I AM OFFENDED
11”Sensible people control their temper;
they earn respect by overlooking wrongs.”Proverbs 19:11
We spend way too. much time looking to be offended. The devil directs our focus on being offended but we can’t blame the devil for taking the bait. In 2004 John Bevere published his book titled “The Bait of Satan”. This book was a Christian best seller over the next decade. John had hit a nerve in the Christian community. Offense was then and is now a leading cause for the division and over time death of the local church.
He wrote:
Offended people produce much fruit, such as hurt, anger, outrage, jealousy, resentment, strife, bitterness, hatred, and envy. Some of the consequences of picking up an offense are insults, attacks, wounding, division, separation, broken relationships, betrayal, and backsliding.
In the church I grew up we called each other brothers and sisters. It was a wise attempt to create a family atmosphere in the church culture. The idea was that if we see one another as family ( this is Biblical and truth) than we would be less likely to take offense with one another and more likely to work out our disagreements, hurts and offenses so we could restore the family. I would like to say it worked so well, but in truth the results were similar to what we see today. Why? The simple truth is that Satan has not changed his tactics because they work as well now as they did 50 or even 100 years ago.
If we are honest we have had opportunity to take the bait of offense several times in the last month. How many times did we take the bait? Probably more than we would like to admit. Satan works the offense trap very effectively. He takes full advantage of every opportunity. Someone got a promotion over us, we get offended. We do not get a personal invitation to a Tupperware party (not that we wanted to go anyway but…) we get offended, we arrive at church and all the donuts are gone, you guessed it we get offended. We text someone we know, they do not respond even after reading it…yep we are offended. These are very small things, but they work, we take the bait.
If those don’t work Satan will increase the offense level. Someone wrongfully accuses you, that’s grounds for offense, right? A person you trust lies to you, you get offended. Someone you know and care for, tells you that someone in the church offended them, do you take the bait and join them in the offense?
Whatever time we give away to Satan in being offended at our brothers and sisters in Christ is time we lose impacting our community with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We lose out on glorifying God, building one another up in our faith, worshiping God in spirit and truth. We force our leadership to dedicate precious time to hearing grievances and attempting to resolve conflict while Satan wrecks havoc in our surrounding community.
How do we stop falling into the “offense trap” of the enemy? First, being offended is a choice. You choose it. No one forces us to be offended. Even when something wrong or evil is done to us we always choose how we will respond. Using the argument “hey I am only human” is an attempt to justify taking offense and it does not work in Christ’s Kingdom. If anyone had a right to offense it would have been Jesus and on the cross where he was wrongfully tortured and killed,Instead of being offended Jesus said “Father forgive them”…
Choose not to take the bait. Forgive one another, love one another. This is the way we are commanded to live in the Christian community. Move in the direction of reconciliation. If someone gets hurt take them in the direction of healing that hurt. There are always two sides to the story. We are members of the family of God which makes us brothers and sisters. We will all live together in eternity so we should learn to live lovingly on earth together. Practice patience with one another. God is extremely patient with us. Hope the best and believe the best about one another. Give your brothers and sisters grace and room to grow.
Join us Sunday, September 27 — 10:30 AM
Grace Place Church — Round Rock, TX
We’ll worship together, hear a message from Pastor Alan. If this is your first time, we can’t wait to meet you — stop by the Connections desk and grab a free coffee mug. Kids’ classes are available for birth through 5th grade.
Everyone is welcome. Bring a friend!