May 14 2026

Thursday May 14

Blessed Are the Peacemakers

Philippians 2:3-4; Psalm 15:3

Welcome to Pastor's Chat. Today we’ve been looking at Philippians chapter 2, where the Apostle Paul is encouraging the church at Philippi to live in unity, to have unity of spirit as they fellowship with one another. The only way they can do that is, as he says in verse 4, to “let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.” In the previous verse, he talked about having “lowliness of mind and letting each esteem others better than themselves” (v. 3).

As we were thinking about that, our minds went to Psalm chapter 15, a great psalm that teaches us the character of a man who walks with God, who enjoys fellowship with God, who enjoys fellowship with other believers, and who lives a life of peace in his relationships with others.

Today, we are looking at Psalm 15:3b, where the psalmist writes, “Nor does evil to his neighbor, nor does he take up a reproach against his neighbor.” Remember, the first part of verse 3a, that we talked about yesterday, “He that does not backbite with his tongue”—in other words, he is not a gossip or a slanderer.

Here the psalmist is speaking about the fact of loving others and refusing to join in spreading accusations. “He does no evil to his neighbor”. He doesn’t think about how he can hurt his neighbor or cause harm to come to his neighbor. Who is a neighbor? A neighbor could be somebody you work with. It could be somebody who lives across the street from you, somebody who sits on the same pew with you at church, or someone you encounter during the day as you go shopping or go out for entertainment. A neighbor is anybody around you who has a need in his life, and that need is always Jesus and a relationship with God.

So, we do no evil to our neighbors. For example, when someone becomes a source of irritation to us by the way they’re driving, we don’t respond and then drive in a way that causes evil to them. “We do no evil to our neighbor”.

Then he goes on to say: “Nor does he take up a reproach against his neighbor.” We don’t listen to criticism and then repeat it. When we hear something bad about someone else, we don’t carry it on to another person so they will also think badly of that individual. Usually, when we spread criticism, we are trying to put somebody else down so that we look a little better ourselves. The motive in our own hearts, of course, is pride, and that is the opposite of the lowliness of mind that Paul talks about in Philippians 2.

God calls us to be peacemakers, not troublemakers. This verse is basically teaching us what we read in Romans 12:18: “If it be possible, as much as lies in you, live peaceably with all men.” Remember, Jesus Himself said in the Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew 5:9, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.”

When certain people come into a room, immediately it seems like there are distractions, division, strife, discord, and bad feelings. You know what I’m talking about. But there are other people who come in with the glow of God upon them, walking in fellowship with the Lord—people who love anyone and everyone, and it radiates in their eyes, in their speech, in their attitude, and in their conversation. They come into the room, and they are peacemakers.

Oh, how blessed are the peacemakers! Jesus said they shall be called children of God. You know what that means? It means they are recognized as having an intimate, close relationship with God Himself as their Father. One Bible translation calls them the sons of God. People see them and say, “This person must live in a different family than I came from. I need to find out about that family.” How interesting is that?

I pray that as we think about these things, we will live lives of integrity and truly become people who lift others up rather than tear them down.

God bless and may you have a wonderful, wonderful day!