INTRO: Matthew 5:1-9 has been read for us this morning. I did not introduce our subject in this beatitude by defining peace, but rather by dealing with a major misunderstanding regarding the idea of ‘peacemakers’. We said that peacemaking and peacekeeping are two very different things and I said I believe that difference is on the view each takes of the importance of truth. Peacekeeping, is a major problem of almost all people of good will no matter of what religion or in what country. Let us begin this morning by way of introduction, by defining peace. I have defined peace as the absence of friction. Joseph Webb and John MacArthur say it is more than that. It is the presence of righteousness and holiness. The Hebrew word for ‘peace’ is shalom. The TWOT says, “shalom means ‘absence of strife’ in approximately fifty to sixty usages; e.g. 1 Kgs 4:25 [H 5:4] reflects the safety of the nation in the peaceful days of Solomon when the land and its neighbors had been subdued. ‘Peace,’ in this case, means much more than the absence of war. Rather, the root meaning of the verb shalem better expresses the true concept of shalom. Completeness, wholeness, harmony, fulfillment, are closer to the meaning. Implicit in shalom is the idea of unimpaired relationships with others and fulfillment in one’s undertakings.â€
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