1 ¶ These things have I spoken unto you, that ye
should not be offended. 2 They shall put
you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you
will think that he doeth God service. 3
And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the
Father, nor me. 4 But these things have
I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of
them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with
you. 5 But now I go my way to him that
sent me; and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou? 6 But because I have said these things unto
you, sorrow hath filled your heart.
What does Christ mean by, “offended?” An offence causes
someone to stumble, to be confused, to not be able to understand, to cause to
sin. It does not always mean to make one indignant or to enrage them after
insulting their sense of what is proper and what is not or disrespecting them.
1Peter 2:8 And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of
offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto
also they were appointed.
Matthew5:29 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.
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.
Psalm 119:165 Great peace have they which love thy law: and
nothing shall offend them.
Much like God prepared the world of men with the book of Job
for the reality of how life can come hard at even the most righteous-minded,
Christ is preparing His disciples for what they are going to face as His
followers. The reason that the religious elite in that day were willing to kill
the disciples, thinking it was for God, was because they did not know God, the
same as today in the Middle East when religious men murder Christians in the
name of God it is because they do not know God, nor do they know Christ.
Christ is telling them now so they will remember what He
said when the time of persecution comes. He is leaving soon. They aren’t
asking, where are you going, because they are grieving that He stated He is
leaving them.
When people, especially Christians who have a Bible, ask why
bad things happen to people they are asking a foolish question. In the Book of
Job God revealed to all of human history in the oldest book of the Bible ever
written that you will experience pain and suffering and loss even if you are
the most righteous and just man or woman on earth and you may not know why in this
lifetime. Just trust God. That is what is required of you in those times that
make no sense and seem so random and meaningless but that make you hate being
alive.
Here, Christ lays out the future for His disciples and, by
extension, every Christian in history who has suffered tribulation for their
faith. Hey, it’s coming. I warned you. Get ready. The Bible tells us that God settles accounts
but not necessarily in our preferred timeframe and not necessarily in this
life.
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