Don't get caught up in the offenses of others...Not thought about it much, until now.

“Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill? He who walks uprightly, And works righteousness, And speaks the truth in his heart; He who does not backbite with his tongue, Nor does evil to his neighbor, Nor does he take up a reproach against his friend” Psalms 15:1-3.

One of the functions of Christ's people is to tend to the sufferings of those we fellowship with. It is so tempting, however, to take up someone's offense against another as we seek to console or encourage them. There is very little wisdom in this and it certainly is not scriptural. Sometimes hurt feelings are due to  misunderstanding, differing opinions, a rebellious spirit, or the inability to handle admonishment because of immaturity. There are always two sides to a story, and it would not be an intelligent individual that acts on or forms an opinion based on one side or without all the facts.

When I'm offended, it is so easy to want to seek sympathy from individuals who are naive to the situation, and in a sense, spreading the disease. Of course they will side with me, they trust me to speak truth. Truth is so easily lost when there is emotion tied to a situation though. We think we are telling the truth, and most of it probably is, but expecting someone to side with you when they only know one side of the story is taking advantage of the individual. We should love and encourage a friend with hurt feelings, but reserve our opinions and avoid taking sides. We do not want to find ourselves participating in others' sins by becoming offended by the situation.

I wonder how many times we jump to the emotional rescue of friends by taking on a similar opinion of the "bad" person simply from their "bad" experience. The offense is not between us and the "bad" person, so when the situation is resolved and forgiveness has prevailed, where does that leave us? We aren't given the chance to forgive, and therefore, we carry the negative feelings that weren't even ours to carry in the first place.

Soooooo, the moral of the story is to leave sin alone! I have learned this to the nth degree in the past few months. It isn't easy, but leave the sin at its source, and don't carry it with you. What good does it do to offer to get sick with someone? Instead, offer something to heal the situation, and many times this just means keeping your mouth shut. Yes, even when it doesn't seem just or fair.