bring people to Christ ’ s mercy and grace .
“ Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth , but that which is good to the use of edifying , that it may minister grace unto the hearers ” ( Ephesians 4:28 , KJV ). This verse sums this up for Christians . Do not trade offense for offense . Trade offense with grace . When faced with adversity through words , don ’ t retribute by responding the same way you were talked to . Forgive the offense . Use words of love and understanding , not hate or anger . Use grace and us the opportunity to minister .
Fallen man wants hope . Unbelievers don ’ t want to hear doom and gloom just as much as we don ’ t . In our response to offense we can minister to them the hope we have in Christ and His promises to those who believe in Him . Doing this will usually surprise the person talking to you . When they use hurtful language towards us , they expect us to reciprocate with some type of offensive language back to them . Responding with grace and the message of hope can take them aback . By using grace , the same given to us from Christ , in response , nonbelievers will either shut up and walk away , never to bother you again , or they may listen to you . Either way , they were given the example of Christ through words of hope , not hate . When we are offended , it is our responsibility to take those hurtful words and turn them into a message of hope and understanding . We must not respond with the same type of language strewn about towards us , but to
use our words to attempt to bring the message of Christ to them . Some Christians don ’ t do this and people feel justified in their hateful words towards us and will walk away without a message of hope , as we should emulate to them . People who argue with us about our faith are usually ignorant of our beliefs and values and only talk about what they have heard in the media , read in books , or seen on television of what Christians are about . When we are faced with words that offend us and our faith , don ’ t return the same . Let Christ be our example . Let the Bible teach us the right and wrong ways to react and respond . If Christians would do these two things , our reaction to being offended will be that of grace and love and can make new disciples of Christ to continue to spread the good news about Him . God bless .
John Lysaught hails from Oregon , but resides in El Paso , Texas . He describes himself as a lover of Christ and a lifelong work in progress for the Lord . He is married with four children and attends Hope City Community Church . He enjoys learning about the history of our faith , hiking , and spending time with His family . He can be reached at johnflysaught @ gmail . com and you can view his other writings at http :// john-lysaught . blogspot . com /