Does This Offend You?

Our present day culture seems to have taken the practice of being offended and raised it to a whole new level. These days, if you say almost anything, someone will take offense. And even if you say nothing at all some people will find a reason to be offended at that. To suggest that someone is wrong or needs improvement or is in any way less than perfect is offensive. No wonder that many people don’t want to talk religion. People being offended at Jesus’ teaching is nothing new. In John 6:41-66 Jesus taught some things that were hard for many of his disciples to understand and accept. In verse 61 Jesus asked them, “Does this offend you?” Later we read, “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.” (verse 66). There are many things in scripture that can be hard to accept. Many things taught in the bible can require us to make hard choices. When we are confronted by one of these “hard sayings” we can be “offended” and refuse to listen or we can accept what God’s word teaches and make the changes we need to make. When many of Jesus’ disciples chose to no longer walk with Him, Jesus asked the apostles, “Do you also want to go away?” Peter answering for the twelve, said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:67-68). Many things that God requires of us are difficult to do and no one likes to have their faults and shortcomings pointed out. But when we come upon one of these “hard sayings” in the bible we need to put aside the temptation to “be offended” and instead examine our lives objectively in the mirror of God’s word (James 1:25) and make such changes as are necessary. There are many religious groups who work very hard at never offending anyone as in 2 Timothy 4:3-4, which tells us “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” But we need to remember the words of Peter, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”