Code Red
Consider this scenario.
You express your lack of approval of certain actions you consider being wrong. The respondent abruptly responds: “You are a bigot expressing hate. You should be ashamed of yourself harboring such hate.”
Your response is “I love the person, but I don’t like their conduct.”
The respondent: “You are just trying to cover your hate.”
You are then in the position to respond: “I do love the person. You say I have hate. You are bitter and bitterness is hate on steroids.” Because the one accusing another of hate is unable to separate the doer from the deed they are inclined to hate the person they have accused, you.
Therefore, “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no ‘root of bitterness’ springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled…”. It is not the root that is bitter, it is the fruit it produces that is bitter. The fruit is festered anger and resultant bitterness. The dissenter who accuses a believer of hate is speaking out of a mentality of anger metastasized into bitterness.
Make sure you have no bitterness in your life. A bitter person is someone who has feelings of resentment and deep anger, often because of something from the past that has hurt them. They have a negative attitude and negative emotions. At their core, a bitter person is someone who is deeply resentful of other people.
A bitter person’s baseline mood is often angry, disappointed, or irritable.
Bitter people believe that the world owes them so much. Bitterness involves feelings of sadness, resentment, and anger that has developed over time.
Don’t let bitterness enter into your life. Instead, give it a creative outlet – make it an opportunity to show patience and express love. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly” Hebrews 6: 12.
It’s not what you eat that matters, it’s what eats you. You might have an ideal diet, but if you let bitterness and its companions of resentment, worry, fear, lust, guilt, anger, or any other emotional disease eat at you it’s going to affect your physical health as well as your emotional well being. Therefore, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” Ephesians 4:31-32.
Christians must courageously stand up for their convictions in the face of bitter criticism. This is no hour to suffer spiritual laryngitis. Expect opposition and don’t be silenced by vitriol. Endeavor to please the Lord in your actions. Be like the apostles who rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer for the Lord. Study issues to be well versed in what you believe and why. Holy boldness is undergirded by the Lord Himself. We are engaged in spiritual warfare.
This is an hour of CODE RED.