Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called Sons of God.

Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.  Matthew 5:9-12 HCSB

The song, Coward of the County was written by Roger Bowling and Billy Ed Wheeler.  It was recorded by Kenny Rogers and released in 1979 and is one of his biggest hits.  The song speaks of a young man that tried to live peaceably and for doing so was considered to be a coward.

Romans 12:17 tells us not to repay anyone evil for evil, but to try to do what is honorable in the eyes of everyone.  Romans 12:18 tells us to live at peace with everyone to the best of our ability.  Romans 12:19 tells us that the job of vengeance belongs to the Lord and we should leave that to Him.

Our scripture passage today is a part of the Sermon on the Mount and a part of scripture passage called the Beatitudes.  Our pastor tells us we can remember it as Christ telling His disciples the way we should all be or how Christians should live.

In verse 5 of Matthew chapter 5, it says blessed are the gentle for they shall inherit the earth.  In Matthew 5:39 we are told to resist evil people and from this scripture passage we get the term, “turn the other cheek”.

So if you take these scripture passages you can say that God wants us to be doormats and just ignore it when others hurt us or the ones we love. Basically we should live as the character Tommy did in the song.  But what happens when we ignore problems?  Well, sadly they usually don’t go away, they get bigger.  There are evil people in this world that mistake kindness for weakness.  They believe that because we are Christians and we try to do our best to exhibit Christian behavior and imitate our savior, that we will just lay there and allow them to walk all over us.  Now my husband’s favorite scripture passage is when Jesus got angry and began turning over tables in the temple and making whips from cords  (Matthew 21:12, John 2:15).  In these passages, Jesus exhibited what is called righteous anger.  His anger was because of what they were doing against God the Father and God’s house.  They were disrespecting God and His temple.  So this tells us that when someone is coming against God we have an absolute right to handle the problem.

But let’s face it, most of the time when we get angry, it is because someone came against us directly or heaven forbid came against a loved one.  So are we to just ignore this and hope it goes away.  Well, let’s look at it this way.  If someone breaks into your house and points a gun at you are you going to ignore it and hope it goes away?  Probably not.  I hope that you will be able to put the whole fight or flight response into motion.  Now when people come against us by saying things they shouldn’t say and doing things they shouldn’t do, it’s not life threatening, but it is witness threatening.  Our witness is very important.  So how do we handle things in a way that is Christ like and can keep our witness in tact? How can we handle things in a way that doesn’t have our non-Christian acquaintances looking at us and saying, “See, I told you she was just a big hypocrite!”?  Now the person you confront may say that anyway, but if you handle it the right way and you please God with your response, this is all that really matters.

So how would God have us handle problems with other people.  Well, I am glad you asked.  The answer is found in Matthew 18:15-20.  Yes, the book of Matthew is chocked full of good information for how we should live!  In Matthew 18:15-20 we are told to go to our brother in private if we have a problem with them.  It goes on to say that if they won’t listen to you in private to then go with 2-3 more.  And if that still doesn’t work to bring them before the church.  Now often times the person you have a problem with may not have darkened the door of a church in years, but you get what Jesus is saying here.  He doesn’t say that we should run around gossiping about what a horrible person they are.  He doesn’t say that we should grab a bat and beat them severely.  He tells us to try our best to handle it one on one.  Of course, we would hope that this would resolve things.  It may or it may not, but at least you have handled it as Jesus has instructed us to do.

There is no place in the Bible that says that we should be doormats for others to trample on.  In fact in my favorite Psalm, 91,  verse 13 tells us that we shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, that we shall trample them underfoot.

We are called to be warriors for Christ!  We are to do our best to keep the peace.  We are not to avenge ourselves, but nothing says we are to be trampled on.  We are to forgive those that trespass against us, just as Christ forgives us.

Sometimes, just as David was called to confront Goliath (1 Samuel 17:1-58), we are called to confront certain people or situations in our lives.  I encourage you to go into this confrontation in prayer and address it as Christ would have you to address it.  Do your best to align yourself with God’s will.  Remember, when we do what God is calling us to do He has our back.

Have a great day!