Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears. (Hebrews 12:14-17, NKJV).
This is a truthful saying worthy of contemplation and repetition: you reap what you sow.
Sometimes the outcome is slow to break ground, at other times it comes with sudden and surprising intensity, but in the end, whatever the result, it emerges into the light for all to see; either goodness or defilement.
Ultimately, nothing will be hidden. The Word of God guarantees that all will be made known about every word and deed of man, woman and child. No escape. No shelter. No cover-ups.
Bitterness in the human heart, no matter how well disguised day-to-day, will manifest itself one way or another. And the more that bitter root is nurtured and coddled, fed and watered, focused upon and cared for, the deeper that root will penetrate until only radical and transformative spiritual surgery can excise it (always painful).
Or the resulting corruption and defilement will take permanent residence, becoming eternally fatal.
The fecund soil of bitterness is pride; stinking, decay-promoting, selfish, and self-focusing pride.
The only effective balm is sweetly reasonable humility - the certain knowledge that you deserve nothing but judgment and continue to exist (indeed, exist at all) only by the loving grace of an almighty God who desires, above all else, that you seek forgiveness in His Son.
Bitterness is a foot-stamping, breath-holding temper tantrum directed at the cold, cruel world, and is an indictment not of the Universe, or your circumstances, but of you yourself.
Believe me. I know. From tedious personal experience.
Bitterness cannot ever be contained. It will ALWAYS leak out, like pus from an infected sore.
If, when it begins to take root, you do not remind yourself of who you are in reality (and not in your own delusional self-image), it WILL grow. Like a weed. Or fungus that thrives in the dampened darkness.
When that happens, and the effects externalize, others in your life are particularly vulnerable to the contagion. Bitterness is as communicable as pride in that regard.
Again, the only workable defense is inoculation with humility before the outbreak occurs.
The equation is simple and devastating, like the cascading implosion of fissionable material. Thwarted pride leads to bitterness which leads to defilement of self and others.
How much Christian witness has been rendered moot by backbiting and conceit? How many Christian relationships have decayed and rotted because of offenses, real and imaginary, that just cannot be put aside?
How many opportunities to serve God are willfully bypassed simply because of bitterly wounded pride?
In the family of God especially, these things should not be.
Bitterness will come, like all temptation, but it can be conquered through Christ within you, the hope of glory.
“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you." (Matthew 6:14, NKJV).
