The wisdom from above is peaceable. John Calvin said that this was to teach the church that wisdom is “not contentious.” Wisdom from above reflects the wisdom of God—He is not contentious, but is the great peacemaker. Wisdom seeks to make peace in the home, in the community, and in the church. Wisdom seeks to reflect the actions of God.

Peace is more than just absence from war or conflict. Peace is active, God-centered, needs the resurrection, and seeks to reorder the effects of the fall all around us.

Peace is active and must be rooted in a biblical definition of peace. Peace begins with God’s authority and power over His creatures. For wisdom to be peaceable, the wise man or woman must subject him or herself not to the wisdom of this world, but to the wisdom of God, which is the wisdom of knowing the Scriptures and properly applying them.

Peaceableness has a God-centered desire to see wholeness, reconciliation, and satisfaction in Him. There is no peaceableness without considering the peace that God brings into relationships through the reconciling death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

One who makes peace—or demonstrates the peaceable wisdom of God—seeks to bring back the order God intends in whatever realm of life where there is no peace: peace between man and God, peace with self, peace with other persons that have offended you or sinned against you, and peace within the church or community. Biblical wisdom would seek to have these relationships rightly ordered according to the Scriptures.

While Calvin said that this wisdom is not contentious (demonstrating a likelihood of causing an argument or controversy), this does not mean wisdom is without struggle or conflict. Peaceableness is active and difficult work. Often people will view peace as the refusal to seek to do what makes people uncomfortable or that which causes the least amount of conflict. That is not the wisdom from above; nor is it peaceableness. Spinelessness is not peaceable; that merely drives the conflict underground for a season. The Christian is not called to merely keep peace, but, in the words of Jesus, to make peace (Matt. 5:9). There’s a big difference between keeping and making. One could argue that the whole of the Cold War was a time of peacekeeping, but not until the difficult work between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev could peace be made. The wisdom from above works at peace. Peaceableness is laboring in wisdom towards something.

As you seek the wisdom from above, how can you live in such a way that this peaceableness is seen in your life?

Peacableness must begin by faith. The Puritan Thomas Watson said, “Faith and peace keep house together. Faith believes the Word of God….And as soon as faith sees the king of heaven’s warrant, it obeys” (The Beatitudes).

You are called to live at peace by faith. You must have the faith that says, “God has called me to peace, and I will walk by faith and seek to make peace, for His glory.”

Peaceableness is promoted when you increase in your love for the church. Jesus has given you the church as the incubator for you to increase in your wisdom and peaceableness. You are called to live out redemption alongside others who will offend you and challenge you and sometimes really hurt you. The peaceable Christian has the wisdom to navigate this and to make peace. The church is the perfect place to practice peacemaking. We are called to love one another, to be kind to one another, and to commune with one another. We are called to seek one another’s good and to live at peace within the church. There is wisdom in genuine Christian unity.

Peaceableness demonstrates charitable judgment. The judgment of charity says that you are to think the best about others and to interpret their actions in the best light possible. It is being charitable in your judgments to and about others. This is the primer for peace. This is the grease that will make peace turn. The judgment of charity is wisdom in action. When you think the best of others, you will be more likely to reconcile and to make peace sooner rather than later.

Peaceableness utilizes prayer. We are called to pray in the Scriptures for both a spirit of peace and this wisdom from above. James tells us that God grants wisdom to those who ask. Solomon was right in asking for wisdom rather than riches.

We must be men and women, boys and girls who desire peaceable wisdom—and prayer is the way to attain both of those in the Scriptures. Look to Christ, seeking wisdom from above, for peace within your soul.

Again in The Beatitudes, Thomas Watson said, in the church “we should not as vultures prey one upon another, but pray one for another. Pray that God will quench the fire of contention and kindle the fire of compassion in our hearts one to another.”

The wisdom from above is peaceable. That active peace requires the Christian to seek peace in the home, church, and community. Peaceableness will result in seeing the glory of God expand in your life. Seek that wisdom from above—be a man or woman of peaceableness.

Dr. Nathan Eshelman | Los Angeles, Calif., RPC