Quotes about Offense

Negativity can flow out of our spirits during these times of testing. The goal, however, is that in the midst of trials we open our spirits with affection, trusting His leadership without beginning to guard our hearts in fear of more hurt. When this happens, our woundedness affects our relationship with God, and our intimacy with Jesus can be hindered. Harboring offense in our hearts toward God wounds our love for Him, and the devil knows this very well.

Love is an ongoing debt that we owe each other, a debt that should never be paid off. Paul made this clear when he wrote to the believers in Rome, "Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law" (Rom. 13:8). If we get into the habit of thinking of ourselves as always owing a debt of love to our spouses, we will be less inclined to take offense when they say or do something that we do not like.

When a moral person is confronted with contempt, immorality, disloyalty, or dishonesty, he is so repulsed by the offense that he turns away and in despair closes his heart to the offender. But the miracle of the redemptive reality of God is that the worst and the vilest offender can never exhaust the depths of His love.

If we toss about the idea of "God in the flesh" as if it were just that thing we believe, we are not tuned in to the shock and even offense that John's opening lines would have generated. Christianity is a weird religion, folks.

Some time later, the king’s cupbearer and baker offended their master, the king of Egypt.

Please forgive your servant’s offense, for the LORD will surely make a lasting dynasty for my lord, because he fights the LORD’s battles. May no evil be found in you as long as you live.

I also decree that if any man interferes with this directive, a beam is to be torn from his house and raised up, and he is to be impaled on it. And his own house shall be made a pile of rubble for this offense.

An offended brother is harder to win than a fortified city, and disputes are like the bars of a castle.

A man’s insight gives him patience, and his virtue is to overlook an offense.

And He will be a sanctuary—but to both houses of Israel a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, to the dwellers of Jerusalem a trap and a snare.

I will make them a horror and an offense to all the kingdoms of the earth, a disgrace and an object of scorn, ridicule, and cursing wherever I have banished them.

And they took offense at Him. But Jesus said to them, “Only in his hometown and in his own household is a prophet without honor.”