It is important to remember when we talk about Christ-likeness we are not talking about something that we are trying to attain; instead, it is someone we are learning to steward. It is not something that we are trying to achieve. It is someone we have already received. Jesus lives in us and declares Himself to be our life, and so Christ-likeness is already resident in you.
One of the most Christlike things that you and I can reveal is the grace to not take up offenses. As I’ve said before, dead people don’t get offended, and Christ who is your life, won’t.
What about getting hurt? Is it godly? Did Jesus walk around with hurt feelings? Let’s make sure that we don’t dummy the Christian life down. If our calling is to manifest the life of Christ, then our passion should be to steward and manifest his life in every deed we do, word we say, thought we have, and feelings we embrace. The Holy Spirit lives in us to make the life of Christ real to and through us, and therefore the Holy Spirit commits to teaching our minds, directing our will, and controlling our emotions, thus revealing Christ through all our behavior. So, let’s ask the question again. Did Jesus ever get hurt? The answer is yes. He clothed Himself in our humanity, and people did things to him that were hurtful, but the way He dealt with hurt is different than the way our flesh does. Whenever Jesus got hurt, it was immediately transformed into being hurt for people, not by or with people.
1 Peter 2:21-24 NASB95
For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, [22] WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS ANY DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH; [23] and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; [24] and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the Cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.
Whenever Jesus encountered the fallenness of people, even his own disciples, He treated the moment as an opportunity to nurture and heal their brokenness. Whenever we hold on to hurt feelings (which almost always evolves into an offended heart), we are thinking only about ourselves and how we have been impacted. That is not how Jesus lives. The Cross itself is the most Christlike or godlike response to the misbehavior of fallen and broken people. God’s heart is broken when we grieve him with our sin, not because his feelings are hurt, and He’s offended with us, but because it grieves Him when the reign of sin spoils the nobility and destiny we were created for. Over and over again, when His disciples were disappointing, Jesus would nurture and affirm them and, in so doing, call them forth to the wonders freedom of Christ-likeness.
When we live from Christ, not just for Christ, we react and respond to others from Him. The Christ who lived the pages of Scripture 2000 years ago is the same Christ that lives in you and me now, and therefore the dynamic of healing released towards others through the process of being wounded by those very same people is the life that He still lives. He in us, as our life, when wounded, doesn’t carry hurt feelings. He hurts for the one who wounds us and responds through us in kindness and wisdom in hopes of bringing healing to their brokenness. He never lives life hurt with the one who wounds us.