Romans 12:18 – If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.
This sounds like an impossibility in our world today. To be at peace with all men, including believers and non-believers, those who accept God and those who do not accept that there is a God. We are to live at peace with those who believe in a similar way as us and those who believe in a variety of different ways than us.
With all the different thoughts and ideas, the different denominations, interpretations and beliefs, different religions and ways of life how could it be possible to be at peace with everyone?
The dictionary says of peace: freedom from disquieting or oppressive thoughts or emotions; harmony in personal relations.
I think this is what God is saying, that we are to live in harmony with our fellow humans not allowing any oppressive thoughts or emotions to take control of our feelings towards others. In other words, we live in love.
Just because someone does not interpret the Bible the same way we do, or go to the same church we do, or does not go to church at all, we as believers are all wanting to please our Father and do what He wants us to do out of love. We should respect the fact that God is working in different ways in people. Just because people see things differently does not mean it is not of God.
In regard to non-believers, we should not be condemning toward them or force our beliefs on them. We need to let them see the love of God yet they do not need someone beating them down, calling them names or being mean to them until they come to see things our way. We are to love them as they are and let the Holy Spirit work in their lives.
If we believers could just understand that we are responsible for ourselves in the way we live for God. We are not responsible to live the way others do or think we should. We are to allow our Father to work in our lives the way He wants and follow Him on the path He has for us.
Our responsibility is to love God and love everyone we come in contact with, accept them for who they are and let the Holy Spirit work in their lives. Living in this manner would accomplished much more in showing the love of Christ to those we have contact with each day.
Done with Religion 
Thank you Hazel
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Yes! Nicely put 🙂
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I get it. We cannot live this way on our own strength. It is difficult but I keep trusting the Spirit to continue working.
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Absolutely! In my recent experience I have been trying to do this by asking Jesus to fill and refill me with His love, because my love is not really adequate to do this, and I have been aware of a greater peace in my attitude towards others. Where I have found difficulty is when I am on the receiving end of someone thumping me with their opinion, especially when it is directed at me personally. My tendency is to react to that and that removes the peace, and my way of dealing with it has been to remove myself from their presence or influence as far as possible (de-friending them on Facebook, etc). I’m not sure that is the thing to do, because it cuts off relationship but it certainly is more peaceful.
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