Bill Johnson - The Danger of Being Easily Offended
I don’t want the poison of offense to cloud my vision, my scene. I don’t want it to affect my thinking, my reasoning, because it does. That’s the target; the target is to get offense, bitterness, envy—any of these things—somewhere influencing my reasoning so that I’m not able to demonstrate the heart of God on planet Earth in the measure He desires. Let’s go to James chapter 3. What we’re going to see here is that the devil doesn’t come to us in a red rubber suit with horns and a pitchfork; he doesn’t make himself known as the devil. He makes himself known as something we would value. He actually has to parade his thoughts as virtuous thoughts for us to embrace them. That was a good point, Bill; that was a really good point. He has to actually parade what the Bible calls him: the angel of light. So he has to parade himself in a way where we think or feel that we are discerning, or moving in some sort of virtue. The problem is that this way of life, this way of thinking, does not carry peace with it; it does not bear the fruit of peace or righteousness. So let’s delve into this passage from James chapter 3.
Verse 13: «Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom.» I love that phrase, «meekness of wisdom.» My goodness, don’t pursue wisdom without meekness, and don’t think you have it unless there’s meekness. Meekness is not weakness; meekness isn’t weakness; meekness is yielded strength. The biblical illustration of meekness is the wild horse that becomes trained; it is still strong enough to jump the biggest fence, but it only does so at the commander’s word.
Verse 14: «If you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, and demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, interesting, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.»
Go back to verses 14 and 15. I want to talk to you for a bit. «If you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your heart, do not boast and lie against the truth.» Look at this phrase: «This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, and demonic.» What’s the key here? Bitterness, offense, jealousy, envy—these things carry the appearance of wisdom; that’s why a Christian would embrace them. They make us feel discerning, but they just don’t bear the fruit of peace or righteous living.
If I were to identify what I think is the number one enemy that I’ve seen at work in the body of Christ in the last two years, it would be offense, and it’s connected to this right here. It appears as wisdom; it comes with reason. Have you ever met a bitter person who didn’t have a good reason? Their reasoning is what offense is based on. I’ve been on a little journey myself for the last—I mentioned it a few months ago—over the last six months, I’ve been asking the Lord, «Man, I don’t want any trace of offense in my heart about anything, ever. I don’t want to live under that influence.»
To be honest with you, I’m one of the most forgiving people I know. I know that sounds arrogant, but I really don’t care at this point. I am honestly so quick to forgive, and yet I’ve asked the Lord to show me any place where there’s offense. Because you don’t have to be bitter to live under the influence of offense. I’ve dealt with the unforgiveness stuff as much as I know how to, but you can still unknowingly live under the influence of offense and not be bitter. Guard your heart, but you still live under the pain of that when you don’t need to. So I’ve been asking the Lord to just show me this stuff.
For the last six months, at the most random times, I’ll be driving down the road, and I will remember something somebody said to me in high school. Really, do we have to go that far back? Or something that happened in grade school or something from last year. I mean just all kinds of very random things. The conversation at the Chicago airport with a young man who had certain opinions and conclusions about me comes to mind. I can see his face; I can take you to where we were in the airport. I say, «I give up my right to be offended.»
I give up my right over the lady who flips me off in the car—I pull over to have a conversation with her. I give up my right to be offended over the money that was stolen, the dishonesty in this deal. I give up my right to be offended, and what happens is this stuff just starts to dial up. Now I need you to understand, because there could be a horrible misunderstanding: I don’t recognize anything where I harbor resentment or bitterness. But there’s something powerful done in my heart. I don’t know how else to say it; something powerful is down in my heart when I look at that.
The guy who met me at the airport here in Redding and just went off on me about my eternal destination— I can still see his face. I give up my right to be offended. Honestly, I’ve tried to take it a step farther in cases like this; I pray for great mercy, great grace. But the point is, I don’t want the poison of offense to cloud my vision, my scene. I don’t want it to affect my thinking, my reasoning, because it does. That’s the target: to get offense, bitterness, envy—any of these things—somewhere influencing my reasoning so that I’m not able to demonstrate the heart of God on planet Earth in the measure He desires.
So I want you to look with me at Romans 12, and we’ll take this for the remaining part of the morning. You guys still alive? I don’t know what I would do if you said no, but I do prefer people surviving the meeting.
Verse 1 of chapter 12: «I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.» I think one of the translations, maybe New American, says «reasonable service of worship.» Present your bodies a living sacrifice; your reasonable service of becoming a living offering is the intellectual thing to do. Have you discovered yet that God thinks differently than you? Guess who’s not going to change?
What repentance does is it re-engages with the way He thinks. That’s what repentance is: reconnecting with God’s perception regarding a matter. His perception is different. Most of our lives are spent in the middle of challenges, difficulties, problems, victories—whatever it might be—and in the middle of these issues, we are crying out to God for Him to come and help and to fix the situation. But Jesus modeled a different way of living. I hope that we can come into this in instruction and experience more thoroughly in the next couple of years.