Today, I would like to deal with the word “offense.” Used in a variety of ways in Scripture, as it is in English: it is an infraction of law, sin, transgression, and state of being damaged. In addition, it is the act of creating resentment, hurt feelings, and displeasure.
The Greek word for “offend” in our text comes from the word scandalon. This word originally referred to the part of the trap to which the bait was attached. Therefore, the word signifies a trap, snare, stumbling block, or enticement to sin.
My topic today is, “Be careful, it’s a trap!”
As we observe and effectively deal with “this” universal human difficulty that entangles so many in guilt or grief, I must first deal with First Corinthians 1:23, which Paul declared and wrote to the Corinthian church which is still extremely common and true today. For he ardently wrote these words, “We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews is a scandal and an offensive stumbling block (that brings a snare or trap) and unto the Greeks (or our current world system) it is foolishness, absurd and utterly un-philosophical nonsense.”
Paul was saying, Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection causes offense. Let me explain clearly the word offense in this context and its derivative concerning Christ, did not mean to entice one to sin.
For Paul was not referring to Christ as an enticement to sin. For Jesus Christ purpose was to bind the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and open the prison to them that were bound by sin, shame, and sickness that was quadrant to our make up (meaning spiritually, physically, emotionally, and psychologically). Therefore, the offense Christ causes is to our perverted paradigms of thought. He is compelling us to change our thought patterns, actions, and reactions to this world’s stimuli.
As a result, why was the majority of Jews offended? First to the Jewish opinion, they were offended by the fact that a loving almighty God would allow His only begotten Son (which Jesus declared to be) to die. For it was the worst death known in degradation and humiliation in their day.
Thus, some could not accept that Jesus was the actual Christ (Y’shua), and his life, and the cross became a stumbling block to accepting His deity. Therefore, Jesus became an offense, an obstacle to some of their patterns of belief and not an enticement to commit a crime.
Therefore, was He trying to trap or entangle them in sin? No! He was trying to free them from their own deception and mental and spiritual bondages.
However, the god of this world had blinded them, duped and bamboozled some of them in believing Jesus was enticing them into physical and political oppression. This is why Christ becomes an stumbling block, for the preaching of Christ crucified, challenges their perverted perspective.
Secondly, the offense of the cross to the Greeks and to some of us now, challenges us as well. For it challenges our distorted view and it becomes an obstacle to our human psyche and pride. For the preaching of Christ crucified declares that we are guilty sinners for whom another had to die for literally. Additionally, the preaching of Christ crucified affords many of us now who are bound by pride, self-righteousness, deception in good works the opportunity to confess our sins and humble ourselves before God.
For if many would take a leap of faith and seize the opportunity of salvation which offers the opportunity of inner change, they would not experience unnecessary sufferings in the trap which our nemesis has laid to ensnare them in preventing them to pursue their purpose and predestine path of freedom.
As stated, offense or scandalon involves the conduct of the person who is injured. It denotes the enticement or occasion leading to conduct that brings with it the ruin of the person in question. In our text Luke 17:1, the concept of offense is concerned mainly with the fact that it incites certain behavior that leads, or entices one to ruin or to fall. This is why the ending of our verse admonishes us in these words, “but woe unto him, through whom (offences) come.”
Thou this caveat are to those who deliberately set out to insult, injure, or ruin ones image, it is ultimately addressing our arch enemy, Satan, who tries to pervert our passion, steal our joy (for the joy of the Lord is are strength), kill our motivation, and destroy our dreams through the ignorance of those who we care for most. Why, for we expect more from them- after all, we given more of ourselves to them as David did to Paul for instance.
As David laments in Psalms 55:12-14, which is poignant and understood by many housed in this edifies, “For it is not an enemy who reproaches me (or shame, discredits, or disgraces), then I could bear it. Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me; then I could hide from him. But it was you, a man my equal, my companion and my acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, and walked to the house of God in the throng.” This is the very reason why Satan relishes in using the ignorance of those who are close to us. For it hurts the worst from someone close because the higher the expectation, the greater the fall. But, “woe unto you Satan, whom offenses come!”
Now, getting bake to the position, which our text cautions us for the inevitable, which is the tongue of offense which causes one to feel embittered, outraged, wounded, broken, and bound in pursuing life with a passion. You must prepare yourself and be careful how you handle the inevitable. For Jesus said, “Offenses will come.”
For “offenses” are a malicious trap shaped by our falleness and orchestrated by our nemesis to entangle us from fulfilling our dreams and entering our destiny God had plan for us in His portentous mind long ago.
For Jesus made it very clear to his disciples as well as to us in our text today that it is impossible to live in this world and not have the opportunity to become offended. For in our imperfect state of being on this side of life we will offend, as well as be offended by others intentionally or unintentionally.
Therefore, lets prepare ourselves now to overcome “this inevitable” vulnerability that leads to hurt, anger, outrage, jealousy, hatred, and such like. Don’t be shocked, bewildered and appalled when the tongue of offense affects the fabric of your humanness; be prepared.
For to many allow their dreams to be dashed to pieces by the stones of offense and meander through life in bitterness becoming unproductive, ineffective, and unreliable never reaching their full potential to anticipate their destiny of success and fulfill their God given purpose; and this should not be. For it is a trap. Tell three people, “Be careful, it’s a trap!”
It’s a trap laid by Satan to ensnare you.
You ask, “How can I prepare for the inevitable? And if it does apprehend or entrap my soul, how do I overcome it?”
First, examine your self. What is it that triggers your emotions to become angry, vex, or annoyed, seeking vengeance on the person who caused the offense? Is it because of jealousy? Say with me, “Be careful, it’s a trap!”
Often the root of offense is jealousy. For instance, if a person is in line for a promotion on their job, due to diligence and dedication to the given task, and some one else is promoted instead they might get offended because of jealousy at the other person.
And that is a trap arranged by Satan, because the Bible says, “Jealousy is as cruel as the grave.”
This root of jealousy signifies the attitude of envy toward someone such as Rachel in her barren state “envied her sister” in Gen. 30:1 and in the state of envy approached Jacob: “Give me children, or else I die.” The negative connotation will cause your hopes and aspirations to die. And, if it is not jealousy, is it betrayal? Say with me, that is a trap too.
For Mathews 24:10 exclaim, “And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.”
If we examine this statement of prophetic truth, we will see a progression from betrayal to hatred. An offence leads to betrayal, and betrayal leads to hatred.
This predicament occurs by individuals seeking their own benefit or protection at the expense of another individual. As stated earlier, the closer the relation, the more severe the betrayal. To betray someone is the ultimate abandonment of a moral and spiritual covenant. Betrayal then leads to hatred, with grave consequences.
The Bible states in First John 3:15 clearly that “anyone who hates his brothers is a murderer and that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” So, “Be careful, it’s a trap” preventing you from your privilege.
Secondly, after you examine your self through prayer with the Father who knows the heart of all men, you must seek for forgiveness if He has reveled to you any hidden elements that corrupt your character, declare the words with the Psalmist David,
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
And if you are not the liable one who allowed or gave room for the fault, and the offence made was not by a misunderstanding, but a deliberate attack to besmirch your character like Absalom did against David when he drew Israel to himself and rose up against his father David in betrayal, then still extend forgiveness. For you cannot accomplish your purpose nor be satisfied in seeing your God given dreams and aspirations, exceed your reality if you are offended and holding un-forgiveness against another individual.
Finally, to prepare your-self from this inevitable universal human predicament called offense, you must abide in God’s word with an open and sincere heart. For Psalms 119:165 says, “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.”
You maybe asking, how is this even possible, well this verse is:
a.An account of the pleasure one receives when they govern themselves by a principle of love to the word of God.
b.They become safe, and have holy security because they treasure His opinion of themselves and not the opinions of others. And His word shall enable them both to hold fast their integrity and to preserve their tranquility even in the midst of falsehood and great troubles.
So, “Be careful, it’s a trap” to victimize you mentally and emotionally. Don’t fall for the game of a slighted word, a rejected glance, a deliberate lie. Accept God’s challenge to live as a servant of all. Just use your liberty in Christ to set others free from the trap, and not to assert your own rights. Follow Paul’s guideline found in 2 Corinthians 6:3, “We give no offense in anything, that our ministry (which means their lives) may not be blamed.”
