Entering their Sunday school class, a group of young people saw large pieces of blank white paper taped to a cork display board. They were told to draw pictures of those they strongly disliked. The drawings would then become targets at which the students could, if they wished, throw darts.
One young woman eagerly began to draw a picture of the girl who had stolen her boyfriend. A young man drew a likeness of his little brother; another, the face of an older Christian who had criticized her. So it went, each one sketching the likeness of someone who had offended them. Then the students began energetically hurling darts at their drawings. The sketches were soon badly disfigured and filled with many gaping holes.
After a time their teacher stopped this action, asked the students to be seated and began removing the torn, punctured pictures from the display board.
A strange hush suddenly fell over the noisy room as each student viewed, underneath the pictures they had drawn and then mangled with darts, a picture of Jesus holes and jagged tears piercing and covering His face. Eyes, some filling with tears, focused on the ruin they had inflicted on the Saviour’s face as the teacher quoted but one verse in ending the class: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me” (Matt. 25:4040And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. (Matthew 25:40)).
“Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” It is much easier to quote these precious, vitally important words of Ephesians 4:3232And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:32) than to practice them in our daily lives.
What deadly ruin is worked in lives when bitterness takes root in hearts bitterness caused, at times, by the most insignificant slight unintended or maybe even unrealized by the offender.
Make no mistake. Eventually, unconfessed and unforsaken bitter feelings fester into jealousies, angers and contentions. Then that sinful root of bitterness becomes public, causing dreadful breaches-divisions among those for whom Christ died. He died so that we might all be one (John 17:21,2321That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. (John 17:21)
23I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. (John 17:23)).
The tragic defilement of Tamar in 2 Samuel 13, though a terrible sin, illustrates the deadly results of hidden bitterness. First, in verse 20, her brother Absalom told Tamar not to be concerned about what had happened to her. (He should have immediately requested that David deal with it.) Second, in verse 22, Absalom, though outwardly pretending to disregard the sin, nursed inward feelings of hatred in his heart. Third, he secretly nursed that bitterness two years (vs. 23)! Fourth, Absalom had no intention of dealing righteously with the offense. He had determined (and carefully planned) to kill Amnon “from the day that he humbled his sister” (vs. 32 JND).
What awful heartbreak results from holding a bitter spirit! May we never forget what the glorified Christ asked that zealous oppressor of His beloved people: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?”
Ed.