Bitter At The Root
Written by a Northern schoolteacher in response to atrocities she had heard of in the South, the song made Billy Holiday a legend in her own time. Sadly, it tells of the result of bitterness left unhealed. Indeed, a bitter heart yields bitter fruit in the end if we leave it unattended!
“For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes” (Luke 6:44).
Indeed, the root determines the offspring; the inner man, the outer; and the heart, the life.
Bitterness is a cancer that spreads throughout the organs, an acid that slowly eats away at the flesh until only bone remains.
Bitten…
A sister in our church was recently bitten by a brown recluse spider. After enduring the pain, swelling, and spread of infection for almost a week, she finally called me to ask what she should do. She had assumed that it would go away with time, but she doesn’t know the brown recluse like I do!
I have been bitten eleven times by brown recluse spiders! Being an avid hiker and loving the outdoors, I always seem to be a target! Furthermore, once bitten, some people’s bodies actually give off a chemical that attracts the little darlings! I’ve had as many as five on my body at once and have even had a chunk of my hip removed thanks to one particularly bad bite!
The brown recluse is not a spider to be taken lightly. The smallest bite yields almost instant muscle pain as the poison eats its way into the flesh. Left unattended by an anti-venom, the poison continues to spread, rotting skin, tendons, muscle, fatty tissue, and even organs. It is designed to rot the bodies of the spider’s prey so that it may feed on them more easily.
The result can be quite gruesome.
Why do I think of a brown recluse bite when I consider bitterness of spirit? Quite simply because not only are the effects the same but so are the excuses we give.
“Sure, it hurts but if I just work through the pain, it will eventually go away.”
“Yeah, it looks bad but I don’t have the time or resources to go to the doctor.”
“Where is that spider? I’m going to find it and squash it!” (My question, what about your foot that is swelling? Let’s handle you first and forget the spider! A good can of Raid will fix him!)
“Wow, look at this bite I have. It’s really something.” (Telling everyone about the bitter incident that caused you pain isn’t going to fix it.)
Often, when we are hurting, we shy away from the solution.
This is how I ended up having surgery from my first bite. First, I tried to ignore the pain, thinking it would just go away with time. Then, upon hearing that the bite was reason for great concern, I feared the treatment. Let’s just say, I’m not a fan of needles. Little did I know that not going to the doctor immediately for a shot would lead to the use of the scalpel instead!
Our Bitterness…
Bitterness grows in the same way.
It begins with a valid wound…a real bite! Trust me, I never sought out those spiders!
My dear sister at church was bitten in the foot. Her ankle is now twice the size it should be and there is a gaping, oozing wound the size of a half dollar where the spider bit her. Without proper care, the decay will spread, leading to amputation of the affected member. And, trust me, anyone losing their foot notices the loss!
Bitterness is a poison that can quickly consume you, if you aren’t careful. As Job tells, when your hope is cut off through harsh treatment, disappointment, or an outright attack, your trust becomes a “spider’s web” (Job 8:14).
Such deep emotional scarring can happen to anyone. Scripture tells us that spiders are even to be found in king’s palaces (Proverbs 30:28). It is just like a person who looks perfectly healthy on the outside; she may be hiding a nasty bite underneath her sleeve. Many in our congregations have secret, hidden wounds that they hide beneath the façade of a smile or even of being too busy. There are many techniques that are used to hide our secret scars.
Spiritually, such bitterness can and will destroy your walk with God. Let us look at Simon the Sorcerer:
“Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost. And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, Saying,
Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost.
But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God.
Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity. Then answered Simon, and said, Pray ye to the LORD for me, that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me” (Acts 8:16-24).
When you are embittered against your brother or sister, there is no rest in God and, indeed, there can be no renewing or infilling of God’s spirit within you. There is a barrier there—both of disobedience and of a lack of confidence toward God.
Matthew 5:23-24 tells us, “Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.”
God cannot forgive or even bless us until we learn to forgive and bless others.
Jesus commanded us, “And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses” (Mark 11:15).
Let’s break this down. For us to be forgiven, we must forgive. If we remain unforgiven, we are unclean and remain in our sin! God will not dwell in an unclean temple…aw, how important forgiveness is!
Instead, God provides a remedy:
“I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt. 5:44-45).
What happens when we do not forgive and we allow bitterness to take a foothold in our heart?
Look at Simon the Sorcerer! When saints cannot overcome bitterness, they seek the counterfeit of true spiritual experience. They cannot submit themselves enough to forgive so they seek formulas, shortcuts, and the touch of well-known ministers, seeking to meet their spiritual needs through alternate means rather than dealing with the poison inside of them.
“If Bro. Stoneking will just pray for me, I’ll be healed,” they cry, not realizing that if they will submit and forgive, their prayers and faith—thanks to a good conscience toward God--will be enough!
Yes, we have wonderful, powerful men of God in our midst, but how much more could we shake our world if we would all operate in the Spirit like we are called to do?
Sadly, the venom of bitterness does not stop with the infected saint. As with any venomous bite, the poison spreads through the capillaries and blood vessels of that member to the rest of the body.
The Victim Becomes the Perpetrator
We’ve seen the vicious cycle so many times outside the church. Children who are sexually, physically, or verbally abused have a tendency to abuse their children in the same way. Is it that they want to harm another person the way they have been hurt? Usually not. It is simply the result of an embittered soul lashing out against anything that might harm them.
Being wounded in such a way can blur one’s vision, making friends appear to be enemies. In essence, the bitten can easily—through uncontrolled bitterness—become the biter!
Proverbs 18:21 tells us that “death and life are in the power of the tongue.” Not only can we impact our future by the words we speak, but we also influence the lives of those around us!
What does scripture say about an embittered tongue?
Romans 3:10-17 paints a bleak picture:
“As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known.”
Bitterness not only eats away at your soul but it can eat away at the body of Christ.
With a spider bite, a person could lose the limb bitten. Left unattended, the poison can also enter the bloodstream, damaging or even killing the rest of the body and its members! Our bitterness can poison us, other members in our church, and can even lead to the death of our church spiritually!
God’s cure is simple.
Quite simply, the prescription is…forgive and move on.
Hebrews 12:14-15 commands us to “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.”
Ephesians continues, “grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you” (Eph. 4:30-32).
Quite simply, not doing so may lead to your own spiritual death...and Jesus came that we “might have life and that, more abundantly!”
We can’t live abundantly with an agent of death flowing through our veins!
