Dealing with offenses
Seeing the causes and the consequences of taking offense, it is vital that we see the cure for it, as well. As with all problems, the cure is putting on the spiritual opposites of what causes our fleshly problems. If we are to overcome the sin of taking offense, we must begin by putting on humility.
Jesus humbled Himself to come down and take on the form of a servant. Do you notice that the creator of the entire universe was willing to humble Himself for you, but Satan, a created being, was not willing to humble himself to the Creator? Many people who call themselves Christians act a whole lot more like the devil than like Jesus. They are unwilling to take on the form of a servant; they want instead for everyone to bow down at their feet and confess that they were wronged and deserved better.
Biblical humility according to the Webster’s 1828 dictionary “consists in lowliness of mind; a deep sense of one’s own unworthiness in the sight of God, self-abasement, penitence for sin, and submission to the divine will.” In many ways, humility can be summed up in the way Jesus explained judgment in Matthew 7:1-5 when He said, “Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”
The truth is that many times the people who take the most offense are also the biggest offenders of others, and if everyone else judged them the way that they judge they would be severely condemned which is why they feel condemned all of the time. It is not the judgment of others; it is their own heart judging themselves. I must first take the beam out of my eye, and then I will see clearly the love of God for me as well as others, and will love them instead of judging them.
