Offended

I had someone walk out on me this past Sunday at Reality Church as I spoke on a very touchy subject (part 5 in the Life Swap Series). This person was ‘hot’ to say the least…offended at what I had said and from the front, stormed out of the building briskly walking down the middle aisle uttering, “I’m not listening to this.”

But should we actually be surprised if this happens if we’re proclaiming God’s Word? And, still a bigger question is, “what if the person offended is another believer…should we be stunned then?” I don’t think so.

You see, we need to remember that we’re all on different levels of maturity in our journey with God. So it should come as no surprise that a person—even a believer in Jesus—will be offended at different stages and occasions in their Christian walk. It even happened to Jesus, recorded for us in [John 6:60-66] when his followers were offended at what he said. Many of them left him and never followed him again.

One of the things we must be careful of, though, is how we’re presenting the message of God to others. It’s possible and even easy to offend someone in about 10 second just by the way we say things.

Why am I writing about this? Because you will undoubtedly have an opportunity to share God’s truth with both those who believe and even those who don’t. And, sometimes, people get offended—even if they love God. What’s important is that we don’t add any unnecessary offense to the message of Christ. It’s imperative that we learn to “speak the truth in love” to our friends, family, and co-workers, but we make sure we are not compromising what God says for the sake of keeping everybody happy.

We’re not in a popularity contest, so keep speaking the truth in love to everyone every opportunity God gives you and don’t be surprised if some are offended or worse. Sometimes the truth hurts!

http://www.realitychurch.com/