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Bitterness

During a friends hitch in the Marine Corps, his wife and he had rented a studio apartment in South San Francisco from a gentleman named Mr. Slagle. He suffered with a back ailment that was caused by an injury received in prison camp during the Second World War. Captured at Wake Island and later confined for years in China, he was left partially paralyzed when an enemy soldier struck him with a rifle butt.

When he visited with this landlord, he told one story after another of how barbarically he’d been treated. With vile language and intense emotion, he spoke of the torture he had endured and of his utter hatred for the Japanese. Here was a man who had been horribly wronged—without question. The constant misery and pain he lived with could not be measured. My heart went out to him as he told this story.

But there was another factor which made his existence even more lamentable. The landlord became a bitter man. Even though (at that time) he was thirteen years removed from the war…even though he had been safely released from the war…even though he and his wife owned a lovely dwelling and had a comfortable income, the crippled man was bound by the grip of bitterness. He was still fighting a battle that should have ended years before. In a very real sense, he was still in prison.

His bitterness manifested itself in intense prejudice, and acrid tongue, and an everyone’s-out-to-get-me attitude. Richie, my friend was convinced that he was far more miserable by 1957 than he had been in 1944. There is no torment like the inner torment like the inner torment of an unforgiving spirit. It refuses to be soothed, it refuses to be healed, it refuses to forget.

In the New Testament, every mention of bitterness comes from the same Greek root, pic, which means to “to cut, to prick.” The idea is pricking or puncturing which is pungent and penetrating. We read in Luke 22:62 that Peter “wept bitterly.” He wept because he was pricked in his conscience. He was “cut to the quick,” we would say. In Acts 8:23, a man was said to have been “in the gall of bitterness” when he wanted to appear godly and spiritually powerful. He was simply a religious phony, bitter to the core.

Hebrews 12:15 states that a root of bitterness can spring up and cause trouble, causing many to be defiled. You cannot nurture the bitterness of the plant and at the same time keep it concealed. The bitter root bear’s bitter fruit. You may think you can hide it…live with it… “grin and bear it” but you cannot. Slowly, inexorably, that sharp, cutting edge of unforgiveness will work its way to the surface. The poison seedling will find insidious ways to cut into others. Ironically, the one who suffers most is the one who lashes out at those around him.

How can I make such a statement? Because of the parable Jesus presented in Matthew 18. Find a Bible and read verse 21 through 35. The context is “forgiveness.” The main character is a man who refused to forgive a friend, even though he himself had recently been released from an enormous debt he had incurred. Because of his unspoken refusal to forgive, this bitter man was “handed over the torturers…” And then Jesus adds the punch line:

“So shall my heavenly Father also do to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart. (v. 35).

Did you hear what He said? He said that we who refuse to forgive—we who live in the gall of bitterness—will become victims of torture, meaning intense inner torment. If we nurture feelings of bitterness, we are little better than inmates of an internal concertation camp. We lock ourselves in a lonely isolation chamber, walled in by our own refusal to forgive.

Please remember—Jesus was speaking to His disciples, not unbelievers. A Christian is a candidate for confinement—and unspeakable suffering—until he or she full and completely forgives others…even when others are in the wrong.

I can now understand why Paul listed bitterness first when he said:

“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:31-32).

For your sake, let me urge you to “put away all bitterness” now. There’s no reason to say in P.O.W. camp a minute longer. The escape route is dearly marked. It leads to the cross…where the only One who had a right to be bitter wasn’t.

Deepening Your Roots

Genesis 27:41; Matthew 18:21-35

Branching Out

1. Are you still bitter today over something that took place years ago? What is it? ___________________________________

Are you ready to forgive that person (or maybe God)? Good!

2. Be quick to forgive someone today as you go about your work, chores at home, etc.
3. Ask a friend, or spouse, if they sense any bitterness present in you. If they says yes, deal with it today!

Growing Strong

Ouch! Did I step on your toes this week or probe to deeply? Touch an area that brought conviction? Hey…that just means God is at work, causing growth. You’ve good reason to shout hurray! Go ahead. Shout. Then get a pen and complete this sentence for me: Getting rid of bitterness is like _______________________________________________________.