What Do I Know About Peace?
What Do I Know?: Part 4
November 23, 2025
Psalm 131, 1 Thessalonians 5:1-24
Live in peace with each other. Brothers and sisters, we urge you to warn those who are disorderly. Comfort the discouraged. Help the weak. Be patient with everyone. Make sure no one repays a wrong with a wrong, but always pursue the good for each other and everyone else. Rejoice always. Pray continually. Give thanks in every situation because this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Don’t suppress the Spirit. Don’t brush off Spirit-inspired messages, but examine everything carefully and hang on to what is good. Avoid every kind of evil.
~ 1 Thessalonians 5:13b-22
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As I read Paul’s exhortation to the Thessalonians, it sounds like simple common sense for how to live well together. Yet these same principles seem almost opposite to the behavior encouraged by many of our political and even religious leaders today. As a member of a former church once said, Jesus’ teachings on peace and forgiveness just don’t work anymore. I suspect many of Jesus’ first followers felt the same way.
With that in mind, I asked ChatGPT to reimagine this passage through the lens of what we often hear from our nation’s leaders. It is intentionally nonpartisan, reflecting values both sides seem to share in practice. It’s response is telling:
Fellow Americans,
Peace sounds nice, but it’s naïve. Progress is forged through conflict — through proving who’s right, not reconciling with those who are wrong. Disorder keeps us alert; division keeps us strong.
Toughen up. Comfort breeds complacency. Help the weak if you must, but don’t let weakness spread. Patience only delays victory. If someone wrongs you, strike back harder — that’s how respect is earned.
Celebrate your side. Stay outraged. Gratitude is fine when we win, but don’t waste it on your opponents. And as for all that “Spirit” talk — keep your passion, but aim it at those who stand in your way.
We stand united — not in peace, but in purpose. Stay vigilant. Stay angry. Stay divided.
Jesus saw this same spirit in the religious culture of his day. He wept over Jerusalem saying, “If only you knew the things that make for peace.” The writing was on the wall. Destruction was inevitable if they did not change their ways.
Rome’s peace was powerful, but it came at a high cost, especially for those deemed weak in the eyes of the empire.
We still struggle with the same temptation, to confuse peace with control, strength and domination. We confuse love with the ability to protect what’s ours by any means necessary. But living at peace with all does not mean overpowering or eliminating those we dislike. It means choosing a different kind of strength, one that risks compassion and empathy.
Paul’s words still challenge us to a different way: comfort the discouraged, help the weak, be patient with everyone, and pursue the good for each other and for all.
What might it look like for us, in our time, to live as people who still believe the things that make for peace?