We are starting a series on a very serious subject. This is a subject matter that is
limiting 99% of Christians in our Spiritual walk. We are starting on the theme-Rise
Above the Offense
All around us; everywhere you turn and everywhere you find yourself, people are so
easily offended. We find ourselves in a world where everyone-Christians and non
Christians alike are expected to take offense at every action; we are quick to exercise
the right to take offense and to vent against anyone who offends us. In our work places;
in our family relationships; in the social media; in public places, and unfortunately even
in the Church environment, taking offense; expressing our displeasure and making the
offender pay for offending us is the order of the day. We are so angry! And we strike
back and hurt others because we are hurt!
In Mathew 24:10, 12 Jesus said-And many shall be offended and shall betray one
another and shall hate one another. Jesus included a warning indicating that a spirit of
offense would manifest as one of the end time signs. I guess this is a warning to us that
we are gradually walking towards the end times.
I tell you the truth- this subject is challenging me and I am learning a lot from it. Today
we shall start the series with the topic – The Stumbling Block of Offense.
I tried to understand the historical meaning of the phrase-to take offense and what I
discovered is quite interesting. The phrase to offend is derived from the original Greek
word Skandalon which could mean two things. It means a stumbling block. Skandalon is
also the small part of a mouse trap that grips a mouse as soon as it touches the trap. As
soon as the mouse makes contact with the trap, the scandalon springs up and holds the
mouse down. So when you take offense, it means you have come against a stumbling
block which is likely to cause you to fall. An offense is a stumbling block that would
hinder the progress of your spiritual walk. When you take offense, it also means you
have been caught in a trap that the devil set for you.
Taking offense is the Satan’s trap to cause us to come against a stumbling block. Satan
goes out of his way to sow the seed of offense in our hearts in order to distract us. He
urges us to read meanings into innocent comments. He provokes us to get into
unnecessary and fruitless arguments. It’s important that we have the last say. He
convinces us of our right to take offense because we have been hurt. He reasons that if
we do not react, the offender would offend us again. He whispers to us that people do
not have respect for us.

The devil always sets us up to get us to take offense because he knows that the easiest
way to frustrate us and stop us from making progress in our spiritual walk; to stop us
from bearing fruit; to deny us of the peace of knowing the Lord; the fastest route to
spiritual powerlessness is to be caught in the trap of offense. So offense is a stumbling

block to spiritual growth. Your spiritual growth would be stunted if you are caught in the
web of-that girl insulted me; that sister did not greet me; that caterer refused to give me
food; nobody cares for me and so on.
You know what I mean because you know the emotions you feel when you see that
sister that insulted you in Church. You know how you stayed awake all night rehashing
the angry exchange between you and your colleagues at work or members of your
family. You know how many times you try to study the bible and all you can see are the
lies that Esther told about you. You know how many times you have changed your place
of worship because of disagreements about the mode of worship or because that
happened in him upset you.
Taking offense is probably the greatest stumbling block we face as Christians. It has a
toxic effect on the mind, it distorts our perspective to issues because when you are
offended you see things you normally would not see. Taking offense hardens our hearts
to the Word of God and the voice of the Holy Spirit. When you are offended you ignore
the gentle voice of the Holy Spirit. Off course when you are offended you only see the
speck in the offender’s eye. You don’t notice the log in your own eye. You rationalize
your own actions.
So why do we take offense? Am sure that sounds like an unnecessary question.
Because the devil has convinced most of us that it is a natural reaction and only human
to take offense when we are upset because it is the offender’s fault. But this is not quite
true. Because taking offense is actually a choice.
Whether we are prone to taking offense is a function of the condition of our hearts.
When He was explaining the parable of the Sower in Mark 4, Jesus said that the second
type of heart-the seed sown on rocky soil represents those who hear the message of
the Gospel and immediately receive it with joy. But because they do not have deep
roots, they fall away as soon as they have problems and persecutions come their way.
The KJV says that –when persecution and affliction ariseth for the word’s sake,
immediately they are offended. So when we lack spiritual roots, we are prone to taking
offense. When we are not growing spiritually, we are more sensitive to conflicts,
criticisms, disagreements, false allegations and other negative actions. When we are
not sensitive to the things of the Spirit and our hearts are not properly plugged into a
peaceful relationship with God, we get easily agitated and are prone to take offense. If
you are frequently offended, you need to examine your walk with the Holy Spirit.
Note that Jesus says here that persecutions and afflictions would arise. Luke 6:32-33
tells us-“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love
those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you? What credit is that to
you? Even sinners do that? The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 13:5 that love is not easily
provoked or offended. And Jesus said in Luke 17:1 that offenses would surely come. So
the objective of this teaching is not to investigate into our right to take offense. The
objective of this teaching is to accept the inevitability of the fact that people would upset
us and hurt us by their words and actions but to intentionally decide to escape the

devil’s traps; to escape the stumbling blocks of offenses and rise above offenses when
they come; and we can do this with the help of the Holy Spirit.
King David concludes the matter in Psalm 119:165 with the pronouncement – “Great
peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them. To rise above
offenses, we need to be at peace with God. We `must find the peace and calmness of
the soul that comes from hiding the word of God in our hearts.
So it’s really all about how sensitive we are to the word of God and the voice and
promptings of the Holy Spirit. Most of the time, we take offense because we do not
value the word of God. When people label us, call us names and accuse us, we take
offense and start reacting as a result of the fact that we place the words of others above
the word of God. If you know who you are in Christ; and believe what He says about
you, then why would you get worked up and take offense when someone says the
opposite about you? If someone accuses you of saying something you did not say; or
acting in a way you did not act; or looks down on you because you do not measure up
to his standards; you take offense to such actions because you value that person’s
words above God’s pronouncements about your person and your identity in Him. Think
about it. If someone approaches you now and says to you that your house or your car
does not belong to you, would you take that person serious to the extent of getting into
an argument with them? You will not because you have no doubt the house or car
belongs to you. So if you know your identity in Christ and where God places you in the
scheme of things, you would most likely not take offense as much as you do over none
issues in the eyes of God.
The condition of our hearts is determined by how much of the word of God we have
hidden in our hearts. When we have saturated our hearts with the word of God, it will
heal and calm our emotions; we would find it easy to ignore those voices and utterances
that contradict the word of God about who we are in Christ. The result is that we would
begin to overlook words and actions that would normally hurt and upset us.