A Mission for Peacemaking and Goodwill
An angel offered good news of great joy which shall be to all people, at the announcement of Christ’s birth, (Luke 2:10). A heavenly host of angels praised God saying: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. (Luke 2:14)
Christ made peace on earth and extended goodwill to men by His death on the cross (Rom 5:8). The great joy to all people means Christ reached out with impartiality. He instructed His followers to sacrifice themselves similarly (Luke 9:23).
Peace on earth is accomplished by peacemakers (Matt 5:9) who are called sons of God. Psalm 82 describes sons of God as those who “…Defend the poor and fatherless; do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy; save them out of the hand of the wicked…”
(Psalm 82:3-4)
Have you ever felt compelled to help someone in destitution, but you were afraid that the person in need would take your efforts for granted? The Bible has a remedy for your concerns of being exploited for your generosity. This remedy is defined as gleaning laws in Deuteronomy 23:24-25 and Deuteronomy 24:19-22.
St. John 5:46 says that the Old Testament is giving us instructions of how to follow Jesus. Modern Christians seem to overlook this point.
The Lord compels us to reach the destitute in Luke 10:37, Luke 16:8, Deut 24:19-22, Matt 25:40.
At the same time, He compels the recipient of compassion to take action with the resources (Deut 23:24-25) and to avoid dereliction (Luke 16:10-12, Matt 25:24-30).
Using the example from the Parable of the Unjust Steward, Luke 16:8-13, Wisdom’s House offered compassion to fathers in Malawi with the Malawi Light Project.
We developed some biblical guidelines for peacemaking and goodwill from our experiences of this important mission from the passages above.
