Portrait of a Peacemaker

Natural, human wisdom takes our natural, childish responses and dresses them up like wisdom. But it’s still driven by selfish pride. Wisdom from God is first of all pure (because the moment we disobey God, we are not operating in wisdom), and then peaceable, which is the main point of the passage. The rest of the descriptions (gentle, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and sincere) are tools in the peacemaker’s toolbox. If we so a little bit of peace, we will reap a great deal of righteousness. Instead of a fight or flight response to conflict, we should have a peacemaking response by overlooking, or using the Matthew 18 process, or pulling in a third party. Peace is tremendously important to God.