Bitterness and grace

Today's reading Hebrews 12:12-17

.

Today’s blog

“See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.” (Hebrews 12:15)

.

God wants us to share in his holiness (12:10) and by his grace he has made that possible through the death of Jesus (10:10) and by the ongoing “harvest of righteousness” which he grows in our lives (10:14; 12:11). Our part in that is to “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles” (12:1). Prominent among such hindrances and sins are bitterness and resentment.

.

Bitterness creeps in when relationships have gone wrong and we feel hurt and let down. It may seem like a minor matter but if it’s not addressed it will have major consequences, becoming a “bitter root” from which sprouts bad fruit that is both fatal to our holy living and also impacts adversely on the well-being of others. Bitterness blights God’s good harvest in our lives (Mk.4:7,19) and the poison of those roots gets passed on to others too.

.

So we must be ruthless in dealing with bitterness, uprooting it before it can go down deep and take hold in our lives. How is that possible when we’re feeling deeply hurt? The answer is in God’s grace which is always sufficient (2 Cor.12:9). In him, there is grace enough for us to be content in all circumstances (Phil.4:11-13), and grace enough for us to forgive whatever wrongs have been done to us (Eph.4:32; Mt.18:21-35). The best weed killer for any root of bitterness is to make sure that God’s grace has taken root in us even more deeply (Acts 20:32; Col.3:16; Heb.4:16).

.

(To dig a bit deeper into Hebrews 12:12-17 click here for some commentary notes.)