Time and
time again in the Bible, we find examples of where doing or saying what is
pleasing to God causes offence.
Old Testament examples
The
prophets in Old Testament times often offended people.
See, for
example, Exodus 15:22-25; 16:1-12; 17:3-4; Numbers 14:1-10; 1 Kings 13:1-10; 18:1-19;
19:1-3; 22:5-28; Jeremiah 11:18-23; 20:1-18; 26:7-15,
20-23; 32:1-5; 37:11-38:28; Amos 7:10-13.
Besides
the prophets, others also caused offence for doing God’s will.
Examples can
be found in 1 Samuel 18:10-22:23; 24:1-22; Nehemiah 2:9-10, 17-20; 4:1-8;
6:1-14; Esther 3:1-6; Daniel 3:1-23; 6:1-24.
Jesus often offended
In the
Gospels, we often read about Jesus offending people:
·
Aged
twelve, He remains in Jerusalem
·
He infuriates people in His home synagogue by implying that they
are far outside the will of God. (Luke
4:16-30)
·
He tells a man that his sins are forgiven, angering some of those
who are present. (Matthew 9:1-8; Mark
2:1-12; Luke 5:17-26)
·
He does things on the Sabbath that greatly annoy the Pharisees and
others. (e.g., Matthew 12:1-14; Mark 2:23-3:6;
Luke 6:1-11; 13:10-17; 14:1-6; John 9:1-34)
·
He makes divine claims for Himself, with the result that people
try to kill Him. (John 5:18 ; 8:58 -59)
·
He tells a man whose father is dead or dying to let the dead bury
their own dead. (Matt 8:21 -22; Luke 9:59-60)
·
He calls Peter ‘Satan’ and Herod Antipas a ‘fox’. (Matthew 16:23; Mark 8:33; Luke 13:32)
·
He describes those listening to Him as children of the devil. (John 8:44)
·
He frequently criticises the Pharisees and scribes in the
strongest of terms. (e.g., Matthew 16:6;
23:1-36; Mark 8:15 ; 12:38 -40; Luke 11:37 -52; 12:1; 20:45 -47)
·
He tells the Sadducees that they don’t understand the Scriptures
or the power of God. (Matthew 22:29;
Mark 12:24 )
·
He uses a parable that likens His audience to murderers. (Matthew 21:33-46; Mark 12:1-12; Luke
20:9-19)
·
He violently drives people out of the temple precincts. (Matthew 21:12-13; Mark 11:15-17; Luke 19:45-46;
John 2:13-17)
·
When He is tried by the Sanhedrin, the high priest tears his robes
in fury at what He has said and He is sentenced to death. (Matthew 26:62-68; Mark 14:60-65)
We should
not be in any doubt, then, that Jesus often chose to do things that caused
offence. He never let what people
thought about Him stop Him from doing the will of God. Nor did He allow social conventions to get in
the way. And when He was confronted by
things that were wrong, He frequently didn’t pull His punches in criticising
what He saw. During His earthly
ministry, causing offence was quite simply one of the major ways in which Jesus
affected people.
The early church often offended
From the
New Testament it is clear that the early church often caused offence too.
We find constant references to persecution of Christians by both
Jews and Gentiles, including:
Matthew 10:17-23; Mark 10:30; 13:9-13; John 15:18-21; 16:1-4; Acts 4:1-22; 5:17-41; 6:8-8:1;
9:1-2, 23-24, 29; 12:1-5; 13:44-51 14:1-23; 16:16-40;
17:5-9, 13-15; 18:12-17; 19:23-41; 21:27-26:32; Romans 8:35-37; 12:14; 2
Corinthians 11:23-26; 12:10; Galatians 1:13; 4:29; Philippians 1:28-30; Colossians
4:18; 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16; 2 Timothy 2:9-10; 3:12; 4:16; Hebrews 10:32-34; 13:3,
23; 1 Peter 3:14; 4:4, 12-19; 1 John 3:13; Revelation 1:9; 2:10, 13; 6:9-11.
Clearly this persecution took place because some of what the early
Christians did and said was found to be offensive.
Most Jews of the time were offended by the idea of a crucified
Messiah. And they often lashed out at
those who proclaimed one.
Gentiles got offended that Jews were getting offended, seeing
Christians as responsible for civil unrest.
And they also frequently became hostile when Christians spoke out
against various forms of immorality that were practised in Greco-Roman society.
Like Jesus, then, early Christians were clearly in the habit of offending
people.
The Christian message
of good news is offensive today
There is
no reason for thinking that followers of Jesus today should expect to be any
less offensive than Christians in the early church.
The Christian
message of good news is, in part, that people are in the wrong, that they need
to change, and that if they don’t they will pay a terrible price after death.
Generally
speaking, people don’t like being told that they are in the wrong, they resent
being told to change, and they have little sympathy with those who warn them
that bad things are coming their way. They
get offended.
In some
popular Christian thinking there seems to be the idea that when the good news
is proclaimed, non-Christians will either respond positively to it or they will
simply not be interested.
In the
Bible, however, we find a wider range of reactions. Some people respond positively. Some are uninterested. But many respond in a hostile manner. And we should expect all these reactions
today.
Our job
is to shine the light in front of people.
But for many, when that light shines in their eyes, it causes discomfort
and they respond with hostility.
Other ways in which we should
expect to offend
It is not
just by directly proclaiming the good news that we should expect to cause
offence. There are other ways too in
which this will often happen if we are following Jesus as we should.
For
example, as Christians our moral values are bound to conflict with those of the
society in which we live. And when we
criticise sinful practices we will often be hated for it. That is normal procedure the world over. It is not a sign that we have done anything
wrong.
It is
also very common for Christians to find themselves in situations where doing
the will of God means offending family members.
The Bible warns us about the need to put God above our families (Matthew
10:37 ; 19:29 ; Mark 10:29 -30; Luke 14:26 ; 18:29 -30). And we must therefore take proper account of
these warnings.
All too
often, without seeking God’s will, Christians fit their behaviour and schedules
to meet the expectations of family members, sometimes almost automatically.
However,
Christian discipleship is a much more radical thing than is often realised. Being a Christian means making Jesus the
exclusive Lord of our lives. Everything
we do without exception should be submitted to Him. And we must therefore be diligent and
determined not to let anything or anyone get in the way of our devotion to
Christ.
Biblical instruction not to cause
offence
Although we
can expect often to offend people, there are also places in Scripture where we
are told to take care not to cause offence (e.g., 1 Corinthians 10:32 -33; 2 Corinthians 6:3). Even Jesus can be found acting in this way at
times (e.g., Matthew 17:27 ).
This,
however, is very different from what we have been thinking about above. It has to do with situations in which
offending people is not a necessary consequence of doing the will of God.
When we
can do God’s will without offending people, we should certainly be careful not
to cause offence. In fact, I am sure
that we should often go out of our way in an effort not to offend, even when that
means doing things we find unnecessary.
However,
on those occasions when the will of God does cause offence, we should never
shrink from offending. Nor should we think
that we must have done something wrong when we meet with hostility.
Taking stock
If
offending non-Christians is not part of our Christian experience, we should ask
God if we might be doing something wrong.
As we have seen, the Bible makes it abundantly clear that following Jesus
and causing offence typically go hand in hand.
So if we are not offending people, that is probably a sign that all is
not well.
See also:
