OFFEND
This lesson is designed to be a study of the word offend that we find in the English translation of scripture. It has a variety of applications and we will study as many as we have time for tonight. First of all let’s look at the Greek source and its meaning. From Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words:
Greek SKANDALIZO; It is a verb, an action word, something that we do. In scripture it is not always used the way we most commonly use it today. “It signifies to put a snare or stumbling block in the way, always metaphorically in the N.T. in the same way as the noun,” offense is used. This noun form, translated offense, is the Greek word SKANDALON. Its original usage in that language was “the name of the part of a trap to which the bait is attached, hence, the trap or snare itself”. David used it to request that which he wanted God to do to those who were his enemies:
Psalms 69:22 “LET THEIR TABLE BECOME A SNARE BEFORE THEM: AND that which should have been FOR their WELFARE, let it become A TRAP.”
Paul quotes David in the Roman letter where he considers those Jews who would destroy his work for the Lord.
Romans 11:9 “And
David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock,
and a recompense unto them:”
When we look at the original
language in:
Matthew
Peter protested
when Jesus told his disciples that he must die.
Jesus is telling Peter that in Peter’s words Jesus finds a trap laid for
him by Satan. Satan is using Peter to
try to weaken the resolve of the Christ to go to
So let’s look at some the places and
ways that we find this word, offend or it’s synonyms, used in scripture.
1. To commit any sin in thought, word or deed:
On a few occasions it is used to describe something that God finds offensive. Elihu uses it to tell Job what he needs to do in order to make himself right with God and to escape the trials that have been brought upon him.
Job 34:31 “Surely it is meet to be said
unto God, I have borne chastisement, I will not offend any more:”
Elihu is telling
Job that he should go before God in repentance and not offend God any
more. In this context it is used to
indicate sin. And it is used by the
prophet to express God’s desire for
Hosea
In the New Testament it is used by James twice, both cases as a synonym for sinning. First:
James
Then in God’s warning for “masters” or teachers is that if they offend, i.e. sin, with their tongues or their teaching they will bear “greater condemnation” because of their responsibility:
James 3:2 “For in many things
we offend all. If any man offend not in word; the same
is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.”
But when we limit the word to that narrow definition it is difficult to
think of God being trapped or snared and I wonder if there may be a stronger
word available to translate God’s reaction to our sin. In the way we use the word today God is
offended when we sin. There are a number
of other words that are used to explain God’s response to sin. In our common usage of the word we would say
that those who use false weights and measures, cheat people in business offend
God.
“16For all that do such things, and all that do unrighteously, are an abomination
unto the LORD thy God.” Deuteronomy
25:16
The word abomination is used in this context and it is commonly used in
scripture. Those who sin are an abomination to God; something that he abhors, another
word for hate:
Deuteronomy 32:19 “And
when the LORD saw it, he abhorred them, because of the
provoking of his sons, and of his daughters.”
Those who offend
God provoke him to wrath, the kind of wrath that caused him to destroy this
world once by flood and that caused him to remove his chosen people from their
land promised and eventually destroy them completely. Speaking of Rehoboam the son of
I Kings
The time will come when God will
again destroy this earth because of sin and purge his people just as he did
Matthew
2. The word offend means to be scandalized (the Greek SCANDALIZO). We use
the word scandal much differently today but in scripture to scandalize is to cause one to stumble by our example. This traps or snares them into thinking the
wrong thing and can even cause them to sin.
I Corinthians
Paul is writing about a person being
offended by seeing another person do something that they are free to do but that
the first person thinks is wrong. It
weakens their faith; they sin as a result and lose their soul. Most often when we study this subject,
teachers and preachers alike most often talk about eating meat that had been
offered to idols and then sold in the marketplace. While that would be a valid situation it is
not the entire context of I Corinthians 8.
I Corinthians 8:9-10 “9But take heed lest by any means this
The offense would
be if one who knows that the meat offered to idols is no different that any
other meat, the point that Paul makes in verse eight and by exercising this
freedom offends another and cause him to stumble:
I Corinthians 8:11-12 “And
through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? 12But
when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin
against Christ.”
Paul also writes to
the Roman church:
Romans 14:21-22 “It
is good neither to eat flesh,
nor to drink wine, nor any
thing whereby thy brother
stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak. 22Hast
thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.”
3. The word offend is used to mean
to act unjustly or to injure someone.
When Paul was brought before Festus,
Jews came down to
Acts 25:7 “And when he was come, the Jews
which came down from
They “LAID MANY AND
GRIEVOUS COMPLAINTS AGAINST PAUL, WHICH THEY COULD NOT PROVE.”
This sounds like
some of our mud-slinging politicians of today doesn’t
it? It doesn’t matter how big the lie
is, if they repeat it often enough a lot of folks will believe it. This is the tactic being used against
Paul. His response gives us this definition for the word offend:
Acts 25:8 “While he answered
for himself, Neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the
Though Paul was
God’s apostle to the Gentile people he never lost sight of his origin nor did
he offend God and or the Mosaic Law. The
Holy Spirit calls him “BLAMELESS” in his defense against Judaizing teachers:
Philippians 3:5 “Circumcised
the eighth day, of the stock of
Though he could
have offended other men this way, Paul did not and by recording these words
help us understand that meaning of the word offend.
4. Offend is used to mean “to
wrong” someone but still in the context of becoming a stumbling block:
Psalms 73:15 “IF I SAY, I WILL SPEAK THUS; BEHOLD, I
SHOULD OFFEND against THE GENERATION OF THY CHILDREN.”
Asaph here is talking about
offending the children of God, becoming a trap, snare or stumbling block to
them. First of all he saw that God was
good to
Psalms 73:1 “TRULY GOD is GOOD TO ISRAEL, even
TO SUCH AS ARE OF A CLEAN HEART.” v.4-5 “FOR there
is NO BANDS IN THEIR DEATH: BUT THEIR STRENGTH is FIRM. THEY are NOT IN TROUBLE as
other MEN; NEITHER ARE THEY PLAGUED LIKE other MEN.”
But
Psalms 73:8-9 “THEY ARE CORRUPT, AND SPEAK WICKEDLY concerning
OPPRESSION: THEY SPEAK LOFTILY. THEY SET
THEIR MOUTH AGAINST THE HEAVENS, AND THEIR TONGUE WALKETH THROUGH THE EARTH.”
Asaph said that he
was envious of them but would hold his tongue and not speak evil of them lest
he cause other children of God to stumble.
In addition to his admonition to
Peter Jesus uses this word throughout the gospels to indicate a cause of
stumbling or allowing someone to be trapped or snared into sin. These examples are from the KJV, in the RSV
the same verb is translated “to stumble” or “to cause to stumble in many of
these references.
First of all we can
cause ourselves to be trapped or to stumble:
Matthew 5:29-30 “And
if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members
should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. 30And
if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it
is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.”
This usage if
repeated in Matthew 18:8-9, Mark
Second: Jesus used
this word to indicate one who would place a stumbling block before a little
child that believes in him:
Matthew
18:6 “But whoso shall offend one of these little
ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged
about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”
And again in Mark
Third: Jesus uses
it to teach us that disobedience of civil authority would not only be sin but
possibly that it would cause one to stumble or think evil of the kingdom of
Christ by the example we would be portraying:
Matthew 17:27 “Notwithstanding,
lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up
the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt
find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.”
Fourth: Jesus uses
it to describe the condition of his disciples in their reaction to his teaching
in the synagogue at
John 6:61 “When Jesus knew in himself that
his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you?”
William L.
Schwegler, Sunset church of Christ, Wednesday Evening Adult,