Giving Offense Or Taking Offense

How easily people are offended by the truth. Jesus said that the world hates the light of truth, but loves the darkness of sin and error. The light of God's truth reveals their sins and errors and they seek to destroy the light. The world is not offended by the grossest of sin and error, but they hate Jesus and those promoting “the truth”, not your truth or mine (e.g. God's commands as summarized in the Ten Commandments are His universal moral law; all people have broken them and are sinners condemned by God under His perfect justice; there is only one way to heaven and that is though Jesus Christ and yet there are many ways to hell; God not only loves what is righteous, but hates what is wicked etc.).
The biblical injunction is to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15), and yet not to take offense when you are
corrected (Proverbs 15:12,32), but to be easily entreated (James 3:17). If people are offended by us as Christians, let it be the truth of Jesus Christ that offends and not our foolish pride, anger, or foul speech. As Christians, we need to have a very thick skin when it comes to not taking offense from others, but a very
tender heart in not giving offense to others by our sinful words/actions.
Jesus teaches us from our text that we are not to give offense to one another. Others may take offense at what is faithful and true, but let us not give offense by our own sin or error. The main points are: (1) Be Not Stumbling Blocks to Christ's Little Ones (Matthew 18:1-7); (2) Be Not Stumbling Blocks to Yourself (Matthew
18:8-11).