Work with the People of Peace

“When you enter a house, first say, 'Peace to this house.’ If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest upon them; if not it will return to you.” Luke 10:6 (NIV)

“Whatever town or village you enter, search there for some worthy person and stay at their house until you leave. As you enter the home give it your greeting. If the home is deserving; let your peace rest on it; if it is not let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome or listen to your words, leave that home or town.” Matthew 10:11-14. (NIV)

Jesus is telling us to look for the people who don’t bite your head off when you tell them about him. Take time to be with those who are interested, with those who ask good questions, with those who want to know more.

It’s the people of peace who will take the gospel of the kingdom of Jesus to their village, just as the woman that Jesus met at the well in the Samaritan town of Sychar did, and Zacchaeus did in Jericho, and like the Gadarene demoniac that Jesus told to remain with his own people.

Jesus is telling us to look out for the people of peace.

The people of peace are those who listen. Those who aren’t aggressive, those who you sense are genuinely interested, even if they are forever asking questions, even if they may choose for a long time not to believe. (In fact, it is often the people who take the longest to become believers who then make the strongest progress after they have made a decision to follow Jesus.)

Story: A woman who was the daughter of two missionaries in India told me this story. Her parents had ministered faithfully in a certain area of India all their lives, but despite their prayers and work, not one single person had come to know and follow Jesus. Furthermore, as the years passed, three of their four children left the faith. Only this woman was still a Christian. After both her parents had died, at some point later in her adult life, she went back to the place where her parents had ministered and was astonished to find a lively church there. She then learned that after her parents had died, the domestic worker who had worked in her parents’ house had become a Christian. Apparently, her mother had often talked with this woman and explained to her about being a disciple. After her parents had died, the woman had decided to become a Christian and had then brought many in the community to Christ. These two missionaries worked all their lives and saw absolutely no fruit, and even three of their children walked away from Christ. But they faithfully planted seeds that yielded 100 fruit after they had both died.

This story brilliantly illustrates Jesus’ point that we should “stay with” the people of peace – in this case, the woman who worked for the missionaries.

Why not stop now and pray that the Holy Spirit will lead you to people of peace?