TUESDAY July 6, 2021
Are You Bitter?
Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
Ephesians 4:31-32
If a believer continues to disobey God’s Word and grieve the Holy Spirit, it can lead to a bitter life. An unforgiving person will find themselves falling headlong into the sin of bitterness. Someone who is bitter has a settled hostility that has poisoned their whole inner man. Understand, those who hold on to bitterness often become physically sick.
God desires that we be kind, loving and forgiving toward others. Through Jesus Christ, God has forgiven us. Therefore, the only way to heal a root of bitterness in the human heart is through forgiveness and real love––God’s love. Loving God and people is a commandment of God!
Jesus, in response to a lawyer’s question about what was the greatest commandment in the Law, answered:
“ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40).
We are to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves. The definition of love is recorded in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8:
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.
Can you place your name in these verses? We often fail to love people because there is no possible way to love another person apart from the love of God. His love extends to all people (John 3:16). Ask the Holy Spirit to fill your life with the love of God. Then you can truly love people.
Of love there be two principle offices, one to give, another to forgive.
~John Boys~
For more from Raul Ries, please visit SomebodyLovesYou.com!
