Choose Your Own Example
Offense is the magic word in our circles. If a brother or sister offends us, we demand immediate retribution and claim our right of confrontation with a glee rarely matched in other Christian ministry. Yet so often we are missing the key aspect of Christianity--love. Whom are we loving when we confront a brother? We would be hard-pressed to prove we are loving anyone but ourselves.
Remember Matthew 18:23-35? I owed a debt I could not pay. (Stop humming and think about what the words mean.) I could never pay for my sin. So God forgave it. Freely. No strings attached. I even thank Him for it every so often. But let someone be unkind to me, and I'm more than ready to point out his sin and demand he deal with it. Even if I choose to "let it go," I log the offense with God and expect Him to make it up to me while I congratulate myself on my maturity. I'm the one who "straightway, post-haste [flies] before the presence of the most high God/And [brings] a railing accusation there."* Who am I emulating when I do that? Satan is supposed to be the "accuser of the brethren," not me. Does my response to an offense mimic Christ or Satan?
I'm certainly not suggesting we should trade in confrontation to just get along. I am suggeting that all too often we search the Bible for a Bill of Rights rather than seeking for examples of ways to demonstrate love to others. Confrontation is supposed to be an expression of love--a means to the restoration of broken fellowship. So the next time you are offended, consider who you are loving with your response.
*"My Advocate," by Martha Snell Nicholson
At 3:33 PM,
I think of that verse that says, "and nothing shall offend me." Now I have to go look it up.
At 3:38 PM,
I just remembered. "Great Peace have they that love thy law and nothing shall offend them."
At 12:47 PM,
Justin,
Great subject. I love what you said, and totally agree. But let's look at it from a different angle, maybe . You really hit the nail on the head when you called "offense" our magic word. I really wonder why that is sometimes. I know, I Corinthians 8:13 and 10:32. But really, what do we mean when we say we have been "offended"? Did someone hurt our feelings? Is someone causing us to sin? Or does it simply mean that someone is doing something that we think is wrong? I really think that much of the time, all that it means is we don't approve of someone else's actions. But why do we take it so personally when someone does something that we don't approve of? Don't get me wrong, in areas of clear sin in someone's life, I think we need to confront in a spirit of love. But most of the time, I don't think that is the case. We get offended because someone makes a different choice about their lifestyle standards. Why is that? Does that make us less spiritual if someone disagrees with us? Does that make us feel less validated before God? Or does it make us feel less validated before man?
At 11:26 PM,
OK, so while I did enjoy reading your blog, I don't really have a comment I just wanted to say hi. So - HI!!