If Christ loved the weak believer to the extent of laying down his life for his salvation, how alien to the demands of this love is the refusal on the part of the strong to forego the use of a certain article of food [or anything else] when the religious interests of the one for whom Christ died are thereby imperiled! It is the contrast between what the extreme sacrifice of Christ exemplified and the paltry demand devolving upon us that accentuates the meanness of our attitude when we discard the interests of a weak brother. And since the death of Christ as the price of redemption for all believers is the bond uniting them in fellowship, how contradictory is any behavior that is not patterned after the love which Christ’s death exhibited!
John Murray

Beware Of Bitterness

Beware Of Bitterness 59 BA-14-4P BEWARE OF BITTERNESS Ep. 4:31-32

INTRODUCTION:

  1. Webster, “Sharp, disagreable, piercing, servere….”
  2. Greek, “poison”
  3. Not desirable but not generally recognized
  4. When recognized, the question is, “How can I avoid it…”
  5. BITTERNESS IS USUALLY PRECEEDED BY SHARP WORDS
  6. Verse 29, “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.”
  7. This is the opposite of some who habitually critize others
  8. A disagreeable nature is in opposition to v. 3, “Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

II. BITTERNESS IS LIKE A FOREIGN SUBSTANCE IN THE BODY OF CHRIST

  1. Bitterness will cause a festered sore until it is removed
  2. Bitterness will try to kill the body of Christ
    1. It led the Pharisees to ask Jesus “Loaded questions”
    2. It caused the Jews to follow Paul and fight his ministry
  3. Peter to Simon (Acts 8:21,23) “Thy heart is not right in the

    sight of God…. For I perceive that thou art in in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity.”

  4. Heb. 12:15, “[Look] diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.”
  5. When one starts backsliding, he starts finding fault and then bitterness is a result of such a hardened heart

III. BITTERNESS HARDENS THE HEART AND HINDERS FAITH

  1. Paul at Ephesus (Acts 19:8-9), “Divers were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude”
  2. Sear over the conscience when fault-finding
  3. We cannot win the lost by telling them evil things (Some Christians would have trouble staying saved/encouraged if they had to listen to the faults of others constantly)
  4. Jesus said (Mt. 18:19), “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done of them of my Father which is in heaven”
  5. Agreement is Godly — Let us agree with God!

IV. THE RECOMMENDED DEFENSE AGAINST BITTERNESS

  1. Ep. 4:22, “Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”
  2. We should beware when we stop being touched by God’s Spirit
  3. Even if we are in the “right”, Paul told Timothy (2 Tim. 2:3), “Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”
  4. God’s will for us is to be kind, tender, forgiving because “Freely you have received, freely give”

ALTAR CALL

  1. ILLUSTRATION: Dorcas in S.A. Leper Hospital
    1. 7-came, 17-saved, 77-now, 78-“gone home”
    2. Mistreated, but no bitterness only sweet spirit
  2. Do YOU have that kind of kind, tender, forgiving spirit?