Thursday, June 9, 2011

An Unoffendable Christian

Be an unoffendable Christian.

"For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith." -Romans 12:3 

"Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain." -Matthew 5:38-41

To offend is to irritate, annoy, or anger; cause resentful displeasure; to affect disagreeably; to violate or transgress.

I try very hard myself to be unoffendable. I think one of the most primal and inherent quality of humans is to feel offended. We do know when people are being offensive, right? Without a doubt, we know when we are offended by others but for some strange reason, we often have to be told frankly and to be confronted when we are the one who's doing the offending. We are absolutely "clueless" when we offend other people, and isn't that just weird? I guess it's one of man's eccentricities.

And since every person is unique and different, it's very difficult not to offend anybody! Whatever you say, however you try to be nice, someone, somewhere out there, will get offended by you. They get offended by what you believe in, by your facial expressions, by your lifestyle, and even by the color of your skin! Do you ever wonder why the world has never attained a true and lasting peace? Why do you think we continue to wage wars against each other? Why do we have enemies? Or, let's just make it simple and to the point: why don't we like somebody? I find it funny when I hear someone says, "I don't like that man on the TV commercial!" Huh, what did he do to you? "Nothing. I'm just offended by his tone of voice!" Okaaay.

While grace is defined as a favor or good will; mercy, clemency, pardon; that which is freely given, an unmerited favor, and the love of God.

As Christians, we have been forgiven so much. God has already paid for the penalty for all the bad, evil, and wicked things we did and those that we will do in the future! Do we deserve such forgiveness and love? I don't feel like I do. Nevertheless, God has done it already! He has offered me His love, mercy, forgiveness and salvation by His grace alone. All I have to do is accept it and trust in Him.

Since we have been forgiven much, we must also forgive and serve much. God wants us to be rooted and grounded in Him so we can tap into His boundless grace and overcome our struggles and any offense that are hurled our way. I keep telling myself this: there is nothing else anybody can ever do to me that was not done to my Savior. Jesus bore it all! He was offended beyond measure, slandered and spat at from Gethsemane all the way to the cross on Calvary. Even until now, in all His glory at the right hand of the Father in heaven, people still mock and slander Him. They continue to say offensive things about and to Him. There is nothing more people can say or do to me that should offend me. And I keep on telling this to myself so my heart will also believe it as well as my mind. Sadly, I'm only human.

It's always been my prayer for God to help me see people the same way He sees them. To be long-suffering and to love the people He died for. I know it's hard to deal with different kinds of characters and personalities but with God’s grace and by the power of the Holy Spirit we can make the decision to love each other no matter how difficult. And importantly, to learn how to be unoffendable.

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