Seek the Peace (6)

“And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the LORD for it; for in its peace you will have peace.” Jeremiah 29.7

Blessed to be a blessing
Even while they endured the hardships of exile in Babylon, the people of Israel needed to remember that God intended them to be a blessing to the world. Jeremiah called them to focus on God and His promises, to seek the Lord earnestly, and to build their communities for a future of revival, renewal, and awakening. They must not be deterred in this calling either by the allure of pagan materialism or the false teaching of timid, unbelieving prophets. Come what may, God’s faithful people were to seek the future He had in mind, not merely what they saw before them.

People may rage against God, turn away from His Law, cast doubts on His existence, and pursue lives deliberately calculated to give offense to His holiness. Yet the love of God perseveres, even for such as these. His Spirit strives to keep rebellious unbelievers from destroying themselves with their sin; only reluctantly does God give people up to the consequences of their folly, and even then He stands ready to welcome every repentant sinner (Rom. 1.18-32). The kindness of God, Paul reminds us, leads people to repentance (Rom. 2.4), and a primary way that kindness comes to people in an age in flight from God is through the faithful stewardship and diligent love of His obedient people.

Shalom
Jeremiah counseled the exiles in Babylon to seek the peace of the nation to which God had sent them. The word is actually shalom – a kind of omnibus term of blessing, that means something like health, peace, prosperity, wellbeing, and salvation, all rolled into one. The Babylonians had shown nothing but scorn and violence toward Israel and her God; nevertheless, God had business to do with those people, and He intended that at least some of them should know His blessings.

Ironically enough, King Nebuchadnezzar, who destroyed Jerusalem and the temple of the Lord, himself became a worshipper of the one true God because of the faithful, frank, and loving ministry of Daniel (cf. Dan. 4.34-37). As Daniel sought the peace of the king and his court, so all the people of God were expected to do with their neighbors in every quarter of the empire.

We exist for God!
And so we must do today. In many churches, we rejoice and are quite happy when someone finds his way to our fellowship and begins to know the blessings of salvation and new life in Christ. But waiting for people to find their way in to our fellowship is a far cry from seeking the peace of our neighbors as part of our being-in-the-world in the community. In Psalm 48 the Church is pictured as the joy and beauty of the whole earth. In how many communities today are churches regarded in this way? Not many, I suspect. Do many of our churches even aspire to such a place in their community?

The Church does not exist for itself. We make an idol of our church if we look upon its worship, fellowship, programs, and other ministries as ways to satisfy our needs and calm our fears. We must look to Jesus for this; the church is rather the sign and outpost of the Kingdom of God, the staging ground, evidence, and forward line of advance for the Kingdom of God.

Churches exist for God, for the Lord Jesus Christ, and for the purposes of the divine economy. And those purposes include filling the earth with Jesus Christ and the knowledge of God’s glory (Eph. 4.8; Hab. 2.14). God’s intention through the Church is that the rule of King Jesus – a Kingdom where liberty from sin and guilt leads to righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit – that rule might increase and affect the lives of hurting and needy people everywhere.

It is the Church’s task, and the calling of every particular church, to reach out to their neighbors and, like Jesus throughout His earthly ministry, humble ourselves to show the love and beauty of God in ways appropriate to the opportunities before us, and to proclaim the Good News of Jesus by every available means.

Believers have been redeemed unto good works (Eph. 2.10); the Church, as the Body of Christ, should reflect in its earthly sojourn the same kind of care, outreach, compassion, sacrifice, service, and witness that Jesus demonstrated while He was on earth.

The Church is the Body of Christ – Jesus to our world – and we will not be able to fulfill that high and holy calling apart from a prayerful and diligent effort at bringing the salvation and blessings of God to the people in our communities.

For reflection
1.  How much does prayer for your community feature in the life and worship of your church?

2.  In what ways does your church seek to bring the beauty and joy of Jesus to its community?

3.  What glaring needs exist in your community that you might expect Jesus to address if He were living within your community?

Next steps – Preparation: What might your church do in order to better fulfill its calling as Kingdom sign and outpost, and to bring the beauty, joy, and goodness of the Lord to light in your community (Ps. 27.13)? Talk with some Christian friends about this question.

T. M. Moore

This is part 1 of a 5-part series, Living toward the Promises. You can download this week’s study as a free PDF, suitable for personal or group use, by clicking here. You can learn more about living toward the promises of God by ordering a copy of the book, I Will Be Your God, from our online store (click here).

We invite you to register for the free online course, One in Twelve: Introduction to Christian Worldview. In this course T. M. Moore provides a sweeping panorama of how life in the Kingdom of God unfolds in an age in flight from God such as ours. Set your own schedule and study at your own pace. Learn more, and register for One in Twelve, by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.