Dealing with offenses
If you are someone who takes offense, you need to know that there are serious consequences listed in the Bible for doing so.
One of the things people will eventually do if they take offense is to turn away from following after Jesus. Did you realize that many people were offended at Jesus? What does this tell you? Does it say to you that Jesus was offensive or that they were not following God? Matthew 13:57 says, “And they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house.”
In John, Jesus was preaching and many people got offended by His message. It says in John 6:66-67, “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?”
If you notice, Jesus did not run after them and say He was sorry that He offended them. Telling them the truth was not the problem, the problem was that they didn’t love His law, nor did they love Him enough to follow Him when it went against their feelings. Many people have been offended and used it as an excuse to stop following Jesus Christ. We must be like Peter in verse 68 of the same chapter and say, “Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.”
You will never solve the problems of your life by running from them. If you get offended at work the answer is not to just find a new job, you will get offended no matter where you go. If you get offended at church, the answer is definitely not to find a new church, the answer is to fall so in love with God and His Word that His grace smoothes over any offenses that come your way.
Can you not hear the people that stopped following Jesus saying, “Well, I will find me a new church that isn’t so hard on people.” Thinking of the irony of that statement makes me laugh, knowing that Jesus made them, and told them the truth because He loved them; they were offended at the Creator. I often think, if Jesus, the only perfect man, couldn’t avoid offending people, I am in serious trouble.
