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One leader shared, “Our church was in the middle of a huge split. It looked hopeless. I gave a copy of The Bait of Satan to every elder. The split was diverted, and we are one today!”
Studied this book to avoid a church split!!!
Satan, along with his cohorts, is not as blatant as many believe. He is subtle and delights in deception. He is shrewd in his operations . . . cunning and crafty. Don’t forget he can disguise himself as a messenger of light. If we are not trained by the Word of God to divide rightly between good and evil, we won’t recognize his traps for what they are.
Satan is shrewd and subtle in hus attacks
One of his most deceptive and insidious kinds of bait is something every Christian has encountered—offense. Actually, offense itself is not deadly—if it stays in the trap. But if we pick it up and consume it and feed on it in our hearts, then we have become offended. Offended people produce much fruit, such as hurt, anger, outrage, jealousy, resentment, strife, bitterness, hatred, and envy. Some of the consequences of picking up an offense are insults, attacks, wounding, division, separation, broken relationships, betrayal, and backsliding. Often those who are offended do not even realize they
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Satan uses "offense" to trap people make them bitter and divided
Freedom from offense is essential for every Christian because Jesus said it is impossible to live this life and not have the opportunity to be offended (Luke 17:1).
Offense is rampant from a lack of genuine love. “Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies” (1 Cor. 8:1). So many are snared in this deceptive trap that we have almost come to believe it is a normal way of life.
I will avoid division among my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ by filling my heart with Christlike love for others (1 Cor. 8:1). I refuse to produce the fruit of hurt, anger, outrage, jealousy, resentment, strife, bitterness, hatred, and envy in my life. The power of God’s Spirit at work in my heart will keep the fruit of offense out of my life. Holy Spirit, destroy every shred of pride in my life, and do not allow it to keep me from being healed, set free, and filled with Your power.
Avoid division bitterness but not being drawn in to being offended all the time
Only those you care about can hurt you. You expect more from them—after all, you’ve given more of yourself to them. The higher the expectations, the greater the fall. Selfishness reigns in our society. Men and women today look out for themselves to the neglect and hurt of those around them.
The Greek word for “offend” in Luke 17:1 comes from the word skand-alon. This word originally referred to the part of the trap to which the bait was attached. Hence the word signifies laying a trap in someone’s way.1 In the New Testament it often describes an entrapment used by the enemy. Offense is a tool of the devil to bring people into captivity. Paul instructed young Timothy: And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth,
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Sztan entraps to get people to be offended which he uses to divide
can divide all offended people into two major categories: (1) those who have been treated unjustly and (2) those who believe they have been treated unjustly.
People in the second category believe with all their hearts that they have been wronged. Often their conclusions are drawn from inaccurate information. Or their information is accurate, but their conclusion is distorted. Either way, they hurt, and their understanding is darkened. They judge by assumption, appearance, and hearsay.
People believe they are treated unjustly
Pride keeps you from dealing with truth. It distorts your vision. You never change when you think everything is fine. Pride hardens your heart and dims the eyes of your understanding. It keeps you from the change of heart—repentance—that will set you free. (See 2 Timothy 2:24–26.)
Pride causes you to view yourself as a victim. Your attitude becomes, “I was mistreated and misjudged; therefore, I am justified in my behavior.” Because
Pride makes us think we are a victim offended
the church of Laodicea by first telling them how they saw themselves as rich, wealthy, and having need of nothing, then by exposing their true condition—“wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked” (Rev. 3:14–20). They had mistaken their financial strength for spiritual strength. Pride hid their true condition.
Jesus showed Laodiceans just having money is not the answer to spiritual poverty
pure heart is like pure gold—soft, tender, and pliable. Hebrews 3:13 states that hearts are hardened through the deceitfulness of sin!
God refines with afflictions, trials, and tribulations, the heat of which separates impurities such as unforgiveness, strife, bitterness, anger, envy, and so forth from the character of God in our lives. Sin easily hides where there is no heat of trials and afflictions. In times of prosperity and success, even a wicked man will seem kind and generous. Under the heat of trials, however, the impurities surface.
Trials either are the furnace to separate impurities from us, or we simply descend into our impurities
Holy Spirit, flow into my life with Your power, and eradicate every fiber of selfishness that would try to snare me and cause me to love myself more than I love You and others.
Keep me from selfishness that woukd enable me to justify mysins
I will not allow a root of bitterness to spring up in my life, defiling me and causing me to fall short of the grace of God (Heb. 12:15).
Dont let bitterness defile me
Reveal my heart’s true condition, and do not allow hidden offense to clothe me with pride.
When the trials of life encompass me and the genuineness of my faith is tested with fire, I want the character of God, which is much more precious than gold that perishes, to be visible in my life (1 Pet. 1:6–7).
I realized that the love I was giving was being sown to the Spirit, and eventually I would reap those seeds of love. I didn’t know from where, but I knew the harvest would come. No longer did I see it as a failure when love wasn’t returned from the person I was giving it to. It freed me to love that person even more! If more Christians recognized this, they wouldn’t give up and become offended. Usually this is not the type of love we walk in. We walk in a selfish love that is easily disappointed when our expectations are not met.
We aa!k in a selfish love that is easily disappointdd
But if I have no expectations about someone, anything given is a blessing and not something owed. We set ourselves up for offense when we require certain behaviors from those with whom we have relationships. The more we expect, the greater the potential offense.
The more we expect , the more we stand to be xisappointed/ offended
The focus of offended Christians is inward and introspective. We guard our rights and personal relationships carefully. Our energy is consumed with making sure no future injuries will occur. If we don’t risk being hurt, we cannot give unconditional love. Unconditional love gives others the right to hurt us.
Our focus is inward how to protect ourselves
Wolves always go after the wounded and young sheep, not the healthy, strong ones. These wolves will tell people what they want to hear, not what they need to hear. These people don’t want sound doctrine; they want someone to tickle their ears. Let’s look at what Paul says about the last days: But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be ...unforgiving....having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! . . . For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have
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The wolves in the church who tell people what they want to hear
He would watch them hunt for “new revelation” in order to live more selfish, successful lives. He’d see ministers taking one another to court for “righteous causes.”
People hunting for new revelation to justify their selfishness
Thus, a betrayal in the kingdom of God comes when a believer seeks his own benefit or protection at the expense of another believer. The closer the relation, the more severe the betrayal. To betray someone is the ultimate abandonment of covenant. When betrayal occurs, the relationship cannot be restored unless genuine repentance follows.
Betrayal is the ultimate refuting of covenant
How sad that we can find example after example of offense, betrayal, and hatred among believers today. It is so rampant in our homes and churches that it is considered normal behavior.
“Christians” are protecting their rights, making sure they are not mistreated or taken advantage of by other Christians. Have we forgotten the exhortation of the new covenant? Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated? —1 CORINTHIANS 6:7
We can no longer confidently commit our care to God when we are trying to care for ourselves.
when you resist the temptation to be offended, God brings great victory.
these last days when many are offended and filled with hate and betrayal toward others, I refuse to join them. I will commit to living my life in such a way that the agape love of God, which has been poured out in my heart, will radiate in this darkened world of offense (Rom. 5:5).
Sign of the last days everyone will take offense at anything
I will overcome the offense of others by developing greater faith in the love of God. I will sow the love of God so that I may reap the love of God.
Overcome offense
Through God’s power I tear down any walls I have constructed to safeguard and protect my heart from wounds. I pull down every stronghold that seeks to exalt itself against God’s Spirit at work, and I bring every thought into captivity that I may fully obey Christ and reflect His character (2 Cor. 10:4–5).
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I will not allow my foolish expectations of others to disappoint me and cause me offense.
If you’ve been genuinely mistreated, do you have the right to be offended? In answer, let’s look at the life of Jacob’s favorite son, Joseph. (See Genesis 37–48.)
man’s sons carried his name and inherited all he had. Joseph’s brothers kept him from ever receiving his father’s name and inheritance. They blotted his name out, completely stripping him of his identity. All that was familiar to Joseph was gone. When a person was sold as a slave to another country, he remained a slave until he died. The woman he married would be a slave, and all his children would be slaves! It would have been hard to be born a slave, but it was indescribably worse to be born an heir of wealth with a great future only to have it stripped away. It would have been easier if
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Joseph was sold to a man named Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard. He served him for about ten years. He never had word from his family, and he knew that his father believed he was dead. Their lives had gone on without him. Joseph had no hope of a father’s rescue.
Prisoners were put there to rot as they survived on the bread and water “of affliction” (1 Kings 22:27). They were given just enough food to survive so they could suffer.
as a foreign slave, accused of rape, he had little or no hope. Things couldn’t have gotten any worse. Joseph had gone as low as a person could go without being dead.
I imagine it never crossed Joseph’s mind until it was all over that this was God’s process to prepare him to rule. How would he use his future authority over these brothers who betrayed him? Joseph was learning obedience by what he suffered. His brothers were skillfully wielded instruments in the hand of God. Would Joseph hold fast to the promise, seeking God for its purpose? Perhaps when Joseph had his dreams he saw them as a confirmation of the favor on his life. He had not yet learned that authority is given to serve, not to set you apart. Often in these training periods we focus on the
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Joseph could have been bitter and offended against his family and God. Instead he stayed faithful and God was training Joseph tto assume ruling Egypt
Joseph’s brothers tried hard to destroy the vision God gave him. They thought they had ended it for Joseph. They said out of their own mouths, “Come, therefore, let us now kill him and cast him into some pit. . . . We shall see what will become of his dreams!” (Gen. 37:20, emphasis added).
Let’s see how Joseph would fare in our churches today. If he were like most of us, do you know what he would be doing? Plotting revenge. He would comfort himself with such thoughts as, “When I get my hands on them, I’ll kill them! I will kill them for what they have done to me. They are going to pay for this.” But if Joseph had actually had this attitude, God would have left him in that dungeon to rot! That’s because if he had gotten out of prison with this motive, he would have killed the heads of ten of the twelve tribes of Israel. This would include Judah, from whose lineage Christ would
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As already stated, no mortal man or devil can supersede the plan of God for your life. If you lay hold of this truth, it will set you free. But there is only one person who can get you out of the will of God, and that is you!
You can mess up God's plan for yourself
If you stay free from offense you will stay in God’s will. If you become offended you will be taken captive by the enemy to fulfill his own purpose and will. Take your pick. It is much more beneficial to stay free from offense.
Stay free from offense to be in God's will
So remember: Stay submitted to God by not becoming offended; resist the devil, and he will flee from you (James 4:7). We resist the devil by not becoming offended.
I refuse to let the inequities in my life cause me to become bitter and hopeless and to lead me to blame God for them.
Holy Spirit, fill me with Your power and keep me from placing the blame for my troubles on my loved ones or the other people in my life.
I will not allow the enemy to cause me to seek revenge upon those who have wronged me. I will remain free from offense so that the plan of God can be established in my life.
At this point the promise was just a shadow. David no longer lived at the palace nor ate at the king’s table. He inhabited damp caves and ate the scraps of wilderness beasts. He no longer rode at the king’s side but was hunted by the men who once fought by his side. There was no warm bed or servants to attend him, no compliments in the royal court. His bride was given to another. He knew the loneliness of a man without a country.
Notice that God, not the devil, placed David under the care of Saul. Why would God not only allow this but also plan it? Why was favor dangled before David’s eyes only to have it abruptly taken away? This was a prime opportunity for David to be offended—not only with Saul but also with God. All the unanswered questions increased the temptation to question God’s wisdom and plan.
God seems to renege His promise for David and leaves him in the wilderness
How many leaders have cut off men under them because of suspicion? Why are those leaders suspicious? Because they are not serving God. They are serving a vision. Like Saul, they are insecure in their calling, and that breeds jealousy and pride. They recognize qualities in people that they know are godly, and they are willing to use those people as long as it benefits them. Saul enjoyed the success of David until he saw it as a threat to him. He then demoted David and watched for a reason to destroy him.
