What Am I, Offensive? Part 2

What Am I, Offensive? Part Two  

“And He said to his disciples, “Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin. Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” Luke 17:1-4 (ESV) 

Ya know sometimes we can wake up in the morning, look at God’s Word and His creation, take a deep breath and say to ourselves, “It is real good”. Then we drink our coffee, get in our cars and by the time we arrive at our destination we can be saying, “This ain’t too good”. Something must have happened along the way and our position has shifted. Maybe on our walk to the car, driving it on the highway, heard something off note on the radio or while we were at the local convenience store to get that second cup of coffee. Maybe we have taken the bait and now we are none too happy. Hmm…So what can be gathered from the opening passage that I have taken from the Book of Luke? 

 Well the first thing I would like to do here is to take a look at the NKJV version of Luke 17:1, “Then He said to the disciples, “It is impossible that no offenses should come, but woe to him through whom they do come!” Can we understand that Jesus had to said this to His disciples (and to us as well) so that they could see their need for deep humility? You see, no matter to what degree of guilt in the offense or the amount of punishment there should have been for it, Jesus wanted them (and us) to understand that faith in His Fathers pardoning mercy will enable all of us to get over whatever offense would come our way and hinder our ability to forgive. Remember Jesus made it quite clear that it is impossible to go through this life and not have those moments to become offended and also remember that you have the tri-unity of a loving and merciful God to protect you when the snares of the devil seem to be all around you.  

And do we remember what Paul wrote to us in Romans 12:1-2, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (ESV) If we are holding this true in our lives then we need to understand that we cannot squirm off the altar, even though there will be times where we will. That in essence a dead man cannot be offended because we understand His mercy and it will be the Lord who will defend us because we should be immersed in His word and the discernment to know what His will is will be revealed to us though His Word.

Let’s see what David had to say about offense in Psalm 55:12-14, “For it is not an enemy who taunts me— then I could bear it; it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me— then I could hide from him. But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend. We used to take sweet counsel together; within God’s house we walked in the throng.” It is suggested that the groundwork for this Psalm is found in the rebellion of Absalom and the treachery of Ahithophel, (a promise that you find in 2 Kings 15:12) both whom were sons of David, sons of a revered king who fell away because of sins that had their root in offense.  

Here is a question for you…Do you already have or can you create a list of people, either close to you or somewhat distant, that have offended you? And remember that the possibilities for offense could be just as long as that list of people. 

So no matter how simple they seem or as difficult as they can get this truth remains about offenses: the level of care or the height of expectation in you determines how much hurt you will feel when that level of care gets disrespected or the height of expectation is not met. The next Freedom Fighter we will get into that character who could have taken offense. In the meantime, I pray that your list has been a short one because I am certainly taking issue with my own. – Chris Hughes is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy and a frequent contributor to Freedom Fighter

GPS – God’s Positioning System: 2 Samuel 13-15; Psalm 113; Proverbs 4

Compass Pointers: What or whom we worship determines our behavior. John Murray

Navigation Rules to Memorize: Level 1: Proverbs 18:10; Level 2: Proverbs 18:1-8

Anchored to the Rock: Mountains can only be climbed with knees bent.