A Christian Offensive

I am an alien. I don’t mean that in an extraterrestrial way or even that I’m some super special bright and shining star. I mean, I’m the odd man out. Not with some deep seated noble core like some hero in a fairy tale. I’m a wretch saved by the grace of God and the only good things I’ve ever done is what He CAUSED me to do.

Let’s get that right out there in the open straight away shall we?

I’m an alien in the way I can’t help but stand in stark contrast to the world around me.
I don’t try to be, I just am. The world flows and I’m the river stone.
Maybe I’ll get smoother but I’ll always be there.


The culture in which I live has a list of cardinal sins. It has replaced the first four commandments with one: Thou Shalt Not Offend.

We’ve thrown out covet and lust, those are old fashioned. Don’t murder or steal is “mutually beneficial” so we’ll hang on to those.

…but whatever you do… don’t offend.

In fact being offended is automatically being insulted, even though the dictionary would disagree. Merriam Webster would argue being insulted requires intentional choice for the purpose of hurting someone in some way. A jab, if you will. An offense is a blank canvas of a word. It can be justified or unjustified. It can be intentional or unintentional. An insult is a very specific type of offense.

Consider this, people are told that everyone has their right to their truth and their perspective and all perspectives are just as valid (except for the perspectives that would argue to the contrary, those are “obviously wrong”). And the root of self esteem is… well… the root of all sin.

You don’t have to be a bible scholar to know the root of all sin.

Idolatry.

Our culture has replaced honoring God with honoring self.

This is a problem for me though because we are supposed to be in the world and not of it. We are supposed to submit to the governance of God’s Word, not the opinions of over educated people with abbreviations in front of their names.

No, the nerdiness of that has not escaped me. Moving on…

So let us reason together and think about what really happens when we feel insulted. I mean honestly, when someone offers correction of any sort, why do we bristle? 

Think about it… we bristle because before we could ever articulate it the back of our mind spools its ordinance and flicks the safety off ready to let loose its payload of:

“How dare you talk to ME like that, don’t you know who I deserve something better?”

Why? I think the reason for that is our sinful flesh which we must continually war against by the power of the Holy Spirit.

I believe Jesus is very clear on what sin is; a disposition of the heart resulting in the outflow of sinful behavior. 

I’ve thought about this a lot. A lot. I think the bible says a lot about how we ought to live life particularly in reference to others. 

We ought to put others first.
We ought to forgive and forgive and forgive and forgive…
We ought to be patient and long suffering.
We ought to be kind.
We ought to be gentle.
We ought not complain.
We ought not gossip.
We ought to edify.
We ought to build up
We ought love our enemies and our brothers.
We ought to contend for the truth without being quarrelsome.
We ought to submit to scripture. 

Do you see a pattern? Service.

When God entered into this filthy broken fallen sinful corrupt train wreck of a world did He put people in their place or did He stoop down and wash the filthy feet of his friends… including the enemy He knew would sell him for a bag of silver? Okay He was indignant at times and was offending people a whole lot but from what I can tell that was only in defense of the truth.

Him who should always be first made Himself LAST even to the point of dying on a cross under the wrath of God to save the very sinners who put Him there.

People are very quick to pull the WWJD card when it comes to all sorts of issues but what about the cardinal sin? Thou shalt not be offended... but Jesus offended people.

How can we take offense at correction in light of this? How can we feel insulted even if we DO have understandable reasons? How can we be Christians with God living inside of us and get indignant at the thought of someone quoting scripture to us?

How can we an example to the world of how much Christ is worth if we don’t even accept correction from one another?

I’m not talking to the world. I’m talking to you, my brothers and sisters in Christ.

From what I can tell if we’re doing our job… we should be offended and be offending on a regular basis. 

Now what do I mean by that?

Probably not what you think.

Here’s what I DON’T mean by that: I don’t mean we should seek to be offended in some masochistic way I don’t mean we should try to offend people for the sake of offending them.

Here’s what I DO mean by that: if we are submitting to scripture our flesh ought to be pricked and if we are good lamps contending for the truth and iron sharpening iron surely we will offend.

OR does the sword not lose some of its steel on the sharpening file?
I struggle with being gentle while still delivering truth but ya know what is worse? When I didn’t struggle at all or when I just forsook the truth. See, I’m not saying this because I’m some awesome standup Christian who does everything right. I say this constantly because I NEED forgiveness and patience constantly. I say clumsy things a LOT. I try to always tell the truth. I don’t care if it makes you feel awkward and because ultimately I don’t care if it makes me feel awkward because LOVE and TRUTH are IMPORTANT things I see completely twisted ALL over the place in our culture.

This is not a painless process. This is not the easy road. No, I will not simply tell you to quit being a baby and switch on your humility drive. Just like I can’t simply switch on my “gentle tactful” drive. It doesn’t work like that.

We all struggle with various things to different degrees. I don’t struggle with cussing and I have a unbelievable reservoir of patience with discussing anything with anybody but I struggle being careful to find the right thing to say which will deliver the truth in an effective manner yet only be as hard as it needs to be.

Here’s the deal. It’s not an offer, it’s what we’re supposed to do. I’m going to keep trying to tell the truth in love and be kind to people the best way I know how and I need you to show me how to do that better. If you know me I know this kind of feels like a raw deal. I get to offend and be a jerk while you have to forgive the guy who doesn’t really struggle with letting go of things (anymore). There’s a long story behind it but it’s the work God has done in me.

But here’s the thing about that. God is real. Christ is in me and I am in Christ.

If He is in me and you trust Him with your soul could you please trust Him with…

…mine?