Joseph, son of Jacob, uttered the above words to Potiphar’s wife as she was tempting him into adultery. Many people would answer Joseph by saying things like, “you deserve it, Joe, life has been unfair to you”, “why do you care what God thinks when he let you be sold as a slave by your own brothers”.  In other words, they would have encouraged Joseph to hold onto the offenses that he suffered at the hands of others who mistreated him. They would have him blame God and thus feel a sense of entitlement to sin. The offended would have become the offender.

It’s a natural knee-jerk response to being offended by people, God, or life itself. We want to lick our wounds with self-indulgent behavior. I don’t refer to those times where you just need to give yourself a break and unwind. No, the danger is when you take offense, fail to forgive, and hang onto past hurts, whether from the distant past or just yesterday.  It sets you up for behavior that can hurt yourself and others, leading to addictive attachments that bring false comfort and self-absorbed outbursts that avoid resolution and solution of the original offense. 

What kept Joseph from doing that “great wickedness”?  He refused to be offended by the unfairness of his life that led him from the being a patriarch’s favorite son to becoming Potiphar’s slave. For whatever flaws he had he did continue to live out of an understanding and faith that God was in charge of all the events of his life. He trusted God to bring good out of misfortune. His testing was not over. Falsely accused of rape he was then imprisoned in the king’s prison for several years. But still he would not let the offense cause him to become bitter.

That’s not an easy task, but by keeping our eye on Jesus we can live with the same attitude. Jesus did not pity himself on the cross but understood that his suffering was God’s will for him and that it would lead to something much greater—the salvation of the world. Because Jesus suffered such offenses without sin, he is able to help us when we are offended.  Our offenses will not save the world, but if we will avoid going from being offended to becoming an offender we will save ourselves much misery. And who knows, when someone sees our faith in action this way, he or she too may come to saving faith.

To the Glory of God, and by His Grace,    

Pastor Tom

For more on the subject I commend to you God’s Word and the book “The Bait of Satan”