Tag Archives: Offenses

Yeshua Warns About Sectarianism, Offenses and Worthless Salt

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Mark 9:38–50, Avoid strife and contention. This is a very enigmatic passage that commentators struggle with trying to explain, since Yeshua links together so many seemingly disparate concepts. I say “seemingly,” since there is nothing average about the Master’s intellect, or his knowledge of spiritual truth. Our inability to comprehend his sayings should only spur us onward to dig all the more into their heights and depths of meaning, thus uncovering the nuggets of truth from within the transcendent intellect of our Master and Creator!

Yeshua the Master begins his discourse by discouraging sectarianism. “Those who aren’t against us are for us.” He then promises rewards to those who are kind to his disciples, implying that his disciples should in turn be kind to others who, though they may not be a part of your particular group, they may not necessarily be working against you, for they may also be kingdom workers but with a different assignment than yours (vv. 38–41).

Next, our Master warns against offense—especially those who offend (or cause to stumble) the little ones who are still young and tender in their faith. Linked with the preceding thought, the implication may be that Yeshua’s servants need to beware of not Continue reading →

 

“Father forgive them…”—The Transformative Power of Forgiveness

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Luke 23:34, Father, forgive them. Yeshua said this for his and our benefit, and not because it made any difference in the lives of those who crucified him. It was for his benefit, so that the sin of bitterness and unforgiveness wouldn’t take root in him. It is for our benefit, so that we’d have his example to follow when dealing with our enemies.

There is a deep and transformative truth in the power of forgiveness. When we forgive our offender (it doesn’t matter whether they know about it or not), it prepares the way for the relationship to be restored. The miracle and beauty of the forgiveness process is that now we get to help those who have  sinned against us in the healing of their own sin.

Like so many of Elohim’s truths and Yeshua’s practices, this is counter intuitive to the natural way man thinks.

When sinned against, man’s knee-jerk response is to hold on proudly to bitterness and offense in hopes the other person will recognize their error and humbly repent of their sin to us, the offended party. This is delusional thinking on the part of the one sinned against, since it seldom works this way. Because of human pride, both the sinner and the one sinned against—if each follows their own natural and self-defensive inclination—will usually dig in and fortifies the position of  their own self-rightness. The sinner is certain he is justified in his actions against the one he sinned against, while the offended party feels it is his right to walk in offense until the sinner admits his sin and repents. As such, each party remains frozen and polarized in his position and the break in the relationship is never resolved. Division and strife becomes the etched-in-stone norm.

This is all based on human pride, which heads the list of the seven deadly sins that YHVH hates the most and views as an abomination (Prov 6:16–19). The devil who is our adversary, is the accuser of the brethren, and the one who comes to kill, steal and destroy loves this.

It is not until one of the parties chooses to follow the instructions and example of Yeshua to become a blessed peacemaker and humbles himself that the healing process can occur.

On the cross, Yeshua initiated this process of relationship restoration in preparation for his role in heaven as our Great High Priest to act on our behalf  before his Father to reconcile sinful man through himself to Elohim.

 

What to do when your brother sins against you…

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Matthew 18:15, When your brother sins. Yeshua says that when your brother sins against you, you‘re to follow certain protocols to correct him in effort to restore him to spiritual relationship. Many people read this verse to mean that when your brother offends you or hurts your feelings, you’re to go to him. This is not what Yeshua is saying here. He says, if your brother sins against you. By biblical definition, sin is the violation of the law or Torah of Elohim (1 John 3:4). Therefore, if your brother lies to you, steals from you, or sexually violates your wife, you are to go to him, and possibly the church leaders — not if your brother offends you (hurts your feelings) in word or in deed. In this case, Yeshua instructs us elsewhere that we’re to turn the other cheek, pray for our enemies, bless and not curse, and do good to them.

Below is a further discussion on this topic. (Written by Sandi Lawrence)

Have you heard someone say that they are claiming their Matthew 18 rights because they have been offended by this or that person? It’s actually quite common and is often what is taught as how to handle offenses between brothers.

What are our Matthew 18 rights that we keep wanting to invoke? Let’s look at this section that keeps getting called out…

Matthew 18:15-17 (NASB) says…

“If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”

What does it address? Does this address if you are offended? Or does it address what to do if your brother is sinning; that is, he is going against Torah? Let’s not forget that the Bible defines sin as the violation of the Torah (1 John 3:4).

There is a common misappropriation of this instruction that every time we perceive that our brother (or sister) has offended us that we are to go and confront our brother about it. As an extreme (my opinion) but a real-life example, in our own congregation a couple Continue reading →

 

Growing Up in Messiah: Offense Versus Sin — Are You a Spiritual Pouter?

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Matthew 18:15, When your brother sins. Yeshua says that when your brother sins against you, you ‘re to follow certain protocols to correct him in effort to restore him to spiritual relationship. Many people read this verse to mean that when your brother offends you or hurts your feelings, you’re to go to him. This is not what Yeshua is saying here. He says, if your brother sins against you. By biblical definition, sin is the violation of the law or Torah of Elohim (1 John 3:4). Therefore, if your brother lies to you, steals from you, or sexually violates your wife, you are to go to him, and possibly the church leaders — not if your brother offends you (hurts your feelings) in word or in deed. In this case, Yeshua instructs us elsewhere that we’re to turn the other cheek, pray for our enemies, bless and not curse, and do good to them.

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Here’s something my wife Sandi wrote that deals in more detail with this issue of offense among brothers.

By Sandi Lawrence

Have you heard someone say that they are claiming their Matthew 18 rights because they have been offended by this or that person? It’s actually quite common and is often what is taught as how to handle offenses between brothers. Continue reading →

 

Salty, But Not Offensive!

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Mark 9:38–50, This is a very enigmatic passage that commentators struggle with trying to explain, since Yeshua links together so many seemingly disparate concepts.

Yeshua the Master begins his discourse by discouraging sectarianism. “Those who aren’t against us are for us.” He then promises rewards to those who are kind to his disciples, implying that his disciples should in turn be kind to others who, though they are not of your group, are neither working against you, for all are kingdom workers with different assignments (vv. 38–41).

Next, our Master warns against offense—especially those who offend (or cause to stumble) the little ones who are still young and tender in their faith. Linked with the preceding thought, the implication may be that Yeshua’s servants need to beware of not offending any of his kingdom workers whether they are part of “our group” or not. Only the Almighty sees the larger picture much as a general oversees his troops. The individual soldier knows his own marching orders, and is oblivious of the orders of other soldier’s elsewhere, and is thus in no position to judge another soldier in another part of the battle.

Yeshua then issues a strong warning against any actions (the hand), or any directions of our lives (the foot), or any perspective (the eye) that may lead us to sin in causing one of YHVH’s kingdom workers elsewhere to stumble spiritually. Such an offense may bring us under the severe and unquenchable fires of YHVH’s eternal judgment. In other words, when we, through offensive actions and perspectives, cause one of YHVH’s kingdom workers who is operating outside of our limited view of things to stumble, we may be doing irreparable damage to the advancement of the kingdom, and thus risk bringing the wrath of Elohim squarely down upon us (vv. 42–48).

Yeshua concludes his discourse with an even more mysterious statement that commingles a variety of biblical concepts. He indicates that his disciples, as living sacrifices (Rom 12:1), must allow themselves to be laid on the altar of YHVH’s service like the animal sacrifices of old. As these sacrifices went through the sprinkling of salt (Lev 2:13; Ezek 43:24) and the burning of fire on the altar of sacrifice, even so, as living sacrifices doing YHVH’s kingdom work, Yeshua’s disciples must be willing to endure the fires of trials and adversity. Fire both consumes and purifies, while salt both preserves and seasons—two activities that are continually needed in the disciple’s life as part of their spiritual refinement in order for them to become perfect and sin-free like their Master.

Yeshua ends with the admonition to be salty or spicy (in our words and actions) as we advance his kingdom. But let’s not be offensive in our demeanor such that it causes others to stumble, thus breaking the peace between our fellow coworkers, since we are all working together for the same Master. No matter what, maintain peace one with another (vv. 49–50)!

This is but one possible interpretation of this difficult passage. There could be others. Care to take a shot at it???