Matthew 11:6 - No Offense

Friday 3/23/12 No Offense

Matthew 11:6 – “And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.”

Interpretation:

     You ever have that decision to make? You know, the one where you can either follow the crowd or stand up for God and follow Him at the risk of looking silly or being made fun of? The one where you can either abandon God when things get tough or stick in there? The one where you can continue to follow what God says or just give up on His ways? Unfortunately, when those times come, it’s so easy to be offended because of God and forsake Him and His ways. After all, Jesus tells us that if we want to follow Him, we should count the cost. But He also tells us from this verse that if we do decide to follow and are not offended because of Him, we’ll be blessed. So this is one of those questions Christians must ask themselves often: “Is the blessing of not being offended because of Jesus worth the cost of following Him?”

     History and the Bible are filled with a huge number of people that had to make this decision and chose to stand for God. Look at Daniel and his example, for instance. Darius passed a law that anyone who prays to anyone but him would be thrown into the lion’s den. The peer pressure was on, but that didn’t stop Daniel. Daniel still prayed as usual. He was thrown into the lion’s den, but God delivered him. Daniel had a choice whether to continue praying to God or not. And because he chose not to be offended because of God and not to give into peer pressure, he was blessed enough to see the power of God as the mouths of the lions were shut. Imagine if he did give into peer pressure – even just for the period of time until the law was over. Then he would have never been thrown into the lion’s den, and he would have never seen the power of God shutting the mouths of the lions.

     How about us? When the world around us is telling us that we’re silly for believing in the Bible, do we give into peer pressure and suppress our relationship and prayer life with God, and in the process forfeit a chance of seeing God’s power work in our lives? The world may say that we’re sill for believing in God, but when we continue to seek Him daily like Daniel did, eventually God will reveal His power and prove that our faith in Him was not as silly as the world makes it out to be.

     Besides Daniel’s example, another example of a person who made the choice to stand up for God was the apostle John. At the moment Jesus was arrested, His apostles all fled. But later, we see John at Jesus’ cross. He made a choice not to be intimidated by any trials or persecution that might come with identifying with Jesus, and because of that, he got to see Jesus as He demonstrated the greatest act of His love and provision toward us by dying on the cross.

     If we forsake Jesus when times get tough, we’re going to miss the opportunity to see how He would have come through in our trials. Just like John’s case, it’s when we aren’t offended because of Jesus and stick through the trials He’s allowed in our lives, that we’ll be able to better see His love and provision in our lives.

     A third example of a person who followed God no matter what is Joseph. Some people can get offended because of God due to His rules and morals. “God’s too narrow-minded,” they think. “He just doesn’t want us to have any fun; He wants us to be miserable.” Joseph, however, refused to let himself think that way. God allowed him to be sold into slavery – quite miserable if you ask me. However, this young man still didn’t forsake God but continued to obey His rules. Even when Potiphar’s wife tried to entice him, Joseph stood strong; and for what? Just to get thrown into prison! But while Joseph was following God’s commands for his life, God was working everything out so that one day Joseph would be second in command. Likewise, God has a plan for us, but if we give up following His ways because we think it will get us nowhere, we’re going to miss out on what we could have been for God.

     So whether it’s peer pressure, trials, “narrow-minded” rules, or something else, if we get offended because of God or something He’s doing in our lives and we turn from Him, we’re only hurting ourselves and missing out on a blessing. He wants to show us His power; He wants to show us His love and provision; and He wants to show us what we can be in Him. But if we get offended and turn from Him during these times, we won’t stick around long enough to see the blessing He’ll do through these tough times.

     “Okay,” you might say. “These are all great examples, but let’s get real now. What about those people in history and the Bible who weren’t offended because of Jesus but got persecuted and even died for Him? There are lots of those examples too. What does the Bible say about those people?” Well, in Hebrews 11 we have what some people term as “The Hall of Faith.” These are the people who had faith in God and their acts showed that they weren’t offended because of Him. In verses 35-40, it talks about the people who were persecuted and died. Speaking of them, it says that the world was not worthy of them. In fact, verse 39 tells us that all these people of faith did not receive the blessing or promise this side of Heaven. But the key verse in this whole chapter is found in verse 16: “But now they desire a better [country], that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.”

     History and the Bible give us example after example of these heroes who refused to be offended because of God. And although many times they got blessed on this earth because they got to see God’s faithfulness when they wouldn’t forsake Him, the ultimate blessing that they – and we ourselves – receive is the blessing of knowing a God who is not ashamed of us and who has prepared a city for us in heaven that is so amazing that it’s beyond what we can even imagine. On the flip side, however, Jesus says in Mark 8:38 and Luke 9:26 that if we are ashamed of Him, He’ll be ashamed of us when He comes in His glory. I don’t know about you, but I think that the blessings of standing strong for Jesus greatly outweigh the temporary costs. So I’ve made my choice next time that decision comes around, have you made yours?

Application:

     I will ask God to help me stand strong for Him when the decision comes to either abandon Him or stand for Him. At the end of the day, I’ll see if I was faced with this choice at all and what I did.