Don’t Take Offence

In our last article, we saw how the Syrophoenician woman got the healing of her daughter along with a commendation from Christ because she refused to be offended and persisted till the end. We will in this piece look more closely at offence and how to correctly relate with it.

Offence is simply a cause or occasion of stumbling or sin, any action or words spoken against your person that could cause you to be displeased or angry. Hardly will a day go by that you will not have a reason to be offended. As long as we are in this world, there will always be a cause for displeasure, a reason to be angry. But the choice to be angry or offended is yours and we will dwell more on this later, first what are the consequences of getting offended.

As can be seen in Matt 15:22-30 (The Syrophoenician woman’s story), taking offence can deny you of your progress or desired goal. It distracts you and whittles away the energy needed for success. You spend time and resources dwelling and reacting to an offence thereby draining the present of the same resources. One of the greatest tool the enemy is using in the church today is offences, you see brethren refusing to work with each other because of years-old grudges.

Taking offences could also have ramifications far beyond the immediate action. You will be surprised how many persons are in prison today because of actions done in a fit of anger, they just had to react to a slight. A momentary loss of control and years of consequences. There is no better example than those of Simeon and Levi, brothers-in-arm who got offended that their sister was raped and took revenge on a whole city (Gen 34). Hear their fathers’ blessing (verdict seems more apt) on them “Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their selfwill they digged down a wall. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel” (Gen 49:5-7). For that singular act, their generations were scattered abroad and the scepter of authority was given to their younger brother. Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools (Eccl 7:9).

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And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. Matt 15:22-28

The above story could have gone thus “And behold a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.”  The same setting, same challenge, same request and obviously same outcome. Yet it would have been an accurate but incomplete summary of what transpired. We would have been left wondering what made the woman’s faith great? A couple of persons had their faith commended by Christ but only one other person was ‘great faith’ ascribed to (Luke 7:1-10). So, the difference was in what transpired between verses 23 -27 and there were two things that she did that is worthy of emulation.