-Bitterness. All bitterness. Bitterness is produced when someone else’s brokenness collides with my brokenness in a way that causes bruising. If I fail to address it, the bruise can then fester, becoming a gangrenous sore which endangers the health of the entire body. It could be repeated blows, or one big one, but collision with brokenness is unavoidable in a fallen world - it is my internal collision-adjuster which makes all the difference. Undealt with, the festering bruise becomes bitterness, a foul weed whose root goes straight down into my heart and infects my entire outlook toward that person. Now they are all bad. They can do no good, and I want nothing to do with them. From me they get the heisman - an emotional and social stiff-arm which puts meaningful sharing and serving together out of the picture. The cure of course is forgiveness - found in the next verse. Meanwhile, the body of Christ is rendered impotent, bruised and broken and definitely not all pulling together in the same direction (cf Philippians 1.27).
-Bitterness erupts into all the other symptoms mentioned here. Curiously, wrath and anger - what was just permitted, yea commanded in Ephesians 4.26 - is now to be eradicated, otherwise forbidden when it is rooted in self, steeped in bitterness and boiling over in ill-will towards my (would-be) beloved. Rather than gentle and kind words spoken with self-control I wind up shouting. Clamor is angry shouting, and yes, it is also to be put away entirely, unbecoming as it is to a true follower of Christ. O no, no more shouting in anger. I must let the Lord take that far from me. Shouting in anger usually means I have lost all patience and any sembelance of self-control, no longer full of peace and gentleness, no longer controlled by God’s Spirit, I have now reverted to walking in the flesh.
-Blasphemy is speaking negatively about another person, either to their face or behind their back. Normally we think of blasphemy as being words against God, but in fact the world blasphemes one another all the time (cf Matthew 27.39, 1Peter 4.4). Slander. Gossip. Defamation. Criticism. Remember, it’s not that we can’t or shouldn’t deliver constructive criticism to others, but when we do, all our truthing is to be done in love (and to their face). Our words and countenance must be bathed in love, wrapped up in a heart that moves towards others, especially those in our family (spiritual or otherwise), for their good.
-Evil here does not refer to general moral evil, but rather a special form of vice, ill-will, a malevolent disposition towards my neighbor. It is the polar opposite of the kind of posture should have towards the brothers and sisters in my assembly (cf 1Peter 2.1, James 1.21). It is imperative that I rid myself of these negative feelings towards my fellow believer, whatever it takes. I must allow the Lord to eraditcate them entirely. Sadly, rather than deal with my negative feelings, I tend to voice them to others, which not only engenders even more deep-seated bitterness in my heart, but then also infects others.
-Bitterness. Wrath. Anger. Shouting. Slander. Malice. This is how the world relates to one another, and we must be different. The next verse tells us how...
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