10.18.14
Acts 8.23 23 "For I see that you are in the gall of
bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.” St. Peter (ESV)
Two things here: bile (gall), and bond – Simon the
sorcerer had both. My question is, what can bitterness do to you? Why did Simon
Peter accuse Simon the sorcerer of the
gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity? Bond I get; bile I don’t.
What do we suppose came up inside our mother Eve when she
was fooled into believing that God had kept something from her with that
precious fruit she wasn’t supposed to eat? Can we surmise that perhaps she
might’ve had just a tinge of bitterness that something was kept from her on
purpose, and her emotions were used against her to get irritated by it? Makes me think; makes me wonder.
Is bitterness always bad? I tend to like bitter coffee –
I’ve developed a taste for it. I tend to like lemon juice on salads. Bitter
isn’t always bad. But bitterness in life may be a different matter altogether –
bitterness may cause us to do things out of spite, anger, loneliness, betrayal;
bitterness is a deep-seated root. The love of money may be the root of all
kinds of evil, but those roots grow fast and firm in the fertile field of
bitterness.
Simon the sorcerer was bitter. Maybe his bitterness
caused him to make choices based upon his worldview: I deserve better than this and I’m going to take whatever I can,
however I can. Some people – no really, many – are bitter that way.
And bitterness is creepy and insidious. Bitterness throws
an encouraging arm around our shoulder and whispers: God doesn’t really care because if He did this wouldn’t be happening,
or that wouldn’t have happened. And bitterness is self-justifiable, a: somebody done somebody wrong song…
Bitterness may at first be a habit someone has, but
unless dealt with by the Spirit of the Living God, bitterness may become
something that has someone down the
road. The harmful but innocent looking things we leave lying around in our
hearts may be the very things that lead us to live out a life of bitterness
with the most dreadful conduct and consequence.
Our part is to learn to name names. If we always do what
we’ve always done then we’ll always be where we’ve always been; and we need to
determine why that is so. A reason
may be what we’re clinging to in
bitterness that controls how we view life, rights, and God. The
rose-colored glasses go both ways…
Father, as I examine my own life and conduct, and fight
with the things I continually fight with (losing the fight in the process) I
pray for eyes to see what is in my heart; to see if I’m harboring something
that keeps insidiously reassuring me that doubting You and testing You is both my
right and privilege. God cleanse me from bitterness, and may I walk in purity
of heart before You – Amen.
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