the spirit of offence

The thought struck me this morning, that as we get further and further into the post-Christian era here in the West, the less helpful are our thoughts, attitudes and deeds. And this is never more obvious to me than the latest expression of political correctness that centers around the buzz word micro-aggression. Let me explain.

Heaven knows, I am not against being thoughtful, gentle and accepting of others. Indeed the Scripture itself admonishes us to be kind, compassionate and forgiving of one another (Ephesians 4:?). And neither, hopefully obviously, am I against helping one another to foster these attributes. But I do think we need to ask ourselves the question “If my happiness depends on changing the rest of the world so that I will not be offended, am I ever realistically going to be happy?

Secular research, appealing to our self interest, has some helpful things to say about how and why we need to deal with anger, bitterness, resentment and the like. Of course, as I keep saying, the Bible got their first. But to rely only on my self-interest to make the necessary changes, does not always cut it! What I find helpful, is knowing that my heavenly Father has promised to deal with every injustice.

He tells me for example “Offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes! (Matthew 18:7). And again “Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, "I will take revenge; I will pay them back," says the LORD” (Romans 12:19). How very different from “Don’t get mad, get even!”

To underline the agreement of the Bible with what secular psychology is saying about this, I quote Hebrews 12:15 “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up and causes you trouble, or many of you will become defiled.” So agreeing with secular psychology, holding onto bitterness, resentments and the like, causes trouble to the one holding on. But it’s worse than that, because it poisons not only the person holding on, but those that that person loves – many will become defiled!

What secular psychology does not, and cannot do, is to give us the help that comes via the grace of God. This aspect of the many faceted sides of God’s grace, has to do with Him giving us the wherewithal to do what without Him we cannot do. Not only does He help us to let go of these things and to trust Him, but in trusting Him we return to peace and hope and joy.

To say all this in a different way, there is a spirit behind the phenomenon of offense. It is the spirit of the thief who it comes for no other reason, than to kill and to steal and to destroy (John 10:10a). This enemy has been defeated, but we do need to embrace and obey the Biblical principles, before we can claim the abundant life that we are promised in the second part of that verse.

Father as You say, surely offenses must come. Lord, I am not responsible for these offenses, I am however, responsible for my response to them. But I need your help to let go, and let You deal with them. Thank You Father that You give grace to help at such times. Lord Your ways are best, and I thank You this morning, that You continue to teach them to me in Jesus Name Amen.