Should We Offend?

I’ve spent about half of my time as a Christian with no qualms about offending anyone. I wore the term “Jesus freak” with pride and my zeal knew no bounds. I justified my offending of others by claiming that as long as I was speaking truth, I was in the right. I felt like if I suffered for the sake of Christ, I was doing my duty and I was storing up treasures in heaven.

The other half of my Christian-life has been spent loving my neighbor as the 2nd greatest commandment tells us to do. I’ve made non-Christian friends, dined with “tax collectors and sinners”, and taken up the cause of the poor and downtrodden. I felt like I had seen and heard enough hell, fire, and brimstone to last a lifetime; and I didn’t want to be grouped with the intolerant, closed-minded crowd.

Offending people is a delicate issue, and both of the stances I’ve taken in my life have BIBLICAL merit. But as we look at the life and teachings of Jesus, I made an interesting discovery: He did BOTH! He unashamedly offended people with the gospel, while offering life instead of condemnation to those that needed it.

We have got to be more deliberate in how we handle this topic! It is one of the primary ways that non-Christians judge us. “But the Bible talks about judging”… non-Christians don’t know that!

There is a MAJOR difference between offending someone unnecessarily out of ignorance and offending them intentionally out of love! We need to do BOTH… the health of our ministries depends on it!