The cross of Christ is in itself an offense to the world; let us take heed that we add no offense of our own.
~Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
~ paul, The Least of The Apostles, in Colossians 3
Oh beloved, it is true. We really do think we are right. And the problem is that quite often we are. We speak the truth to those around us. We work to rest on His truth, and we do our best to speak the truth in Love.
But most, as in nearly everyone, does not want to hear anything that is outside their paradigms. They are too busy carrying around the baggage of the past, and trying to make it through their days and weeks and years.
To complicate things. Most other people are quite often right themselves. The problem of pervasive interpretive pluralism makes it such that every single word in every single language carries a slightly different meaning to every person on the planet. So, we often just miss each other by a hair’s breadth, and things get ugly.
And when they get ugly, it is where we can get hurt, if we are willing to commit a particularly heinous kind of sin. Because now, we are about to become offended. Offense is particularly dangerous because it is the gateway to all sorts of other moral failure. It is the moment of turning from selflessness to selfishness.
Actually, for the believer, this fool of a writer believes that becoming offended sets of an intense inner conflict between the old self, and the new spirit-man, alive in Christ. Both aspects of who we are want (rightly) justice. But these two aspects want it for two totally different reasons.
The flesh wants justice, but really just wants to justify its continued existence.
To prove it is right
To cover its tracks
To fight its own fears
To promote its own righteousness
To flee from responsibility
The new man in Christ wants justice, wrapped in abundant mercy.
To speak what is right
To prepare a path to freedom
To live above fear altogether
To promote G_d’s righteousness imparted to us all, through faith.
To be accountable to both G_d and man.
Can we see it? To be unoffendable is not to resist a particular temptation. To be unoffendable is to walk in The Spirit, vs. walking in the irredeemable power of the flesh. It really is this simple – and this entirely difficult at the same time. Any time we turn to the flesh, we know things are not going to go well. And so, actually, becoming offended may just be a wonderful alarm system to know that some repentance is in order – immediately, before something worse happens.
So, are you prone to offense? This fool of a writer can be, and will be, if he tries to not be in his own strength. However, when i turn my foolishness over to The Only True and Wise King, His Grace is sufficient for all my (and your) needs. Tonight is your night beloved. Time to walk in The Spirit.
