When Others Offend You

It's easy, when people wrong us, to respond with anger, malice, bitterness, and all the other feelings that come along with that. It's easy to think the worst of people or to respond with the same rudeness someone else shows towards you.

It may be easy, but the path of Christ isn't the easy way.

The path of Christ is to take up our cross daily. The path of Christ is to be able to see the evil in the world and the evil done to us, and to acknowledge that evil, and yet to refuse to allow that evil to become part of us. Just because someone else sins doesn't mean we need to drink their poison, too. We turn away from the easy path and take the Royal path instead. The path that cuts against the grain of our fallenness and of our sinful society, the path that is not a path of vengeance or animosity, but instead forgiveness and loving our enemies.

To be clear, for our own safety and health, there are some people we do have to cut out from our lives. Especially if they would lead us into sin or if they are consistently and intentionally doing evil to us. Loving a person doesn't mean you have to be in contact with them, nor does it mean you have to go out for beer. But it does mean you wish for the good of that person, pray for that person, and it may mean other things too depending on the nature of the relationship, but you don't have an obligation towards someone who is wronging you, your obligation is towards God. Forgiveness doesn't mean you have to be someone's doormat, but it does mean you won't hold animosity or anger towards that person. It means you stop allowing someone else to have the power in your life to make you less like Jesus. In fact, forgiveness removes any power of that person from your life.

St. John of Kronstadt, pray for us.

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