Offense

Sunday Message Summary, 5 March 2023

Offense is one of the most powerful weapons and tools that the devil uses to attack the Church. The devil comes through anger, resentment, unforgiveness, and bitterness to defile the Church to the extent that one offended Christian contaminates and defiles many innocent Christians (Hebrews 12:14-15). This is why we should never entertain offense. Even if it is true that we have been wronged, we should not take offense because it is of the devil and he does not come except to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). When we are offended, we often stop serving GOD, we stop attending church, or we even start moving from church to church. This is when we are under Satan’s control. It is for this reason that offense has no place in the Church of Jesus Christ.

With offense, the devil takes advantage of how we feel and what has been done to us, and because offense is personal, we become neither objective nor rational, but very subjective. Offense is thus an issue of the senses and the flesh. It is an issue of the fallen sinful nature. Offense opens a door for sin to enter into our lives, and if we don’t rule over sin, sin will rule over us. Cain, for example, became sad, depressed, and crestfallen because GOD accepted the offering of his brother, Abel, and not his. What began as offense became sadness, then anger, and eventually became murder (Genesis 4:4-8). The source of all offense is therefore sin. Offense is impossible to avoid but there is a way in Scripture of how to deal with it. Anger is a human response, but it leads to sin when we harbor offense (Ephesians 4:26-27). This is how we give way to the devil to steal, kill and destroy. 

Cain represents many Christians who are attacked with the weapon of offense. Offense caused Cain to distort the facts and reality of what was going on, and he stopped being rational. In the company of 3 (GOD, Cain, and Abel), Cain was the only one who was wrong, yet he is the one who was crying foul. When we are offended, we often feel that the only thing that matters is us and our feelings, so the responsible thing to do is to doubt ourselves when we are offended because we become subjective. This is why we must never listen to an offended person and come to a conclusion because there are always 2 sides to a story. Furthermore, when we are offended, we often shift blame and the only thing we want is for someone to side with us because we allow our emotions to get the better of us, to the extent that nobody can reason with us. Even GOD couldn’t reason with Cain when He tried (Genesis 4:6-7). What we further learn from Cain is that offense causes us to isolate ourselves from others, it causes us to lie to cover up our own irrationality, and it causes us to despise authority (Genesis 4:9). Offense is selfish, self-centered, and fired up by pride. It reveals a narcissistic behavior within us.

Offense does not come from outside of us, but it comes from within (Matthew 15:18-20). Offense is a spirit that takes advantage of a person. This is why we must guard our hearts with all diligence (Proverbs 4:23).  Stephen, for example, though he was justified to be offended, had no bitterness or resentment in him, but he was full of the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:54-60). A person full of the Holy Spirit has no business taking offense. GOD is love, so when we come against injustice we must respond with love because that is where the power is. Stephen’s response of forgiveness opened Heaven, but only GOD knows where Stephen would have gone had he died with unforgiveness in his heart.

GOD is love, so when we come against injustice we must respond with love because that is where the power is.