BY GREG CRUM, PASTOR, CALVARY TEMPLE
“Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.” Psalm 119:165
In a day and age in this country in which it’s almost a national pastime to become personally offended by one insignificant word or gesture or another, it’s good to know that God has the antidote for hurt feelings—the love of His Word! Here in Psalm 119, we read how that if we will cherish the Scriptures, we will insulate ourselves from the pain of insult and be able to overcome the offence of others.
The last couple of weeks we have written of the spiritual dangers of offence. We looked in Luke 17, where it is recorded that Jesus warned his disciples that inevitably offence would come to each of them and that they should be prepared to reject the opportunity to be ensnared by the devil through his trap of offence. We also brought to your attention the biggest reason we should be wary of offence—it’s because offended Christians eventually leave Jesus. If they harbor the hurt it’s inevitable that they will walk farther away from their Savior than they did before. Finally, we started to think about what we could do to combat offence, and we stated that the biggest part of not falling for offence was to determine never to take the offensive word or deed personally.
Never take the offence personally! What? Yeah, I know that sounds tough, and realize it’s even tougher in practice, but it’s essential if we are going to keep ourselves from the harm of hateful words and deeds perpetuated by people on this planet. As we mentioned last week, though, we are helped greatly in this endeavor if we realize that the genesis behind the offensive thing is really the enemy of all, Satan, and the reason he is trying to hurt us is just to hurt our Father. You see, then, it’s rational to refuse to take any offence personally because Scripturally (John 15:17-16:4), the offence was never ultimately directed at us individually—it was directed at our Lord.
Now, if we are going to make a determined effort not to take offence personally, we are going to have to “love” the “law” of the Lord found in Luke 17:3 and “take heed to” ourselves concerning the things people do and say to us that would tempt us to become upset or displeased (a couple of definitions of the word “offence” used in the New Testament). In other words, we are going to have to make sure our heart stays right and our mind stays thinking along the lines of the Word when offence occurs.
Friends, this is greatly helped when we keep our minds on what it should be on anyway, the Word of God. If we fill our minds and hearts with God’s Word and truly cherish it, that will allow Jesus to increase his influence in our lives. When that happens a wonderful inverse reaction occurs and we (our carnal nature) decrease. When we decrease we aren’t so concerned about “us” any longer and offence doesn’t have a way to cling to us because we don’t care what people do or say to us. Excuse the grammar, but “us” doesn’t matter to us anymore.
Brothers and sisters, offence feeds on our natural inclination towards pride, on the “I.” If your “I” is little in your eyes, then offence can’t really affect you. We would be so much better off spiritually and virtually immune to the negative effects of offensive words and deeds if we would do as Colossians 3:2 states and “Set your affection on things above, not on things on this earth.” When we don’t mind the insult personally, the insult can never harm our person, and we can enjoy the great peace that Psalm 119:165 promises!
Greg Crum is the pastor of Calvary Temple in Lovely.