Offensive Truth

[Kosherboy]

"Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man."

Then His disciples came and said to Him, "Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?" Matthew 15:11-12[/align][align=center][/align]Sometimes the truth hurts! Sometimes we wish we could get away with a lie rather than tell the truth because the truth can be offensive. To come right out and tell the truth can wound feelings and damage relationships. And some people out there, all in the name of so-called apologetics, love to use the truth hurtfully. They enjoy hurling the truth at people and watching them recoil in offense.

Jesus was not that kind of apologist. Neither is any other apologist who is any good at what he does! Jesus, just as the prophets, the apostles, and other authors of Scripture, simply identified the problem and stated the truth in response. Here in our text we have seen that there was a tradition of men that had been taken to such extremes that it was being used to try and void the very Word of God. Among the many lessons we are able to learn from the account of this event, today we will focus on the offensive truth.

Jesus stated a fact. He contradicted the tradition of the elders, scribes, and Pharisees. Their doctrine, their commandment, was of human origin and was not equal to the Word of God. Neither was their tradition true. It was a lie. It was a fabrication. It was an addition to the Word of God in a man made attempt to make the Law more easy to follow when in reality this legalistic manuevering only clouded the issue and masked the true nature of indwelling sin.

And so Jesus said, "Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man." This is truth. And Jesus will expand on the exact meaning of what He was saying later in the text. But for now He simply states the truth. He did not say, "You are all wrong and I am right. You are all idiots and I am brilliant. You are all morons and I have figured out the truth!" No. There were no theatrics, no pride, no accusations. He simply stated the truth.

The Pharisees and scribes claimed that to eat with unwashed hands caused defilement. Jesus replied that it was not how or what we eat that defiles us, but what comes out of the mouth - that is the trouble! And in contradicting the tradition of the day and the teachers of the day, Jesus' words caused offense! But please note, it was not He Himself who was offensive in the way He presented the truth. He did not malign, or curse, or shock. He did nothing to offend in His manner or the words He used. And yet the truth was offensive.

When He stated the truth His disciples confided to Him, "Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?" The Pharisees did not like the truth. They were offended. They found what He said bothersome. They were irritated with the words He spoke. The disciples may have been concerned, or perhaps they did not think He knew they were offended by His reply. After all, there was nothing in the way He said it that was offensive.

Too often today we miss this lesson. There are preachers and apologists and seminary professors who offend with the way they say things. Instead of seeing that the Word of God, the truth, is in and of itself offensive to fallen, deceived, and sinful men they think that they must be "bull dogs" for the faith. I prefer to think of these blusterous windbags as snapping turtles who snap and snarl but hastily retreat into their shell if a true threat comes along!

They offend by virtue of their unpleasant personality, their pride, their own unteachability, and their utter and obvious ignorance! For even as they try to stand up for the truth they prove by their very manner that they haven't the foggiest notion about what truth really is. They are clueless. In fact, the Bible says that they have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof. And powerless godliness is really only ungodliness!

Again, Jesus did not offend by the way He said things. The offense was the truth itself. Those who were offended and recoiled in disgust did so when their tradition was attacked and disproved by a simple statement of truth.

We should not be surprized when the people around us react to the truth. The truth runs contrary to popular thought, fads, and self aggrandizement. And we should strive when presenting the truth to do so with love, grace, humility, and compassion! For if the way we present the truth is offensive then we become the issue and take the focus off of the truth.

If we have an opportunity to tell the truth, we should. And we should do so carefully! We should make every effort to see that it is the message and not the messenger that is offensive. We add nothing to the truth by presenting it in an offensive manner. The truth will offend. We should never offend! For if we do, we discredit the very truth we tell.

[/align]Phillip M. Way [/align][/align]

[Dozen Arrows]

I do not want to offend anyone KB. I am hearing you but I am still working on the doing part. I don't know if you read the curious view post and my repliesto sylvan or not. But I was too direct with pride I guess, about Jesus Christ being the only way, the truth, and the life. The only reason I did that is because he stated he was a Christian. This bothered me because he was more concerned about a questionable supreme being and dogma more than he was about our Lord. Don't you think that if you are really a Christian, than Jesus Christ should be your master and not some questionalble supreme being? I know where he is learning that too btw and it is not just a fraternity.

Snooky, I agree with you. I need to focus on Jesus Christ and the word of God rather than get caught up in this bondage that I am struggling with. I am going to need to let it go.

[Sylvan]

...because he was more concerned about a questionable supreme being and dogma more than he was about our Lord.

Given that this thread is about offensive truth I guess it's appropriate to point out, in the most inoffensive yet straightforwad way I can, that this statement is false. I don't believe it's maliciously false but rather false as a result of DA misunderstaning some thingS I said in the other thread and then inappropriatelyjumping to conclusions about my belief in Jesus Christ that he simply has no way of knowing.

The truth, regarding what DA refers to (I didn't) as "a questionable supreme being", is that I was simply making an epistemological statement. I was explaining the difference between belief and knowledge as I use the terms and using my belief in God as an example. To paraphrase myself, I was simply saying that although I believe very strongly that God exists I admit to the fact that I can't prove it. I'd have to say it's a pretty big leap to extrapolate that into making "some questionable supreme being" my "master".

Regarding dogma, I was simply explaining that I consider the bible to be the inspired word of God but not the dictated word of God. This is a pretty common belief among Christians. I'd suggest very few Christians believe God said to Paul, or any other biblical authors, "write this ...".

I know where he is learning that too btw and it is not just a fraternity.

No DA, the truth is, you don't know.

Back to the offensive truth thread...
I think KB's post is right on. I'd like to add a bit. It seems to me that often times, maybe even more often, people are offended not by the truth but rather claims of truth that are either unsubstantiated, unverifiable, or out of context. Offense seems to come independent of the intrinsic truth or intent of a statement. I think we need to be very carefull with words when discussing the truth of matters of faith. The meaning of the words belief and knowledge is not always the same between people. Ever been in a discussion/argument over what the word faith means? How about the word Christian. Now there you'll have a real debate. With literally a few thousand denominations and sects all calling themselves Christian how many definitions does that generate? Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say is that truth is indeed universal but we must use language to convey it and sadly language is not precise. Carefull choice of words is important when conveying a thought and of course care must be taken when interpreting those words. But even when the speaker and the listener are sincere often "what we have here is failure to communcate" and imho this is very often the source of the offensive truth.

[Kosherboy]

Forgive me , but I didn't post it for anyone in particular