Skip to main content

There Is No Good Offense


Jesus warned of offenses. In (Matthew 18:7) He said, “Woe to the world because of offenses, for offenses must come, but woe to the man by whom offenses come!”

Unlike the game strategies of football, there is no such thing as a good offense when we are talking about human relations, and the discipline of being a Christian. Being an offense to someone, or the act of offending someone is wrong and hurtful, and it has the potential power of being devastating to the human spirit. Offending another person is most importantly sinful; this is why Jesus warns us not to be offensive to others.

Unfortunately, our world today encourages us to “get-in-front-of,” “out maneuver,” or get ahead of others, sometimes at any cost. Why is this? Maybe it’s because we have been taught we deserve the best parking place, that bigger house, the fancier car or the highest paying job; even if we have to offend the other guy to get what we want. Well, that’s life (or so we have been led to believe.) Not so!

In (Philippians 1:9-11) the apostle Paul says, “And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”

We offend others when we ignore them; when we trivialize something they may say; when we fail to recognize their efforts to please us. We offend others when we criticize them. Our offensive behavior toward others may be intentional or unintentional, nonetheless when we are less than considerate of our friends, neighbors or family members, or we go out of our way to disrespect others we are guilty of offense!

None of us wants to offend God; we better not! Fortunately, His grace saves us. If we believe we have offended Him, or someone else, we can ask God to forgive us, and repent of our sinful behavior. When we do, God is always faithful to forgive us. Truth is; if we love and respect others we won’t want to offend them. Haven’t we been given commandments to love and respect all others, even our enemies?

When one of the scribes confronted Jesus on the first commandment, Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is, ‘Here O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:30, 31).

LOVE AND THE DESIRE TO OFFEND CAN NEVER SHARE THE SAME HEART!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Walk Of Faith

I wonder, do you think we miss God’s purpose for our lives because we are waiting to learn more of what God has planned for us? Truth is; God isn’t required to lay it all out for us. All He must do if He has a plan for our lives is to show us how and then enable us to do it. It seems when we don’t know all the particulars, life is too perplexing. We think, “ but I need to know just what God wants me to do.” Abram (later known as Abraham) probably had thoughts just like this. God asked Abram to go somewhere he wasn’t familiar with and he most likely thought of asking God, Lord, must I go somewhere I don’t know, can’t I just stay here in Haran? However, God’s plan for Abram was far greater than anything Abram could ever imagine. Our personal feelings, vision, and human reasoning will always get in the way of our walk of faith . God teaches us to have faith in Him by placing us in positions where our feelings, vision, and common knowledge don’t work for us. Haven’t you ex...
Read more

THIS IS A SPECIAL POSTING. PLEASE READ!

In addition to my daily message today, this is something very special I believe the Lord wants me to post right now! Help Me Overcome My Unbelief! As a Christian, I believe God loves me and wants the best for me. Certainly, in His Word (Psalm 103:3 NIV) the Psalmist wrote; Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits – who forgives all your (my) sins and heals all your (my) diseases, who redeems your (my) life from the pit…. I know this, really I do! Still, there are times when I don’t see God actually doing what I expect Him to do; to save me from my trouble; to provide me with what I want; and to provide the healing release I expect. Before I became a Christian I really had a problem with faith, much less be able to cling to any promises God made to me; regardless of whether I was a Christian or not! Therefore, I understand how we can have moments of unbelief, or we can just flat out not trust what God has promised us. This is Satan at work, big time !  “Get...
Post a Comment
Read more
Over the past few years I have been inspired by the Holy Spirit to write what He has given me; many times I was awakened in the middle of the night to write them down. I hope you will take look at these brief messages which can be found in the "sidebar" of this blog under the heading of "BLOG ARCHIVE." There may be something in these that personally speaks to you. I pray there is. Thanks for reading my blog and may God richly bless you.
Read more