the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Language Studies
Greek Thoughts
eirenopoios - ειρηνοποιος (Strong's #1518)
A founder or promoter of peace
This week we continue our word study of the beatitudes by examining the seventh beatitude of the Sermon on the Mount: "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called sons of God" (Matthew 5:9). The Greek word ειρηνοποιος (Strong's #1518) is an obscure word found only here in the Greek New Testament. The word literally signifies: "a founder or promoter of peace," hence, "peacemaker." Meyer defines this term as: "the founders of peace."F1 Vincent adds: "peacemakers; the founders and promoters of peace."F2 The first question that comes to mind is, what is this peace of which the Lord speaks and who are the peacemakers? If we examine this beatitude in the same light as we have the others it is readily apparent that Jesus is not referring to the role of an arbiter, or to arbitration, or to settling differences between individuals. The peacemaker of whom Christ refers is not one who settles disagreements and disputes of others. This beatitude is a passage on reconciliation and sonship to God and involves the Biblical premise of peace with God. Our heavenly Father is the God of peace (Romans 16:20; 2 Corinthians 13:11). All peace originates with God through Christ (Luke 2:14; John 16:33) and was first preached by the Lord. To the Ephesians Paul wrote: "For he is our peace, who made both one, and brake down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in the flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; that he might create in himself of the two one new man, so making peace; and might reconcile them both in one body unto God through the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: and he came and preached peace to you that were far off, and peace to them that were nigh" (Ephesians 2:14-17). To the household of Cornelius the apostle Peter proclaimed: "The word which he sent unto the children of Israel, preaching good tidings of peace by Jesus Christ (He is Lord of all.)" (Acts 10:36). The peacemaker is therefore, one who seeks the peace of God through Christ, and as the Lord's disciple, is a preacher or messenger of God's peace to others. Paul said: "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!" (Romans 10:15).
This beatitude refers to the peace that comes through being justified by faith in Christ. Paul wrote: "Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1). In the Messiah's kingdom we are "called sons of God" by the peace of reconciliation through the blood of the cross. To the Colossians Paul penned: "For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in him should all the fulness dwell; and through him to reconcile all things unto himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross; through him, I say, whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens" (Colossians 1:19,20). Thus, the seventh beatitude refers to the peace of reconciliation to God. The peacemaker is therefore one who seeks the founder of peace in Jesus, the Messiah, and becomes a promoter of peace by preaching or heralding the message of the gospel of peace to a lost and dying world. He is the disciple of the Lord who seeks reconciliation with God and shares the peace of sonship to God with others by telling them how to be reconciled to God. Jesus taught that sonship with God is a relation which begins with one's reception into the Messiah's kingdom (cp. Matthew 5:9,44,45; Luke 6:35). John describes this relationship as being begotten by God (1 John 2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:1,4,18), whereas, the apostle Paul describes our sonship as adoption (Romans 8:14,19,23; Galatians 4:5; Ephesians 1:5). As sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:26), we are said to "have shod our feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace" (Eph. 6:15). Thus, peacemaking is bringing the peace of God through the gospel of Christ that the disciple of the Lord has experienced to his fellow man. It is an act of love and kindness which we are to lend to others (Luke 6:35). Once again, as in the previous beatitudes, this one balances with the gospel of Christ and occupies a place of sequence in the order of the beatitudes as a necessary principle of the gospel dispensation in the Messiah's kingdom, His church.
FOOTNOTES:
F1: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer, TH.D., Critical and Exegetical Handbook To The Gospel of Matthews, vol. 1 (Peabody, Massachusetts, 1983 reprint of 6th edition of 1884), pg., 115.
F2: M.R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament, Vol. I (Florida: MacDonald Publishing Company, reprint of 2nd edition 1888), pg., 30.
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Bill Klein has been a pastor, counselor, and educator for the past 41 years. He has had extensive training and education in biblical languages, and has authored a Biblical Greek course.
He is currently serving as Professor of Biblical Greek at Master's Graduate School of Divinity, and president of BTE Ministries - The Bible Translation and Exegesis Institute of America, a non-profit organization located in California that provides Bible study tapes and Greek study materials through their website BTEMinistries.org.
