Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Mat 5:9

Christ the Peacemaker, Christ the Peace-giver, Christ who is to be yet the King of universal peace, is the Christ we worship and serve; and this threefold peace—the peace that Christ has wrought for us in reconciling us to God, the peace that Christ works in our hearts as we believe in Him, the perfect peace He will yet bring to a restored world and a rejoicing Church—makes the faith and the hope and the joy of the Church now. We not only believe in and enjoy and look for this peace, but we are or ought to be engaged in making it now on earth. That is the description He Himself gives of His Church. The text is the one beatitude of all the seven which pictures for us the Church of Christ in action; and the one distinctive work, the great thing Christ has given in charge to His Church to do on earth, is to make peace. "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God."

While Christ bids His Church be a peacemaker in the world, He marks her out also to be the Church militant here on earth. Now this double character, this character of warlike-ness and peacefulness, is not only stamped upon the Church by Christ Himself in her history, but we see it in His own life. Never was there such a peacemaker; and never, on the other hand, was there such a warrior; never was there one who spoke so sternly as a prophet, so sharply and resolutely as a judge, so keenly, so searchingly and provocatively as a reformer, as Christ our Lord, Christ the Warrior, whose warfare is as a consuming fire; Christ the Peacemaker, whose words are all tenderness and love.

The mission and purpose of Christ in this world was the destruction of all evil. All evil, whether it be evil of error or whether it be the evil of sin in practice, opposes itself to the mission and purpose of Christ and His Church, and must be removed if that mission is to succeed. Christianity is necessarily an intolerant religion, and as such it provokes strife, and as such we must not fear to provoke it. And yet we, in our warfare for truth, have need to remember that we are also peacemakers. If we honestly desire truth and hate error, then we must honestly recognize truth wherever we meet it. We must take heed lest with our statement of the truth we provoke and intensify, by any fault in our statement, by any error in our conception of it, the very error that we are warring against. The Church in her dealing with error is to be ever militant as her Master was, ever to be peace-loving, peace-bringing, peace-seeking, even as He was too, and for His sake.  (Bishop Magee, The Family Churchman, March 2nd, 1887)

​There are many doors into the life of blessedness. It does not depend on outward possessions, such as worldly goods or high birth. There is no soul of man, however illiterate, lonely, or poor, that may not step suddenly into this life of beatitude and begin to drink of the river that makes glad the city of God. Our Lord lived this life before He described it. He has opened the doors for us. If you cannot enter by the gate of purity, can you not come in by that which is reserved for those who hunger and thirst?
Note the passive side of the blessed life. To be poor in spirit, that is, to be lowly in one’s self-estimate; to be meek, not always interested in one’s rights; to mourn for the evils of one’s own heart and for the sin and sorrow around; to hunger and thirst after Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. These dispositions do not purchase blessedness, but to cultivate them is to be blessed. On the positive side are mercy, purity, peace and willingness to suffer all things for Christ.  (F.B. Meyer)

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Rom 8:1

The contrast of Paul’s past bondage and present liberty proves that he is not now condemned. He remembers the time when, in spite of his better judgment, he did the bidding of sin. He now does the bidding of the Spirit of God. He finds that he is free from the bondage of sin only as he follows the guidance of the Spirit, and therefore infers that the guidance of the Spirit has made him free. He knows that his liberation came through Christ’s death, and he enjoys it to-day by resting upon Christ. His freedom is therefore God’s gift, and a proof of God’s forgiveness. Just so a prisoner, whose prison doors have been opened by the king’s command, has in his past imprisonment and present freedom a proof of pardon. Whereas the freedom of a law-breaker who has never been apprehended is no such proof. There are thousands to-day to whom every doubt about their present salvation is banished by a remembrance of their former bondage to sin and fruitless efforts to do right. Since Paul’s liberation took place in Christ, he has a right to infer that all who are in Christ have been set free, and are therefore no longer condemned. Thus the law, by making us conscious of our bondage, not only drives us to Christ, but furnishes to those who believe an abiding proof of God’s favor. (Beet)

Abiding in Christ

THE APOSTLE here is dealing with the conditions of a holy life; and the condemnation to which he refers is that caused by the constant failure so graphically described in the previous chapter. From my own experience, I think that the introspection which is often induced by ill-health and weakness makes us very sensitive to the failure and shortcoming of the inner life. We know that we are accepted in Christ, and that our sins are forgiven us for His sake; but we are deeply conscious that in us (i.e. in our flesh) dwelleth no good thing from. Rom_7:18).
The Reservoir of Eternal Life.—"the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus." We perceive what physical life is when a child comes bounding into our room in a very ecstasy of health and joy. We know what intellectual life is as we see the mind developing under the process of education. We know what the moral life of a stoic is, repelling by force of will the appeal of the senses. But above all these, there is Life which is resident in Jesus Christ, stored in Him, abounding in Him, which He longs to communicate to every soul that trusts in Him. This was the witness of those who knew Jesus most intimately in His brief human life—that "God hath given unto us Eternal Life, and this Life is in His Son." "He that hath the Son hath the Life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not the Life." This more than outweighs the down-pull of the self-life. The law of that life makes us free from the law of sin and death, for it has mastered death and the grave.
This Life is communicated and sustained by the Holy Spirit. We must be one with Christ; we must be in Him, as the sponge is in the ocean. We must be in Him, not only in our standing, but also in our daily walk. We must be in Him as the branch is in the vine, and the vine-sap in the branch. And this must not only be a theory, but an hourly experience. We must abide in Him and He in us. But how can this become our daily experience? There is but one way. Through the co-operation of the Holy Spirit, as we walk in Him (Gal_5:16). He is the essence of the Life which is in Christ Jesus. "The Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death."  (Our Daily Walk)

​When I was in Havana there was one evening a great row in the streets, and a man was killed. Every one ran away except an Englishman, who did not see why he should run off, but stopped to do what he could for the wounded man. The city was then, as it often is, under martial law, and in a few minutes a party of soldiers came up and walked the Englishman off. He was tried then and there by a sort of drum-head court-martial, and condemned to be shot the next morning at eight o’clock. He managed to get the news conveyed to the English consul, and at a quarter to eight o’clock next morning the consul appeared in his coach-and-four, uniform, cocked hat and sword, all his orders on, etc. The shooting party was drawn out, and the prisoner was there too. The consul walked up to the officer commanding the party, and demanded the life of his countryman. “Very sorry,” said the officer, “but I must carry out my orders”; and he showed the warrant signed by the governor. “Well,” said the consul, “at least you’ll allow me to shake hands with him before he dies.” “I can’t refuse that,” was the reply. On which the consul stepped up to the Englishman, put his hand into his breast-coat pocket, drew out a union-jack, unfolded it, threw it over the man, and then said, “There, now; fire if you dare!” The lieutenant was staggered, the matter was referred to the governor, and the Englishman was saved. The man covered with the union-jack was saved. In Christ Jesus we are free from condemnation. “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died.”  (Expositor's Bible)

They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.  Luk 8:13

​The field, like many a one in hilly country, had places where the hard pan of underlying rock had only a thin skin of earth over it. Its very thinness helped quick germination, for the rock was near enough to the surface to get heated by the sun. So, with undesirable rapidity, growth began, and shoots appeared above ground before there was root enough made below to nourish them. There was only one possible end for such premature growth-namely, withering in the heat. No moisture was to be drawn from the shelf of rock, and the sun was beating fiercely down, so the feeble green stem drooped and was wilted.
​
It is the type of emotional hearers, who are superficially touched by the Gospel, and too easily receive it, without understanding what is involved. They take it for theirs ‘with joy,’ but are strangers to the deep exercises of penitence and sorrow which should precede the joy. ‘Lightly come, lightly go,’ is true in Christian life as elsewhere. Converts swiftly made are quickly lost. True, the most thorough and permanent change may be a matter of a moment; but, if so, into that moment emotions will be compressed like a great river forced through a mountain gorge, which will do the work of years.

Such surface converts fringe all religious revivals. The crowd listening to our Lord was largely made up of them. These were they who, when a ground of offence arose, ‘went back, and walked no more with Him.’ They have had their successors in all subsequent times of religious movement. Light things are caught up by the wind of a passing train, but they soon drop to the ground again. Emotion is good, if there are roots to it. But ‘these have no root.’ The Gospel has not really touched the depths of their natures, their wills, their reason, and so they shrivel up when they have to face the toil and self-sacrifice inherent in a Christian life.  (Alexander MacLaren)

"As seed falling on the thin soil on top of the rocky places quickly springs up and then quickly withers and dies (Luk_8:6), so some respond to the word with immediate enthusiasm yet soon wither away.

They had good seed, they had a warm environment, they had a joyful reception of the word, and they received it eagerly. None of those things were the problem; they failed because the seed lacked moisture (Luk_8:6) and therefore had no root to endure the time of temptation.

There was something that they did not have in connection with the spirit of God, who waters the word. “When we speak of spiritual dew, we refer to the operation of the Holy Spirit. When we talk of the river of the water of life, we mean those sacred things which come streaming down to us from the throne of God through the working of the Spirit of God.”

“We need the Holy Spirit; and if the Lord does not water us daily from the living springs on the hilltops of glory, we shall certainly die. So take heed, brothers and sisters, that you do not lack the moisture of the Holy Spirit’s gracious influence.” (Spurgeon)

And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the
remission of sins; As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying,
The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight. Luk 3:3-4
​Admission to the Kingdom

The evangelist sets an emperor, a governor, two high priests, and three tetrarchs in a few lines, as of very subordinate interest, compared with the one man, the child of the desert, whose coming dated a new era and to whom he devotes the remainder of the chapter. After all, it is religious men who really make the history of mankind.
“The word of God came unto John the Baptist… and he came.” That is the true order. Get your message and then come. It is often in the wilderness of life that God’s words find us. The man who is going to master men must first master the appetites of his own body. If you seek popularity, you will lose it; if you seek to do God’s will, men will almost certainly come to find you. Souls require a clear pane of glass, when they look out on the infinite expanse of the sky! Be real! Live at first-hand with eternal truth! Fear not the face of man!  (F.B. Meyer)

Note: I would only add to this- I believe this devotional commentary can be applied to very serious believer in Christ in this day we are living in now. Whether it be a man, woman, young and old alike. Be real walk the walk and talk the talk. Put away all appearance of double-mindedness, put away sin, and walk with Jesus each day, make Him the rock you stand on, and who you put your trust in. There's nothing in this world that's going to last. It's all being exposed for what it is- fading away. Jesus is the only way out of this world, and into eternity with Him.
Yes, people may come to find you, for a season. But, do not be surprised if they also leave you, when persecution and trouble comes your way. John the baptist knew the same fate as Jesus', before he went to the cross, being beheaded for confronting Herod for marrying Herodious, his brother's wife.
It may cost you everything to follow Jesus. You may not have a great following of people. Your faith may be sorely tried, as Peter came to be tried, and failed when Jesus stood before his accuser's; he denied him three times, just as Jesus said he would. But, even through that Jesus did not forsake him. After he rose from the dead, he sought Peter out, and restored him. Many down through time, have come to know the sting of being tried by fire, and come away knowing the gut-wrenching truth about ourselves-without Jesus we can do nothing. But, we have two choices in this life- either Christ, or Satan, heaven with Christ, or hell with the devil-and the bottomless pit. Everyone is going to die, choose who you will serve before it happens.
Wherever you may be right now, it's never too late to turn around and turn to Jesus, and make him Lord and Savior of your life. Today is the day of salvation, no one is gauranteed tomorrow.
Then pick up your cross, and follow Him, wherever He may lead.

The voice crying in the wilderness demanded a way for the Lord, a way prepared, and a way prepared in the wilderness. I would be attentive to the Master's proclamation, and give him a road into my heart, cast up by gracious operations, through the desert of my nature. The four directions in the text must have my serious attention.
Every valley must be exalted. Low and grovelling thoughts of God must be given up; doubting and despairing must be removed; and self-seeking and carnal delights must be forsaken. Across these deep valleys a glorious causeway of grace must be raised.
Every mountain and hill shall be laid low. Proud creature-sufficiency, and boastful self-righteousness, must be levelled, to make a highway for the King of kings. Divine fellowship is never vouchsafed to haughty, highminded sinners. The Lord hath respect unto the lowly, and visits the contrite in heart, but the lofty are an abomination unto him. My soul, beseech the Holy Spirit to set thee right in this respect.
The crooked shall be made straight. The wavering heart must have a straight path of decision for God and holiness marked out for it. Double-minded men are strangers to the God of truth. My soul, take heed that thou be in all things honest and true, as in the sight of the heart-searching God.
The rough places shall be made smooth. Stumbling-blocks of sin must be removed, and thorns and briers of rebellion must be uprooted. So great a visitor must not find miry ways and stony places when he comes to honour his favoured ones with his company. Oh that this evening the Lord may find in my heart a highway made ready by his grace, that he may make a triumphal progress through the utmost bounds of my soul, from the beginning of this year even to the end of it.
​(Evening devotion-Charles Spurgeon)