My gym workouts are made bearable by three things: I know I need them, I go with my handsome hubby, and I watch podcasts that feed my spirit!
Today’s teaching came with a challenge*:
“Become unoffendable!”1
Wow… Think about that for a bit. I know it made me pause and process.
Our current American culture seems to be looking for offense around every rock and tree. People of all ages and socioeconomic levels are embracing the tendency to be offended by any opinion that differs than their own.
As believers, we should be different, right?
Sadly, Christians have a well-deserved reputation of being easily offended. We (and I use that word broadly) may find offense in how people dress, their political views, their colorful vocabulary, their opinions, and so on.
Conversely, Jesus was not offended… not by the poor, or by the demon-possessed, or by the coarse laborers, or by those caught in sin. In fact, Jesus was not even offended by the doubters or the soldiers that nailed Him to the cross.
Jesus was and is the epitome of “Unoffendable!”
Have you ever found yourself in a conversation with a new friend and felt a real connection to them? They like the same music as you, share the same tastes in food, and even have similar views on raising kids. You think, “Wow, this is a great person. I hope we can hang out again!” But then, a subject comes up that throws a wrench in that plan… a strong moral opinion, an opposing political view, a different stand on social topic, etc. and you emotionally slam on the brakes. “Woah, I guess we are not as in sync a I imagined! I can’t believe they think that way.” Thus begins an emotional withdrawal process because they are not as like us as we originally thought.
When we encounter people like ourselves, we feel validated. Our human tendencies are to gravitate towards people who are similar to us. We like when we see ourselves reflected in others! However, we give ourselves permission to dislike or disassociate ourselves from people who are different than us. We may even allow ourselves to dishonor people who do not share our beliefs or our way of life. This is not the example that Jesus set for you and I.
{Caveat: There’s a difference between honoring people and allowing people authority in our lives. It is not wise or healthy to allow just anyone the opportunity to speak into our lives. However, we should honor all people as valuable.}
Consider Philippians 2:3-5 in the Passion Translation:
3 Be free from pride-filled opinions, for they will only harm your cherished unity. Don’t allow self-promotion to hide in your hearts, but in authentic humility put others first and view others as more important than yourselves. 4 Abandon every display of selfishness. Possess a greater concern for what matters to others instead of your own interests. 5 And consider the example that Jesus, the Anointed One, has set before us. Let his mindset become your motivation.
How easy it is for us, believers or not, to major on the minors! As a friend recently said, “We tend to elevate the ways we are different instead of celebrating the ways we are the same.”2 Not only should we celebrate ways that we are the same, but we should choose to honor others in spite of or even because of our differences. We don’t have to agree with others to appreciate who they are as a person. The beauty of diversity is the richness it brings to our sometimes ethnocentric lives.
WWJD is more than a slogan! It is a reminder to us to think like Jesus thinks! We as believers have the mind of Christ (I Corinthians 2:16) and the power of the Holy Spirit vibrating in us! When we encounter people who believe differently than us, spout contrary opinions, or embrace a lifestyle contrary to our way of thinking, we can still choose to honor them and treat them with the love that the Heavenly Father carries in His heart for them. We can choose to be unoffendable!
I’m convicted! I’m challenged! How about you?
Live Loved,
1Listen to Danny Silk’s complete teaching on being unoffendable here.
2James Dodzweit teaches on Church Unity here.
*Originally published by DiscoveringJoy.net on June 18th, 2018
SO GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!1
Thank you! 🙂
Love, love, love, this, Joy. Am I just seeing that this can be pinned? Pinning now!!! That God you are writing!
Meant, thank not that. Blessings!!!
Praise God! I love when He opens our hearts to His truth and challenges us to grow! Thank you for sharing! <3
Thank you Joy for your post. I loved what you stated about being unoffendable. Please let me humbly make a couple of comments to compliment you. I loved the Passion Translation of Philippians 2:3-5. I agree with you that often we, as believers in the One who loves us, do not recognize that He has forgiven and forgotten the minor things about us as well as the major. (With Him of course they are all major). Do I see and judge others after their faults? Before we even responded to His gift of salvation, He had already dealt with all our faults at Calvary. Therefore, if we see others as He sees them, our response to differences is tolerance in things that do not count in the final analysis. We see them complete in Him! That is a good tolerance. We should not get offended with what God has forgiven and forgotten. I love:
ESV 2 Corinthians 10:4-5
4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,
These verses make it clear that it is HOW I think about my encounters with others and that I recognize WHAT is behind my thinking that makes me effective in revealing Christ.
‘Not of the flesh’ can mean being judgmental and critical about an individual who is struggling with strongholds in their lives.
The pharisee finds no time to allow for what does not meet his selfish personal worldview and is quick to enter into comparative righteousness. Jesus did not do that with the woman caught in adultery. In fact, He never rebuked her for her sin.
When the Christian is first saved, he has baggage to be delivered from. (Is he ever completely delivered until he meets Jesus? I am not sure. At least I still have a lot of unresolved baggage.) As the Philippians passage that you quoted states, the believer must focus on expressing the humility of Christ in patience to help others meet Christ. The believer’s self-worth is a work in progress all his or her life to become settled and mature in who he or she is in Christ.
We all need help and we can only help others when Christ truly controls our life.
Sometimes, it is hard to comprehend, that my identity is not what I do or think, but it is Who Jesus IS working in me. We are all unique because God created us that way. Therefore, there is no mold or box I need to fit into to somehow satisfy someone else’s concept of what I ought to be. The work of the Cross is the offense in my life that brings me to personal victory over my flesh. As Christ’s servants, He will cause us to stand:
ESV Romans 14:4
Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
That’s why Jesus’s unconditional love cannot be lived without my being possessed by Him:
ESV 1 Corinthians 13:1-8
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.
7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
I appreciate your additional thoughts on this! It is challenging for us to set aside our human tendencies, perspectives, prejudices, and so much more and pick up the mind and heart of Christ. Yet, as we submit ourselves to Him, we grow daily as we allow Him to work in and through us! Thank you again for your wise input! 🙂