Should peace be our highest priority?

I come across a lot of people who sum up their religious beliefs with one word - love. “Just love your neighbor as yourself” they say, “and you'll have all your boxes checked when it comes to religion.”
Much of the time what they think this love should look like has more to do with being a man or woman of “peace”, as in “don’t rock the boat, don’t make waves, keep your opinions to yourself, accept the beliefs of others as equally valid, be nice and agreeable, and above all, don’t speak with any kind of authority about your own faith”.
This emphasis on peace was the first thought that came to mind for a friendly guy named Michael whom I met in a parking lot outreach conversation. Mike is a churchgoer, but it was hard to tell from his initial comments about the importance of peace and universally accepting all religions.
In talking religion and politics, especially in a time of war, this emphasis on peace can be especially popular, but is that what Jesus meant by his Golden Rule?
We often conveniently forget that Jesus’ command to love thy neighbor was the second of two commands that sum up God’s law, the first being to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” And toward the end of his time on earth, Jesus further explained what that love for God is to look like - “If you love me, keep my commands”.
Keeping Jesus commands goes far beyond summing them up with a single, all encompassing word such as love, or peace, leaving only ourselves in charge to figure out what that might look like in any given situation. It means regularly and prayerfully studying God’s word, building our faith and growing in our confidence and ability to apply it to the different circumstances God places us in.
And it means growing in our authority to speak God’s word to a world that desperately needs to hear it, but so often desperately tries to reject it to the point that to speak God’s truth means we will be doing anything but bringing peace.
But we can bring that truth in love, even if our hearers don’t think so, and with the confidence that we are also bringing peace in the long run, a peace that passes all understanding, peace with God and peace between God’s people in God’s kingdom.
Jesus’ greatest command to his followers, often called our Great Commission, was given in all four Gospels and the book of Acts for emphasis. It is our marching orders to go, to be witnesses, make disciples, baptize and teach by his authority. And in this rebellious world this means we will often have to be anything but peaceful.
But in John’s Gospel we are given a special assurance: that in doing so we will indeed find peace - ““Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”
It may be the kind of peace that can only exist in the eye of a storm, but it is the peace that comes through Jesus' authority and the Holy Spirit that the world needs to see right now.
Thanks Michael, for allowing me to record our conversation. It can be seen at • Should peace be our hi... on my KZbin channel.

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Hey Jeff! Missing you at Prog Christ Global! Well, I'll share rhis one there. Hope you're well in this UN world in Jezus' living legacy! God bless you in Jezus' name, and I say Buddha, Gandhi, and interfaith for Jesus!