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 INTRODUCTION
As an Australian I have always admired America's culture of affirmation. At their best Aussies are honest; at their worst; brash and rude, but you will always know where you stand with them. From a young age Americans are taught to try and be kind and polite to everyone. At its best, this demands a certain amount of self-control; at it's worst, it can be hard to know what people are really thinking. But have our efforts to continually affirm each other heightened our sensitivity and made us easily offended when confronted with the truth, or are we already over-sensitive and have compensated with complicated protocols in an effort to keep everybody happy? Either way, it has ultimately given rise to the "doctrine" of political correctness, with its twisted excesses, that could only have arisen out of an affirmation culture.
"…DOES THIS OFFEND YOU?"
When Jesus, speaking in spiritual terms, confronted His followers with the truth of His mission, which they took too literally, they "grumbled". He asked them "…Does this offend you?" (John 6:61). Grumbling indicates offence in the heart. The word "offence" comes from the Greek word, "scandalon: a trap stick (bent sapling).. stumbling block." In a recent article ("Are You Offended?"), Jay Ferris said; "Surely it does not go too far to say that the [level of offence] of the church in our day is a scandal, to borrow a Greek word. The degree of the division in the church is the degree of the [level of offence] in the hearts of the saints." The western church may be in danger of being labeled the "offended church"!
Being offended can cause negative thoughts and destructive reactions. But one aspect of spiritual maturity is an increasing sensitivity to thoughts, words and deeds, while at the same time becoming less outwardly reactive to them. A spiritual person is redemptive, not alienated. II Corinthians 10:4 says; 'For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God... and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.' God has equipped us to deal with the battle against negative thoughts and we have a responsibility to use these weapons to guard against being offended, and Faith is chief among them! "As a man thinks, so he is", therefore Faith determines the contents of our thoughts.
UNOFFENDABLE!
In Matthew 18, Jesus tells us how to deal with offenses. Peter wants to know just how many times he should forgive his "brother". Jesus replies; "...seventy times seven!" This can only mean that we need to be continually demonstrating that major cornerstone of Christianity; FORGIVENESS! If we do then we will be unoffendable! Why should we not be offended? Because Jesus was offended for us ('the offence of the cross')! From that cross, He forgave those who crucified Him. There was never more justification for anyone to be offended. Or, in the words of Jeremiah, 'Is it nothing to you, all you that pass by? Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like my sorrow, which is done to me, whereby the Lord has afflicted me in the day of His fierce anger.' (Lamentations 1:12). Yet He never complained about His "fate", never tried to justify or defend Himself, never judged or condemned anyone, never demanded revenge or justice, and of course, the enemy never thought he had a chance!
AN UNOFFENDABLE CHURCH
The problem is that when we hang on to offenses, it makes "a place for the devil". Offenses retained fester, rot and smell like death. If we hold on to them a long time, we even get used to the smell, but others notice right away, especially the Devil and his crowd. They will hang around like vultures hovering over a dead carcass in the desert.
What is it in you that causes you to be offended, except perhaps your sense of how things ought to be? Jesus had a sense of how things should be, the question is; do our ideas match up with His? A mature church is an unoffendable church. There is no place given to division and is therefore a united church!
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