Psalm 119:165 Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them. (KJV)Great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble. (ESV)
As I continue to reflect on what I've learned about pastoral ministry and pride, I must confront the issue of getting easily offended.
I have always heard the above verse as a defense against those who get easily offended. It must be because they don't love God's law and for that reason, they feel offended. The Biblical word for "offend" is to stumble into a sin. In modern English we use the word to mean that one has been caused a displeasure or that his feelings were wounded. I can understand getting offended (in the English sense of the word) by certain things: People that play loud music with cursing in front of my wife when we are in a parking lot or at a stop light offends me. Why? I don't want her to hear that kind of filth. Comments against people's ethnicity offends me because racism is wicked and I am married to someone of a different race than me. I also take offence to that because other nationalities are loved by God and there is no difference. I also get offended by those who talk trash about our country because millions of men and women paid with their lives and blood to give this country freedom! I get offended when I hear people use God's name in vain. I don't believe this kind of an offence is wrong because it is over the concern of someone else and not primarily myself. In these examples: namely God, my wife, ethnic minorities and U.S. war veterans.
I believe that the kind of offence that we take which is primarily focused on ourselves is to stumble into the sin of pride. Here's what I mean...if I say to you "you offended me" because of something that I took as an insult directed toward myself, then I am revealing how highly I think of myself. I think that I am too good to be treated that way, and that I deserve something of higher value and esteem from you. I actually have a sense of superiority about myself that makes me esteem myself more dignified or valuable than you or anyone else.
Let me give you an example: I read that Jennifer Lopez doesn't appreciate it when people who are of a lesser social status than her, look her directly in the eyes. Why? Because to look at someone in they eyes is in a sense to make yourself their equal. So if a bell-hop at a hotel looks at her in the eyes, she is offended that someone of his financial and social stature would dare think she is his equal. This is the epitome of arrogance and pride.
As Christians, we need to be careful that we do not get offended because our pride has been attacked. If someone else has been attacked unjustly, then it's alright to get offended. God wants us to stick up for the weak and disadvantaged.
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