A SON OF PEACE

W. Schubert

Luke 10: 1–6 (to “upon it”); Acts 16: 13–18; 18: 7, 8; 1 Corinthians 16: 15, 16

The thought which I have is the necessity for a city or a village to have a son of peace. It seems very simple but it is really very important. The Lord, after He sent out the twelve, sent out seventy others. We understand that the Lord is extending His ministry. It is in view of preparing a way for Himself that they were sent “two and two before his face into every city and place where he himself was about to come”. They should prepare a way for Himself.

That is the main thing. The two and two are good but they are not enough; we need the Lord.

Ministry is good, but it is not enough. True ministry paves the way for the Lord Himself. But it could be that there are cities in which no son of peace is found. The test now is not that I should look for a son of peace in my locality, but I am challenged whether I am a son of peace in my locality, where the servants can come and prepare the way for the Lord to come.

The ministry is sent from the Lord. Troubles in local assemblies are because of the lack of a son of peace. It does not mean that there is to be only one; the more the better.

I received this impression while I was here in Villa Grove. We have had ministry meetings and in them I think the Lord drew attention to peace. There was a fine word that the Lord can not only bring the storm to rest but also the waves (Mark 4: 39–41). The brother said that sometimes the storm is quenched but the waves are working in our hearts for months afterwards because of the storm. The Lord brings both into peace at once. At another occasion we had a fine word as to the Lord Jesus being “our peace”; “He is our peace”, Ephesians 2: 14. It is very, very encouraging. He is the centre of peace Himself and He is the pattern for everything. He is the Prince of peace. The coming age will be marked by peace because He will be in rule. We had another good word as to a peace-maker (Matthew 5: 9) which is more than a son of peace. It was a young brother who spoke and he said that it is very testing. The Lord says, “Blessed the peace-makers, for they shall be called sons of God”.

I just mention these things because it is encouraging to go around and learn what the Lord is doing in localities.

Peace is a very important subject. Scripture also says that Jehovah is “a man of war”. He is “a man of war”, and He will be. No teaching that is not based on Scripture will stand. But the Lord will bring in the time of war. David had to wait in the battle with the Philistines for the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry-trees (1 Chronicles 14: 15). The Lord will deal with the whole scene finally. There are many teachings in Christendom, and maybe among us, which are not based on Scripture. They are from the imagination of man and they trouble the saints and they are not for peace. But the son of peace will be a son of peace even if testings are there, because he is one. I would like to be one. It is important for every local assembly. The Lord sends the seventy disciples out and He first says, “I send you forth as lambs in the midst of wolves”. These are the kind of persons whom the Lord Jesus is sending.

He does not send wolves in sheep’s clothing. He sends real lambs, who have the spirit of Jesus. Those who have gone before us and helped us much have been such. They were the same on the outside as they were on the inside. There was no disparity. The Lord Himself is the great Model. The servants

had to accept this, to be sent in the midst of wolves, But then He says, into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace to this house”. They come from the Lord. They bring the peace of Christ. The Lord comes amongst us if conditions are right. He does not come amongst us because we are brethren, or because we are amongst those who have the teaching. He will not be here if conditions are not right. He is not bound to come. He comes when conditions are right and He brings peace. In John 20 He brought in peace twice, once in relation to the privilege side, where He wants to bring us, and the other in relation to service. He says,

“Peace be to you”. He sends them out with His peace.

It is precious that this ministry that comes from Christ comes with peace. It is a thing which is not found in this world. There is no peace on this earth. It is said “on earth peace”, but we see that the One in whom peace had been personified and centred has been rejected. Peace is in heaven, but peace will again be on the earth when He is here. In a country without peace there is no development. There is no safety. You may have a country where there is no real war but where there is not peace. Behind every bush there may be someone ready to shoot.

That is what happens in some countries. There is no peace and no food. If there is only strife or trouble in a locality there cannot be food. I just think that this is what the Lord would stress—“if a son of peace be there”. He says, “And if a son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it”. That is a great thing that the peace of those whom the Lord has sent is resting. It is at home there. It is a very fine thing.

In Luke it seems that the son of peace is important to the local place. In Matthew 18 it looks as if the little child is needed because Matthew has

administration in mind. Before the Lord begins with the teaching as to administration in the assembly He brings a little child before them. Certainly the men, who had those ministries which we value, were like a little child. In John’s gospel, the “dead man Lazarus” (John 12: 1) was of importance for a locality. We were reminded of this in Denton. One brother there said that the trouble in Corinth was that the dead man Lazarus was lacking. He was found in a few in Corinth, but they did not pay attention to it. So Paul bring in what answers to the

“dead man Lazarus”; he brings in the word of the cross, the finish of every other kind of man.

Let us be concerned to find out what it is when peace rests—“your peace shall rest upon it”.

It is wonderful to get peace in ministry by those who prepare the way for the Lord to come.

Peace is resting and we go home from the meeting with peace in our hearts, not what this world has, because this world cannot give peace. The Lord says in John 14 that He gives peace, not as the world gives it, but real peace from the scene where everything is settled according to God. Nothing will stand against God. An impression of the greatness of the One who is our peace will encourage us to continue. Such a locality can develop. We all should make ourselves available to be sons of peace.

I thought of the other scriptures because the persons we have read of are sons of peace. What Paul had, that great volume of ministry, rested. It says there was a woman “whose heart the Lord opened, to attend to the things spoken by Paul”. She must be like a son of peace. Her heart was opened and she provided great stability in the locality. When you read Philippians you think of this dear woman there and others who became sons of peace. Even the jailor became one, because he had seen that all the activities of the Roman

empire were useless. There was no peace. Even if the prison was full—there was no peace, but if Christ has His place, there is peace. So I think this feature—“If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there”—is like peace resting. It is like this son of peace in Luke 10, “your peace shall rest upon it”. Paul abode there and we know how things there continued. We read later that brethren were there. There will be enlargement if there is a son of peace. There will be no enlargement if there are only men of war. A country will die if there is always war. We had it in Germany during the Middle Ages—thirty years of war. There were diseases and strife and the country was about to die. Let us pray for this, that the Lord may give us each to be a son of peace. It means that we judge ourselves and feel how sensitive the upbuilding of a locality is. The construction of a locality is a very sensitive matter. A son of peace would not decide anything by himself or with his friends, would he? He would always regard what the Lord has in a place. What he does, he would do for peace.

I read of Corinth, where we find the teaching of the local assembly. Paul started first with Priscilla and Aquila. But later he found that the Jews, to whom he testified that Jesus was the Christ, were not sons of peace. It says, “He shook his clothes, and said to them, Your blood be upon your own head— I am pure; from henceforth I will go to the nations”, Acts 18: 6.

There was no acceptance of the truth with these people; they were not sons of peace. But it is very interesting that “he came to the house of a certain man, by name Justus, who worshipped God, whose house adjoined the synagogue”. It is very interesting that it is even mentioned here in Scripture that this house adjoined the synagogue. We had a lot in the past

about detached houses, but here was an attached house. Why should we be afraid of the influence of this judged world? Why should we not have power to influence others? Perhaps because this house adjoined the synagogue, Crispus became a believer. He was a son of peace, I am sure. The influence of this house, and the wealth which was there, extended even to the synagogue. So Crispus “believed in the Lord with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing, believed, and were baptised”. You see how it spread. Paul could begin with Justus. Justus was a son of peace. There was enlargement so that even the ruler of the synagogue believed—and another who followed him was harshly dealt with. It says, “having all laid hold on Sosthenes the ruler of the synagogue, they beat him before the judgment-seat”. That was one side; outwardly there was no peace. This is perhaps the same Sosthenes that we find in 1 Corinthians 1, “Sosthenes the brother”. I think he was tired of this kind of war among the Jews, among those who rejected the Lord Jesus. They had no peace, they did not long for peace, they wanted war. They lost one ruler after the other. I do not make too much of this house being adjoined, but it shows the influence that extended. The saints are stronger than the world and all that the world can bring, because we have Christ, and Christ is dwelling in the saints. There is power with the saints. Let us be more encouraged and not just be on the defensive. We can be on the offensive by bringing peace and blessing, rather than war, and the Lord will be with us.

I would like to mention, in closing, the house of Stephanas. It is one which Paul speaks of in the first chapter of this epistle. Stephanas must also have been a son of peace, because Paul baptised him and his household. And we see the result here. He speaks of this fine household,

“they have

devoted themselves to the saints for service”. That was their moral power, not anything else.

If any one has influence it should not be through his mind, or his money, or any kind of political influence. Nothing of that; it is by his committal. They (the house of Stephanas) were committed like the poor widow in Luke 21. They devoted themselves to the saints for service and they are respected because of their committal. “Be subject to such, and to every one joined in the work and labouring”. That is the matter—labouring; not only speaking, but labouring. Labouring is more than speaking. Paul spoke, but that was not all; he laboured. He served the saints. He served the saints also with his hands it says.

May the Lord help us and encourage us to see that there is no blessing where there is no son of peace. And we can come to it by the gospel, by the grace of the Lord Jesus. We have to be changed. We are not this by nature. We are sons of wrath. We are all wild and have all kinds of ideas. We have to be changed to be sons of peace. And may we go on and be able even to be peacemakers, which is greater. May the Lord encourage us.

Address at Villa Grove, Ill.
20 October 1990