Wisdom Principles - Offense

Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God:
1Cor 10:32

Wisdom: maintaining favor with God and man. A simple but overlooked principle of wisdom in a macho culture is offense.

Here Paul instructs the believers in Corinth concerning Christian libery. He explains that our liberty is to be bounded by the consideration of others. We should strive to glorify God in all our endeavors and seek the good of others in the process. As such, we should strive to live in a way that avoids offending others.

This is obviously NOT an absolute guide! If we are living as Christians there are many things which we will do or not do as matters of righteousness. Sinful men will ridicule and hate us for our righteous lifestyle. They hated Jesus Christ and all He did was feed the hungry, heal the sick, give sight to the blind and raise the dead! So we will cause offense to some. But in general, we should be living in a way that does not intentionally offend those around us.

God has given us richly all things to enjoy. All lawful pleasures are ours. But we need to guard the manner and timing of the enjoyment of those good things to avoid offending others. This is the principle of offense. May we glorify our Father in heaven by being wise men and avoiding unnecessary offenses.