What Is a Person of Peace? Luke 10 and Finding People Who Are Open to Jesus

Where the idea comes from: Luke 10

"After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go" (Luke 10:1). His instructions for what to do when they arrived are specific:

"When you enter a house, first say, 'Peace to this house.' If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house" (Luke 10:5–7).

Matthew's account puts it this way: "Whatever town or village you enter, search there for some worthy person and stay at their house until you leave" (Matthew 10:11). The disciples were not to force their way into a town. They were to find the one who was already open — and stay.

What is a person of peace?

A person of peace is someone God has already been preparing — a person who is open to you, open to spiritual conversation, and connected to others. They are not necessarily religious, respectable or even interested in church. What marks them out is receptivity.

Three signs show up again and again in Scripture:

• They welcome you. They are glad to see you, invite you in, and want to spend time together.
• They listen. They are curious about God, ask questions, or open up about their life.
• They connect you. They bring others — family, friends, coworkers — into the conversation. Their oikos opens with them.

Persons of peace in the Bible

Once you know what to look for, they are everywhere in the New Testament — and almost every one of them leads to a household, not just an individual:

• Lydia — "The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message. When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home" (Acts 16:14–15). By the end of the chapter the believers in Philippi were meeting at her house (Acts 16:40) — the church often described as the first in Europe.
• Cornelius — a Roman officer who, before Peter even arrived, "had called together his relatives and close friends" (Acts 10:24).
• The Samaritan woman — "Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony" (John 4:39).
• Zacchaeus — after welcoming Jesus to dinner, "Today salvation has come to this house" (Luke 19:9).
• The man freed from Legion — Jesus sent him back to his own oikos: "Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you" (Mark 5:19).

Notice who these people were: a businesswoman, a soldier of an occupying army, a woman with a complicated past, a tax collector, a man everyone was afraid of. God's people of peace rarely look like the people we would have picked.

Why it matters: the Gospel moves through relationships

The person-of-peace principle and the oikos principle are two sides of the same coin. The Gospel rarely travels as isolated individual decisions. It travels through households and friendships — and a person of peace is the open door into one of those networks.

That is why Jesus told the seventy-two not to move from house to house. Staying with one open person and investing deeply in their circle bears more fruit than knocking on every door once. Oikos Evangelism: How the Early Church Actually Grew traces this pattern through the book of Acts.

How to find a person of peace today

You do not need to travel to find one. Most persons of peace are already in your life — you just have not noticed the signs yet. Here is a simple way to start:

• Pray first. Jesus' instructions in Luke 10 begin with prayer: "Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field" (Luke 10:2). Ask God to show you who He is already preparing.
• Map your oikos. Write down the people you see regularly. The free Oikos Map builder does this in a couple of minutes.
• Offer peace. Kindness, help, a meal, a genuine question. Then notice who responds warmly.
• Share a little, and watch. Mention something God has done or offer to pray for a need. A person of peace leans in; others politely move on — and that is fine.
• Stay. When you find someone open, invest: meet regularly, read a Gospel story together, and ask who else in their world might want to join.

What a person of peace is not

This idea is easy to misuse, so two cautions. First, it is not a filter for deciding who is worth loving. Jesus told His followers to love their neighbours and even their enemies. The person-of-peace principle helps you see where God is already at work — it never gives you permission to write anyone off.

Second, "not yet" is not "never." Someone who is closed today may be wide open after a crisis, a loss or a long season of your faithful friendship. Keep praying for every name on your map. Here is a five-minute daily rhythm.

When you find one

Do not hand them a program. Open a conversation about Jesus — your own story first (how to share it in three minutes), then the Gospel itself (how to lead someone to Jesus). Read Scripture together, and invite their friends and family in. That is how one open door becomes a whole household — and sometimes, like Lydia's, the home of a church.