Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Offense: Give or Take

“But if you give them a hard time, bullying or taking advantage of their simple trust, you'll soon wish you hadn't.  You'd be better off dropped in the middle of the lake with a millstone around your neck.  Doom to the world for giving these God-believing children a hard time! Hard times are inevitable, but you don't have to make it worse—and it's doomsday to you if you do.

"If your hand or your foot gets in the way of God, chop it off and throw it away. You're better off maimed or lame and alive than the proud owners of two hands and two feet, godless in a furnace of eternal fire.  And if your eye distracts you from God, pull it out and throw it away. You're better off one-eyed and alive than exercising your twenty-twenty vision from inside the fire of hell”.  Matt 18:7-9 MSG



As a Christian we must learn never to give or take an offense.   Jesus said that the world constantly offends us, but we as His followers must never offend. 

He was so serious about this that He said an eye, a foot, or a hand must be cut off rather than offend someone else.   He meant this: get rid of anything that causes offense to someone else, no matter how painful to you.

As a discerning Christian, I must expect offenses to come my way.  I must be wise as a serpent, in expecting offenses, yet harmless as a dove in giving them. (Matt.10:16)    It is only natural that somewhere along the way I will offend others.   The gospel itself is offensive to many and if I preach it truthfully and faithfully I will most certainly offend some people.

But this is not the offensiveness Jesus is talking about.  He is speaking about the offense that comes from an evil mind.  He is talking about the offense that comes from an evil intention; hidden motives.   We cannot make everybody love us; but we can, like Daniel, force them who dislike us to say, “It is because of his God”. (Daniel 6:23)

Taking an offense is a different matter.  By God’s grace we must never take an offense.  Regardless of how evil the intention, how vile the source of the offense, we must never attribute to a person’s action a malicious cause, but rather turn my case over to God and say, “Lord, You judge in the matter”.   Then, vengeance is safely given to Him.

The offense less life is a challenged discipline for a follower of God.  The same Jesus who exemplified it perfectly on earth will not fail to empower us to do the same.   The One who said I am to be as harmless as a dove will not ask me to do the impossible; He will energize me for it.

 “When he was insulted, he did not reply with insults.  When he suffered, he did not threaten revenge.  Instead, he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly”.         I Peter 2:23    CEB


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