Dealing with offenses
If you are frequently offended, I want you to know that this is written in love and with a sincere desire to help you overcome the traps of Satan. This is not to coddle you; it is written to help you overcome. It is not God’s plan for a person to be constantly taking offense. We must come to one realization right off the bat, that taking offence is something you have done, not something that was done to you. Many times we can get into the rut of believing that our being offended is other people’s fault, but it isn’t. Now I am not saying that others never do anything wrong, or never do bad to you; I am saying that taking offence at what others do is entirely up to you. You are in control of your own spirit and your own will, and a person that takes offence at everything others do will be a person who is perpetually unhappy, and will run off those around them.
In this article we will be looking at the Biblical causes for people being offended, the consequences of being offended for the offended person, and the cure for being offended.
There are four Biblical causes for a person taking offence.
The first cause is the source of most all of our troubles: it is that old word pride. Proverbs 13:10 “Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom.” Many times we are so filled up with pride that anything that we perceive as a slight to ourselves we immediately take offence to. Pride is a self exalting feeling that you either think you are better, or that you deserve to be treated better. Pride is called in the Bible the great transgression, and it is the sin that turned the angel Lucifer into the Devil. He was lifted up in pride and took offence that God did not exalt him above everything. His action of taking offence made him the enemy of God. Taking offense makes you act like the Devil and it separates you from God as well, you may think that you have righteous anger, but it is really self-righteous anger and is against God.
Another reason people take offense is because they are trying to divert focus away from themselves. In John chapter 8, the Pharisees brought a woman to Jesus that they were offended at for the fact that she had committed adultery. Jesus said to them in verse seven, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” He then stooped down and wrote in the dirt, the Bible gives their response in verse 9, “And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.”
You see, their conviction was confronted by Jesus and they forgot about the offense of the woman. I have seen many people under conviction of God to deal with something in their life that they didn’t want to deal with.
Many times I have seen them take up some offense in order to divert the attention off of themselves and use it as an excuse not to get right with God. Many times the offense they take up belongs to someone else. It is like they become crusaders for anyone who they perceive as being offended. Proverbs 26:17 says, “He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears.” Taking on an offense that is not yours is like grabbing a dog by the ears: you are the one that is going to get bitten. It is far better to simply deal with your conviction than to look for offenses to mask it.
