BEWARE OF BITTERNESS: IT RUINS THE KIND, TENDERHEARTED & FORGIVING LIFE
There are many infections of the soul that are caused by sin.
One of the more powerful infections is called bitterness.
Bitterness slowly infects a person’s life systemically. Every part of their life becomes defiled (Heb. 12:15), their joys get soured, their hopes get dimmed, and spiritual life gets distant.
Beware of allowing bitterness to destroy your life.
One of the struggles believers have always faced while seeking to follow the Lord is: bitterness.
The key passage in the New Testament that warns about bitterness is Ephesians 4:30.
Ephesians 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. NKJV
The immeasurable power of God is stopped when His people disobey. God’s grace teaches us to deny ungodliness, but when we resist that grace our sin grieves and quenches the Holy Spirit .
Bitterness is a very deadly, fast-growing, and easily spread form of spiritual cancer.
In the New Testament each time the word bitterness is used it always is a form of the Greek word pic. This word means just what the tool by the similar sounding word comes from, “to prick or cut”. This Greek word used for bitterness implies something that pricks or punctures and penetrates deeply.
This verse is fascinating for two reasons:
First, bitterness is the very first sin that is listed after Paul warns about the horrible dangers of grieving the Holy Spirit of God as a believer. Bitterness is FIRST in that list, never forget that.
Second, the verse on the other side of the warning (v. 29) is all about corrupt words (one of the danger signs of a bitter person is that they say rotten things about others).
Beware also of one of the chief causes of bitterness, which is an unforgiving heart.
That is:
BITTERNESS IS A CONSEQUENCE OF UN-FORGIVENESS
Remember Matthew 6:12-15 (NKJV)?
And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. 13 And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. 14 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
At the heart of bitterness is a hurt that is internalized and not forgiven.
CHRIST’S STRONGEST WARNING TO BELIEVERS
Perhaps the strongest warning Jesus ever gave to his disciples was in Matthew 18—He warned that the results of a bitter and unforgiving heart were grave. For a moment turn there to Matthew 18:35, stand with me and listen to the gravity of Christ’s warning.
“So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.” NKJV
Did you catch that? Jesus just told believers that we would trap ourselves in the prison house, and find ourselves in solitary confinement, tortured by the poisonous and sharp cutting edge of bitterness–if we hold onto an unforgiving spirit that always leads to bitterness.
BITTERNESS LEADS TO INTENSE INNER TORMENT
(SWS-04)
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