My intent was not to offend...

“And blessed is [he], whosoever shall not be offended in me.” Luke 7:23

To offend is to cause to fall away.  It is to place a stumbling block before.  And it follows a natural course that none of us would choose to go down.

“And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.” Matthew 24:10

Do not be deceived… if we take offense, whether we like it or not… we have started down the path toward betrayal and hatred.  And all three are deliberate acts.

But we must not take the role of a victim.  For Christ became a victim for us, so that we might be victors.

When you find yourself in a situation where you are offended, have you ever thought to ask yourself, “Is their intent to offend?...

Or is mine to be offended?”

It is a hard question… but many of us are all too easily offended.  Have we ever looked in the mirror and wondered why?

Our desire, in the flesh will be to fall away.  It will be to go after something that suits just us.  It will be that we are like the one who was “drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.” (James 1:4)  If we are not careful the rest will follow…

“Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” James 1:5

Too often we look to make excuses.  Too often we pull an “Adam” and pass the buck to our Eve.  We look to place blame.  We hope that the excuse will be a good defense in court… “They made me do it!”… “If it wasn’t for so-and-so...”… “Everyone else is doing it!”

Ain’t gonna hold up my friend.

The Lord sees right through it.  When we are looking to be offended… when we are looking to dip our hand in the cookie jar, or taste a little of the forbidden fruit… we are looking to fall away.  And when we are looking to fall away… to be offended… then we are ripe for the picking.

Anything will offend us.  Not because it was the intent of the other… but because it was ours.

Stand up.  Realize that you choose to be offended.  Sometimes, someone we trust may cause us to fall away… sometimes a false teacher will lead us down the wrong path…

But sometimes… and you know what I am talking about… sometimes  (probably more times than we care to admit) we choose to be offended.

Make the right choice.  Do not be offended.  Do not fall away as one who is in Christ.

Jesus warned against causing even the little ones who believed in Him to fall away or stumble.  We can either offend someone deliberately… knowing what we are saying or doing with the intent of causing them to stumble; or unintentionally… not realizing exactly what we are doing…

But either way… we can choose to not be offended. 

Taking offense is a choice.  What would you rather receive?

SDG