Christian scholar G.K. Chesterton once noted, “The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people.” Isn’t that true? Sometimes the hardest people to live in peace with are those we live in close proximity to.

But what can change that? The answer is Christ. Listen to what the Holy Spirit said through Apostle Paul in Ephesians 2:14–16, “For Jesus himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.”

Now, in the context, he is primarily talking about Jews and Gentiles, but the application extends to every situation in which enmity exists. That guy at work. That mom at your son’s game. That cranky neighbor. That person who is different from you or disagrees with you. Even that person who hurt you.

Christ, through the cross, has made a way for all hostility to be extinguished. Nail that hostility to the cross. Let Christ rule you as the Prince of Peace. Be reconciled to that person, and may you live in peace with everybody around you.

Change begins in you!