How can we live in peace with everyone (Hebrews 12:14)?

Hebrews 12 was written to help believers persevere and not lose heart through painful trials. We learn that Jesus is our example in these challenging times (see verses 2–3) and that God allows such times to discipline and train us as His children (verses 5–11). Then, in verses 12–17, the Scripture writer calls believers to a renewed spiritual vitality and concern for one another: “Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. ‘Make level paths for your feet.’ . . . Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord” (verses 12–14).

Living in peace with everyone and being holy are two good indicators that we are walking the level path Jesus modeled for us. But how do we live in peace with everyone? We must always look at Christ’s life to discern the way. As our perfect High Priest, Jesus is the King of Peace and Righteousness (see Hebrews 7:1–28). He has given us the responsibility to maintain peace in our relationships with others.

In the opening Beatitudes of Christ’s famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God” (Matthew 5:9, NLT). As sons and daughters of God, we are, like Jesus, called to be peacemakers who “plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness” (James 3:18, NLT).

Living in peace with everyone requires self-discipline. The Greek term translated as “make every effort” carries the idea of intense effort and single-minded vigilance in the pursuit of something. We must leave no stone unturned in our pursuit of peacemaking.

Sometimes, we tend to become self-focused when God is disciplining us through a painful trial. We forget to consider the needs and concerns of others. Maintaining unity and living in peace are the last things on our minds. But these are precisely the times when we need to look outside ourselves and “make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification” (Romans 14:19).

To live in peace with everyone, we must depend on the empowering of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22; Romans 8:6; 14:17; 15:13; Ephesians 4:3). We must allow God’s Spirit to develop in us an attitude of sacrifice and humility (Philippians 2:3). Equipped with these virtues, we can “love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other” (Romans 12:10, NLT). We can lay aside our selfish ambitions and love others, even our enemies, as Christ did (see Luke 6:35). We can pray, like Paul, “May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help [us] live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus” (Romans 15:5, NLT).

Doing all that we can to live at peace with unbelievers calls for genuine, Christlike love as described by Paul in Romans 12:17–21: never repaying evil with more evil; never taking revenge but leaving vengeance in God’s hands; having compassion on our enemies; feeding them when they are hungry; giving them something to drink when they are thirsty; forgiving them when they wound us. Finally, we “don’t let evil conquer [us], but conquer evil by doing good” (verse 21, NLT).

If we struggle to maintain peace with our brothers and sisters in Christ, we must remember that we are fellow “members of one body . . . called to live in peace” (Colossians 3:15, NLT; see also 1 Corinthians 12:12–25). God has placed each part of Christ’s wonderfully diverse body together, exactly where He wants “so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other” (1 Corinthians 12:25). Knowing that “each member belongs to all the others” (Romans 12:5) and that we are all one family in Christ, how can we not strive for harmony, unity, and peace?

Doing all we can to live in peace with everyone won’t always be easy, but it is a biblical imperative that we obey for the glory and honor of God and His church. Whether we have been wronged or we’ve wronged another, Jesus calls us to take the first step in restoring peace in our relationships (see Matthew 5:23–24; 6:14–15; 18:15; Mark 11:25). Letting conflict with another believer go unresolved is a sin that must be confessed and dealt with.

Living in peace with everyone is an indispensable goal of the believer’s life. We must always “turn away from evil and do good. Search for peace, and work to maintain it” (Psalm 34:14, NLT).