If it is possible, as far as it depends on you

Wisdom is a thing of more worth than gold. Like few things that are valued in this life, it is hard won and not easily lost — so long as we continue to revere the source of it: that’s God.

There are three vitally interconnected components in the biblical wisdom of the Apostle Paul:

“If it is possible,
as far as it depends on you,
live at peace with everyone.”
Romans 12:18 (NIV)

If it is possible — sometimes it isn’t possible. Sometimes we’ve exhausted all our avenues of love and understanding and patience. Sometimes we can’t do any more. Sometimes we have to leave situations to our prayers. Yet there is still kindness. There is still grace. And as we give our kindness and grace, God grows us in kindness and grace.

Have you ever noticed that? We grow only in accordance with the sacrifices we make that are uncomfortable for us; those that demand a choice to love. Those where others get right of way.

We may have decided that a person or a situation no longer is extended our trust. The power in that decision is they no longer have power over how we choose to treat them.

… as far as it depends on you… this stresses the importance of exhausting every opportunity, because, let’s face it, we’re quicker to cut ties with someone who hurts us than we want others to when we hurt them. And we all engage in ways that hurt others. All of us. There is always a ‘when’.

Have we gone to the fullest extent we can to reach out toward them? Here’s where the wisdom comes in. There are times when we think we have, and we haven’t. There are times when we think we haven’t, and we have. Wisdom discerns correctly. Wisdom both endures and does not prolong pain.

… live at peace with everyone… if only everyone did or could. But not everyone does. And none of us really do it with any consistency without God’s Spirit reminding us. We all need to be reminded to come back to a way of living that requires us to sacrifice for the good of others, where there’s no direct benefit to ourselves.

When we live at peace with everyone,
God does a work of peace in us.

Or, is it the other way around? Like the chicken and the egg, it’s an interdependent relationship. Want ‘inner peace’? It’s as easy as having interpersonal peace, because everyone’s hope and joy relies at least to some extent on how they’re treated.