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Non-Offensive Christianity
If someone was to ask you or me what constitutes Christian character what would wesay? Off the top of our head we would most likely say love for God and our fellowmanand faith in the Lord Jesus. As we thought about it more intently we would add thingslike the fruit of the spirit, "
 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering,kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control 
." (Gal. 5:22-23 NKJV) Wemight recall Peter's admonition to add to our faith virtue and godliness in 2 Peter 1. Nodoubt we would add humility (1 Peter 5:5), mercy and meekness (Col. 3:12),thankfulness (Col. 3:15), and truthfulness (Eph. 4:25) to our list and our list would stillnot be all inclusive of the good things to be found in Christian character at its best.It is hard to look back over this list and see anything that should offend anyone. It iscertainly not the Christian's desire to offend. The word of God teaches the Christian to"
 pursue peace with all men
" (Heb. 12:14 NKJV), "
to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men
" (Titus 3:2 NKJV), and "
as much asdepends on you, live peaceably with all men
" (Rom. 12:18 NKJV). How is it then whenit is the Christian's desire to be non-offensive to others and he/she has good characterthat the Christian ends up offending so many?The answer lies in what the Christian believes. The very fact the Christian believes whathe does is offensive to many. To whom you might ask? To those who believe otherwise—to the Islamist, to the atheist, to the secularist, to the communist, to those who will not believe and obey the gospel and live faithfully, etc. The very fact one is a Christianinstead of what they are tells them the Christian has judged his belief superior to theirown. That is offensive to them.If the Christian believes it is a violation of God's law to live a life of fornication who islikely to be offended by that belief? To ask is to answer—the fornicator, to those who seesex as a sort of human right married or not. If the Christian was to speak up againstliving together outside of marriage how many friends do you think he would make in the world we live in today here in America? Not many. If he speaks up it is said he ismaking himself a judge and just causing trouble. He is considered harsh and intolerant(as though God would tolerate the sin).If the Christian considers drunkenness to be sinful who is likely to be offended by that belief if not the one who likes to drink to drunkenness? You can go right down the list of  what the Bible calls sins, name them one by one, and ask the same kind of question andget the same kind of answer. Christian beliefs themselves are offensive to many--to agreat, great many—no matter what subject you end up talking about. It is not so much what the Christian does that is so offensive but what he believes. Jesus said we would be judged by the word of God (John 12:48) and God's word does offend many by limitingtheir freedom to sin without rebuke. The word rebukes them. If you believe the word
 
then that is a rebuke to them and that is offensive. You offend them because of what you believe about the word, namely, that it is the truth.Jesus said on one occasion, "
The world…hates Me because I testify of it that its worksare evil 
." (John 7:7 NKJV) Do you think the sinner wants to hear or be told that his works (his sins) are evil? The minute the Christian speaks up against a sin he putshimself in company with Jesus and the world will hate him too just like it hated Jesus.The men and women of the world want not only the silence of the Christian but evenmore than that, they want the Christian's approval of their lifestyle. They basically desire the Christian give up his faith and deny the word of God.Jesus said on one occasion to those who sought to kill him, "
You seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you
." (John 8:37 NKJV) When God's word has no place in aman then given the right circumstances and provocations, as the man sees them, there isno limits to the depths of sin that it can lead a man to? The word of God places boundaries upon men, boundaries that do not satisfy those of a worldly bent, but boundaries that keep men from the evil which men are capable of doing when at their worst. The Christian respects God's fences (boundaries) but the man of the world whosedesires are for the world rips the fences to pieces.The world thus often puts the Christian in a spot that if he had his choice he wouldrather not be in. No one who has had any upbringing about him wants to be offensive toothers. We all desire the friendship of others and their affection, we want friends notenemies, and let us be honest even if a person is worldly it does not mean they areunlikeable. Many have very winning personalities. Many would do anything for you if  you have become friends with them over the years. They are often not bad peoplemeasured by the standards of the everyday world but the problem is the Christian canhave only one standard and that standard is not the standard of everyday worldly life.Paul gave us all words of wisdom when he said, "
 For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuringthemselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise
." (2 Cor. 10:12 NKJV) Christ is the only acceptable standard a Christian can have.The goal and the desire is not to be the best of the average of everyday people but to beChrist-like. Our desire is to be saved and in order to be saved we must live like Christand not like the average of men. We must seek to please God, not man. "
 If I still  pleased men, I would not be a servant of Christ 
." (Gal. 1:10 NKJV) The command of God is, "
Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord 
." (2 Cor. 6:17NKJV)The condemnation of one group of believers in Christ lay at this very point."
 Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; for 
 
they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God 
." (John 12:42-42 NKJV) Thus we come to the fork in the road where we must make a decision. What will it be? Will we go with God and his word or will we go with the majority of men? Will we offendGod or will we offend man for that is what it comes down to?No matter how much you and I desire the salvation of all men we do not desire it any more than God does. God is "
not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance
." (2 Peter 3:9 NKJV) He "
desires all men to be saved and to cometo the knowledge of the truth
." (1 Tim. 2:4 NKJV) He loved the world (mankind) somuch he gave his only begotten son that man might be saved (John 3:16). Nevertheless,the Bible teaches "
narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it 
." (Matt. 7:14 NKJV)Now let me ask a question. If God is so desirous of men being saved why is the gate tolife so narrow and the way to life so difficult? (Matt. 7:14) The gate is narrow and the way is difficult because man finds it hard to accept God's will, believe it, and obey it. Putanother way man finds it difficult to bring his will into subjection to God's will. Anyoneand everyone could be saved, God does not show partiality, but God is God and man isoften and generally unwilling to accept salvation on God's terms. It is offensive to man. What does please man is the way that seems right to man. But, what is the end of that way? "
There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death
." (Prov.14:12 NKJV)Even among those the world calls Christians (whether they are or not God will judge based on his word) very, very few are willing to accept that a child of faith must repentand be baptized for the remission of sins despite Peter's exact words to that effect."
Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of  Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit 
."(Acts 2:38 NKJV) He had to be mistaken, he could not have meant it, it is offensive, the very thought is offensive. We want non-offensive Christianity. Non-offensiveChristianity demands disregard for the word of God. With non-offensive Christianity we can have, I recently read, 34,000 Christiandenominations (A Short History of Christianity, Stephen Tomkins, page 245). Withdenominationalism everyone gets what they want, the church of their choice; all will besaved no matter what group they are with as long as they in the broadest sense of theterm "believe" in Jesus and thus no one is offended—non-offensive Christianity. No oneis offended because in the end denominationalism means doctrine does not matter. Youread it the way you want, I read it the way I want, we are both saved, it doesn't matter which one of us had the truth.
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