Matthew 11--Offenses Must Come

“And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.” (v. 6)

Jesus is the Law personified, I think we will all agree to that. He is the “fulfilling” of the law of God, completely and totally. This being so, let us look at another popular verse about “offenses,” which is Psalms 119:165: “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.” Both these verse say the same thing. Nothing in the Word of God, the subject of Psa. 119, (Jesus) will offend us, if we love Him. Jesus knows the heart of man, and He knows and understands peer pressure, you see, He felt the same things we do, but was without sin. The Christian who is truly “in touch” with the Lord will never be offended by, or in, Christ. We can stand for Him in this old world today, even if it doesn’t seem possible at times.

I used to work in the factory at General Motors, and I carried my Bible to work with me every day. Now, I parked at one end, and because of job transferring, I worked at the other end of the plant, and I had to carry my Bible all the way through the plant to get to my job, for a very long time. There were hecklers, yes, but I learned to rejoice in their heckling and claim 1 Peter 4:14, which became a great comfort to me. There was a time, though, at first, that the heckling affected me, and I found myself sort of “hiding” my Bible by putting my hand behind my leg, hoping that certain people would not see it. I did it without thinking actually, but the Lord convicted me with this verse, as well as others. I began to wonder if I was not ashamed of Him, in front of certain people! It takes a conscious effort to do right, and I had to deal with that then and there. After that time, I tried not to flaunt my Bible, (that too was a temptation) but I never hid it again, and God blessed me greatly for it. I have never been “offended” in Jesus again since then. In fact, as I stated, I learned to rejoice because I had learned that, at times like this, “the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you” (1 Peter 4:14), and I knew that The Lord was with me in a special way. What a comfort that was; what an encouragement. Oh that we might welcome the trials and tribulations that come our way because of our stand for Christ. What other time does the Bible tell us that these things “rest upon” us? Nowhere else are we told this, but here, when the trials come. Praise God for His blessings, and the wonderful workings of His grace.