November 11 Daily Devotional

A thought for Remembrance Day

The Christian’s concern is to view life in this world in the ... light of the gospel.... If you are anxious about the state of the world and the threat of possible wars, then ... the most direct way of avoiding such calamities is to observe words such as these.... ‘Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness....’ If every man and woman in this world knew what it was to ‘hunger and thirst after righteousness’ there would be no danger of war. Here is the only way to real peace ... all the denunciations that are so constantly made of various countries and peoples and persons will not have the slightest effect upon the international situation. Thus we often waste our time, and God’s time, in expressing our human thoughts and sentiments instead of considering His Word.... The greatest need in the world now is for a greater number of Christians, individual Christians. If all nations consisted of individual Christians there would be no need to fear atomic power or anything else. So the gospel, which seems to be so remote and indirect in its approach, is actually the most direct way of solving the problem. One of the greatest tragedies in the life of the Church today is the way in which so many are content with those vague, general, useless statements about war and peace instead of preaching the gospel in all its simplicity and purity. It is righteousness that exalts a nation, and the most important thing for all of us is to discover what righteousness means.

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, i, p. 73