called. If a person is called to be single, they are to abide in that. If they are to be married, that is God’s gift and calling to them. Every one has his “proper gift” of God. We should not despise others who have a different gift, nor should we boast that we know what their gift is. But all of these things aside, we see as clearly as the noonday that there is one common calling to which all of us belong. We are called to peace! Is there strife in a marriage? God has not called us to that! Are we defrauding one another, disrespecting and hurting each other? This has not originated with the Lord. He has not commanded such, neither could it be His holy will. For He has called us to peace!

How do marriages remain intact? How do friendships not falter and fail? How do brothers and sisters in Christ keep the bond of their faith, and their love for one another? It will come by striving for peace with each other. Follow peace with all men, says the great epistle to the Hebrews. As much as lieth in you, says Paul, live peaceably with all men. Be at peace among yourselves is the commandment of the Lord. We must endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Peace is a bond—a glue, an adhesive binding agent that makes a body of many members to be one functioning body, and not a divided body. We must be at peace! For this is God’s calling on our lives.

“Dear Lord, we thank you for the lesson we have received today concerning our peace with others. And we pray that as we enter the House of God, and as we converse and fellowship with brothers and sisters in the flesh and in the Lord, let us be reminded that we are called to peace. With our husbands and with our wives, with our children and with our parents; with every member of our physical and our spiritual family, help us to do those things which make for peace. This is one of the fruits that comes from your Spirit. Therefore, let us live in peace with others this day. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”