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“If it be possible, as much as in you lieth, be at peace with all men.”

Ok.  I hear the meaning of this passage loud and clear.  Some passages in the Bible are not easily divided in their meaning.  But this is certainly not the case here.  Or is it?

Men are corrupt by their very nature.  We can’t know all things, so we often get involved with things we don’t understand.  On top of that, there are millions of men who plot to gain the upper hand every moment of every day.  Then we have those who decide to refrain from fighting all together.  Somehow we are expected to make sense of these things and learn to live at peace with everyone?  Not really.

There are moments of clarity we all receive.  There are situations which demand that we take a stand against the desires of another.  I’m not talking about judging others here.  But we all have faced a situation or thousand, in which, we were expected to simply cow tow and shut up, take it on the chin….. and other weird responses to evil.

I could go into detail about our responses to such things.  I could use a million examples to help any reader come to an understanding about how to live at peace with others.  But who would read it?  And even if they would read forty billion words typed, who could live it?  Any situation encountered would surely have a subtle difference from any example I could come up with.  So I will use common sense here and simply say that, “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.”  (James 1: 5)

Who can navigate the morass of human expectations?  And the more people involved, the worse it gets (if that is possible).  And what shall we say if the world begins to take on “good deeds” without Christ Jesus at the helm?  How do we hope to please all men?  We simply can’t.  That is why we are given the perfect wisdom of God; so that we can maneuver through this world without getting caught in the stupidity of the world’s perplexing puzzles.

If you want to please everyone, you’re welcome to try.  But you’ll quickly become nothing more than a stick in the path.  And someone will surely come along and kick you out of the way.  We are compelled to stand strong for certain things.  The answer to all this ends up where it starts:  God.

By His Grace.