Dealing with offenses
The second step in overcoming the sin of taking offense is to submit myself to Jesus Christ. I must become His servant. A servant has no rights, and if I am to follow Him I must give up any perceived rights I have. John 13:16 says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.” I must remember that Jesus did not take offense at those He was trying to minister to, even when they were crucifying Him. If I am His servant, I am to follow His example.
I must cast off my feelings and rights and serve in lowliness of mind. One of the problems we have is that we live in America where we are told that we have rights, and we are always defending our rights. As a Christian, we are to surrender our rights to the Saviour and take His will on instead of our own. Ephesians 5:21 says, “Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.”
Lastly we will discuss the need to grow in Christ. If I am to overcome the sin of taking offense, I must mature in Him. I do this by adding the “Ingredients for Life” found in 2 Peter 1:5-8, which says, “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
This is the process of taking the stones and stumps out of the ground of my heart so that I can be a fruitful field for Him, a field that is void of offense, a field that is just usable and moldable to Him. Imagine going out into your yard to plant a garden, you get a tiller and scope out the perfect place to plant the garden, you start the tiller up and the yard yells at you, “Hey, don’t do that! I can’t believe you would treat me like this! I am offended!” This sounds crazy doesn’t it? Of course, dirt has no say in where or how you plow and plant; it is up to the digression of the farmer. The farmer knows what kind of plants will grow in what kind of soil, and how to prepare the soil to grow the kind of crops he wants to grow.
God in His great wisdom knows where and how to grow things in your life. He brings offense into your life to point out stones and stumps that are in the way of having a fruitful garden. 1 Peter 2:19-21 says, “For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:”
This passage shows us that God knows you will receive wrong from others when you do good, and He is interested in your response. He wants to use these situations in your life to bring Glory to Himself. Yield yourself to Him, when offenses come as they must, humble yourself to Him, submit to His Word, and grow by the experience without allowing the Devil to have a place in your life.
