Old Testament
Zechariah 8:16-17
16 These are the things that you shall do: speak every man the truth with his neighbour. Execute the judgement of truth and peace in your gates,
17 and let none of you devise evil in your hearts against his neighbour, and love no false oath; for all these are things that I hate,” says the LORD.
New Testament
2 Corinthians 5:18-20
18 But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses, and having committed to us the word of reconciliation.
20 We are therefore ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
Zechariah’s word is homely and public: speak truth to one another; judge with ‘justice of peace’ in the gates. It is spoken to a people rebuilding after judgement, learning again what a common life requires. The place where cases are heard and decisions are made is meant to become a place where truth and peace do not compete.
Paul writes that God has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has entrusted to us a ministry of reconciliation. Reconciliation is not the denial of harm; it is the costly work of bringing enemies into a new honesty, a new nearness, a new shared life under God.
Between nations, trade can become a theatre for resentment and suspicion, or a patient practice of rebuilding trust. Agreements cannot create the kingdom of God, but they can either nourish peace or starve it; they can honour the weak, or quietly demand that the weak pay the price.
If we have been welcomed as strangers and made kin in Christ, we cannot be content to speak of other peoples as problems. Lord, make your Church a truthful people: quick to repent, slow to inflame, ready to bless. Teach us to long for a day when the gates are places of peace, and the table is wide.