A Bitter Pill to Swallow

Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. Ephesians 4:31-5:2

Image Stock.xchange "dimshik"

Although there are many, many parts of missionary work in West Africa to love, there are also quite a number of things that are a bit distasteful. One literally distasteful thing is the malarial prophylactic chloroquine.  Although it is out of vogue now, for years, once a week, we had to take two tablets in order to prevent malaria. As the "quine" on the end of the word indicates, chloroquine has quinine in it. The taste was truly disgusting. 

And of course it is not just us, but also the Liberians who are extremely familiar with the bitter taste of chloroquine. It has therefore been the perfect illustration for teaching on bitterness. Holding bitterness in our hearts against someone for something they have done—or something we think they have done—is like sucking on chloroquine tablets. Yuck! 

And yet I have done it. Someone hurt me in some way and rather than giving it over to God, I roll the bitterness around in mouth like I am sucking on sweet candy. Yet it is totally pointless! Sometimes that person hasn't even known I was upset and sometimes the person knew but didn't care. Either way, the one being hurt by my bitterness was not anyone else but me. And my bitterness neither solved the problem nor made it go away.

The Bible gives a wonderful solution. According to the book of Ephesians I am to "put away" bitterness and replace it with kindness, tenderheartedness, and a forgiving and loving spirit. I must replace the wrong, bitter thinking with correct, biblical thinking and ask God for the grace to love the one who has hurt me. While this will not necessarily mean the relationship can be immediately restored—that takes two—it does mean I stand ready for God to bring complete restoration. 

We have grown children who to this day have a problem with the taste of honey because of our unsuccessful efforts to hide the bitter taste of the chloroquine in it. Likewise if I try to sweeten my bitterness by pretending it is not sin, years from now some little mention of the person or event in question will trigger the very emotion I am unwilling to deal with today. However, by admitting my bitterness is my sin (as vs. the sin of the person against whom I feel bitter), I can then repent and be free—even if the other/s involved may not yet be willing to deal with sin and reconcile. 

How thankful I am the Bible is such a practical book. Unlike its image as a dusty tome for boring people, it is packed with powerful, life-changing advice. And the advice it gives about "putting away" bitterness is about as practical as it gets!

See Showing Off in the House of God.
See Trusting God for a Happy Ending.