“Get rid of all
bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of
malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as
in Christ God forgave you. Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved
children, and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up
for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Eph. 4:31–5:2).

In this text, we are instructed to get rid of all bitterness. Before we begin
discussing how and why this must be done, it is crucial to realize that the
basis for all our actions in this regard must be what Jesus Christ has done for
us on the cross. In all our actions, we are to be imitators of God.

In
the Old Testament, there was a woman whose name meant Pleasant. Her name was
Naomi, and she had moved from Israel to another land with her husband and sons.
But her husband had died, and within the next ten years both of her sons died.

She
made some comments to her recently widowed daughters-in-law about it. Ruth
1:13b: “It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has gone
out against me!” She was comparing in order to determine who had the right to
be more bitter.

In
Ruth 1:20–21: “Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the
Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has
brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the
Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”

Her
bitterness was toward God. It was God who had taken away her husband; it was
God who had taken away her sons, and she held it against Him. Five times in
these three verses she held God accountable for her bitterness.

There
are many people like this today. Not only are they bitter; they enjoy being
bitter. They somehow like it, and they feed on it. They wouldn’t know what to
do if they got rid of it; they wouldn’t have a purpose for living. They like
being bitter.

We
know people like that in the world, and we know people like that in the church.
It is easy to recognize when someone is bitter. You can see it in the eyes and
in the lines of the face—even if the person is young. You can see it in their
mouth; you can see it when they’re smiling or laughing. You can hear it in the
tone of their voice. You can hear it when they protest that they are not
bitter. The bitterness is central, and it pervades everything.

There
are bitter people in the Bible besides Naomi. In fact, there are quite a few.
For example, Jonah was a bitter man. The Lord said to him, “Do you have a right
to be angry about the vine?”

“I
do,” he said. “I am angry enough to die” (Jonah 4:9).

He
thought he had a right to his anger. I like being angry. God, You are wrong to
forgive people. I don’t want You to forgive people.

People
enjoy holding things against other people. But our text requires us to remove
all bitterness and to maintain a tender heart.

Here’s
the question: Is it possible to be kind, compassionate, tenderhearted, and yet
bitter at the same time? These are all interior attitudes. Tenderheartedness,
by definition, involves a tender heart. Bitterness is also on the inside. But
it is not possible to have two different, contradictory attitudes on the
inside.

Paul
says to get rid of all bitterness, and to be kind and compassionate one to
another. Therefore, the bitterness must go. But before it can be removed, it is
necessary to know what it is—and that it is there.

It
is relatively easy to see when other people are bitter. But it’s not so easy to
see it in ourselves. It is therefore important to have a good understanding of
the Bible’s definition of the problem.

Let
us suppose that a Christian commits a sin. He tells a lie, for instance. When
he tells this lie, does he feel guilty, or does he feel bitter? The answer is
guilty. When we sin, we feel guilty. It is straightforward. Now suppose that
someone told a lie about this same Christian and spread it all over town. What
does he feel now—guilt or bitterness?

Guilt
is what we feel when we sin, and bitterness is what we feel when others sin
against us. The very definition of bitterness points to the action of another.
If we had committed the offense, we would feel guilty and would know that we
had to confess and forsake our sin. We might not confess the sin when we are
guilty, but not because we did not know what to do. But what do we do with the
guilt of others?

Bitterness
is always based upon someone else’s sin—whether real or imagined. Consider the
imaginary sin first. Many times we can be bitter toward someone for what he
said, when in reality he did not say it. We heard a false report, and now we
are bitter. We wait for an apology which he cannot offer. Shall we remain in
bitterness the rest of our lives because he never says he is sorry for
something he did not do?

Incidentally,
many bitter people cannot imagine the possibility that they are bitter over
imaginary sins. As far as bitterness is concerned, the other person’s guilt is
always real. For such a person trying to be free from bitterness, it is
acceptable for them to assume that the guilt of the other person is real, so
long as they get rid of their own bitterness.

But
what about genuine sin? There are many bitter people who really were mistreated
by the offender. So how do we deal with a genuine offense?

Bitterness
is based on sin that somehow relates to you. It is not concerned with how big
the sin is; it is based upon how close it is. For instance, if some great and
gross immorality occurs in Iran, Iraq, El Salvador, or Colombia, what do we do?
We read about it, but we will not feel guilty. We read about it, but we will
not feel bitter. We might be appalled or amazed, but we do not feel guilty, and
we do not feel bitter, even though it was an awful sin, and someone actually
committed it. So it does not depend on how great the evil is; it depends on how
close the other person is to me. Bitterness is related to those people who are
close.

Who
are likely candidates? The answer is simple: fathers, mothers, brothers,
sisters, husbands, wives, children, boyfriends, girlfriends, roommates,
immediate superiors, immediate subordinates, coworkers, business partners, and
maybe some other relatives—grandparents, uncles, etc. There are even many
people who are bitter against God.

We
do not get bitter towards evil outside of our own immediate contact. Bitterness
is based upon the sin of someone who is close to us and who did something to
us. It might be minor. It does not have to be great; it just has to be close.
Does he pick up his socks? No? Can you get bitter over that? Well, no, but what
if he does it 5,000 times?

You
may think you have a right to be bitter. But the Bible does not grant anyone
the right to be bitter. The text says to get rid of all bitterness.

“See
to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to
cause trouble and defile many” (Heb. 12:15). Here it describes bitterness as if
it were a root. A root is something that is underground and cannot be seen. But
there can be visible evidence of its presence, as when sidewalks are lifted.

The
fact that you cannot see roots does not mean they are not there. Neither does
it mean you will never see them. They drink in nourishment, and they do not
stay roots. Eventually they come up.

The
fruit that is born bears a direct relation to the root that is producing it.
The roots of an apple tree provide us with apples. If there is a bitter root,
it will bear bitter fruit.

That
is what this verse is saying. Beware lest any root of bitterness spring up,
cause trouble, and defile many people, which means to make many people filthy.
Have you ever seen bitterness go through a church? Bitterness can go through a
congregation like a prairie fire. It can go through the workplace or a
dormitory. Why is this? Somebody decided to share. He was bitter, and he let
the root come to the surface and bear fruit. He shared it, and many people
became bitter. The author of Hebrews warns us about this. He says beware of
missing the grace of God. When you allow it, bitterness comes up and defiles
many people. It makes many people filthy.

What
happens to a person if he keeps bitterness on the inside for many years? What
happens to him physically? Suppose it is bitterness toward some member of the
family. He has not shared it. He has not defiled many people—he has kept it
down inside. When he keeps it in for some years, he finally begins to hurt. He
goes to the doctor, and the doctor says, “You are right; you are sick. But your
sickness is not the kind I deal with. I am going to send you to the other kind
of doctor.”

So
he sends him to the psychiatrist, and the psychiatrist agrees. “Yes, you are
sick all right. And I know why. You are sick because of twenty years of
bitterness towards your father. You have kept it suppressed all these years,
and it’s rotted out your insides. You have kept this poison within, and this
acid on the inside has made you physically ill. So what I want you to do is to
go home and share it with your father. Why keep it in and get sick? Let it out.
Get everybody else sick.”

So
the world has two solutions: Keep the bitterness in and make yourself sick, or
let it out and spread the sickness around. God’s solution is to dig up the
root. Get rid of it. But this takes the grace of God. A man must know the Lord
Jesus Christ to be able to do this. He is the source of grace.

Christians
should not use the world’s solutions for bitterness. When Christians copy the
world, they have two poor choices. The Bible says to get rid of all bitterness.
You must not keep it in, and you must not share it. Surrender it to the Father,
through the Son.

“But
if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast
about it or deny the truth. Such ‘wisdom’ does not come down from heaven but is
earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. For where you have envy and selfish
ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice” (James 3:14–15).

When
I was a young midshipman at the Naval Academy, I thought that the pettiness and
jealousy I observed would give way to maturity. I thought the higher you got in
rank, the more mature you became, the less this sort of thing occurred. But as
I grew older, I found out that the jealousy just got more intense. Bitterness
accumulates. Unless there’s a solution to it, people do not get less bitter
with maturity. They get more bitter over the years. It gets worse and worse.

And
if you harbor bitter envy, evil practice will result. It does not come from
heaven. It is straight from the pit and is of the devil. Every evil practice
results from this attitude. As should be obvious, we have a real problem. How
do we get rid of bitterness?

Before
we can get rid of bitterness, we have to realize that we are bitter. How can we
tell if we are bitter? One good rule of thumb is this: Bitterness remembers
details. You have had thousands of conversations in your life, most of which
you have forgotten. But this one took place five years ago, and you remember
every single word, his intonation, and every inflection of his voice. You know exactly
what happened—which means you are bitter.

Someone
might object and say that it is also possible to have a good memory of a
wonderful conversation. Is this possible? Yes, but not likely. Why? Because
memory is helped by review, review, and more review. People do not usually mull
over the wonderful things as much. But they do go over and over and over the
bad things. I have done quite a bit of counseling with people who are in the
process of getting divorced. I have known some of them since they were married,
at a happier time in their life. But at the time of the divorce, they cannot
remember a single happy time. All they can remember is what they have gone over
and over. They are bitter.

This
doesn’t mean there were not happy times. It just means that they have
concentrated on how right they were and how wrong the other person was. If
someone has a sharp, detailed memory for things which happened years ago when
he was a child or a young man or woman, and that memory is at all accusative of
anyone, then it is an indication of bitterness. And the solution for bitterness
is to get rid of it.

I
had a wonderful experience one time in Dallas, Texas. I was speaking on a
Saturday night at the home of an old friend. Because I was going to be in
Dallas, I wrote notes to several people that I knew in the area, and they
showed up at this home.

My
host asked me to speak on bitterness, which I did. Afterwards, a couple came up
to see me. I had known them eight years before in Pullman, Washington. The wife
said, “We have been married for eight years. The first year of marriage, I was
so bitter toward my mother that I laid it on my husband every single day. Our
first year of marriage was just awful because I kept sharing this bitterness
toward my mother with my husband.”

Then
she told me that seven years earlier I had spoken on bitterness, and she had
gotten rid of hers. One day, she saw another woman who was really bitter
towards her mother. She thought, “I can help that woman. I can share all the
common experiences. I went to her to share this, and I couldn’t remember any of
the details. My detailed memory had gone. All I could tell her was I used to
remember things, and I do not remember them anymore.” The Lord had really taken
care of her bitterness.

Another
time, I was teaching a four-week course on marriage. I had put a notice in the
paper and did not know who would show up. A woman came who had been referred to
the class by a doctor. I can honestly say that I have never seen anyone more
bitter in appearance in my life. She had forty years of accumulated bitterness.
She got rid of it that night and made an appointment to see me the next day at
the bookstore where I worked. She came into the store, and I did not know who
she was. She looked so different. I had just met her the night before, but she
was clean inside now.

What
is the problem? Why do we not get rid of bitterness? If I tell a lie, I can
confess it and be forgiven. In order to get rid of it, I have to bring it back
to my own heart. We need to bring the realization of bitterness back to our own
hearts. Instead, the temptation is to look at the offender. Look what he did.
That is the nature of bitterness. In order to get rid of it, I need to
recognize that it is my problem before I can confess and forsake it.

You
say, “I am not bitter. I just get hurt easily.” But the symptoms of getting
hurt are very close to the symptoms of resentment. Do you know what instant
resentment is? You might say. “It is not bitterness—it is just hurt feelings.”
But there is a close relationship between being hurt and being resentful.
Someone gets hurt, and he gets resentful. There is another very close
connection between resentment and bitterness. Resentment turns into a deep
bitterness.

Bitterness
is just resentment that has been held on to. It has become rancid and rotten.
It is kept in, and it gets worse.

The
links in the chain continue. There is a connection between bitterness and
hatred, and a very clear biblical identification between hatred and murder.
What I am saying is that hurt can lead to murder. Some might object that this
teaching is too strong. But the strength of it is from the Bible.

What
we want to do is make it apparent how sinful bitterness is. The bitter person
must first recognize that he is bitter, and secondly, that it is a gross evil.
Again, the reason people do not deal with this sin is that they think it is the
other person’s sin. The devil says, “Well, when he quits lying, or he quits
doing this or that, or when he says he’s sorry, then you will feel better.”

But
suppose he does not quit? Suppose he never quits? Are you going to be bitter
for the rest of your life because someone else insists on being in sin? That
does not make any sense at all. You may say, “I will forgive him when he says
he is sorry, but not until then. I have a right to my bitterness until then.
When he says he is sorry, I will forgive him and everything will be fine.” You
keep this wall of bitterness up, and one day he comes to you and he says, “I’m
sorry.” Can you forgive him now? No, because bitterness doesn’t forgive. In
order to forgive this person when he says he is sorry, you have to be ready
before he says he is sorry. And if you are ready to forgive him before he says
he is sorry, then it doesn’t depend on whether he says he is sorry or not. In
other words, you get rid of bitterness unilaterally. It does not matter what
the other person does.

Earlier,
I made the point that bitterness seems to stem from the other person’s sin—real
or imagined. That is only how it appears. In reality, bitterness is a sin that
stands alone. The bitter person decides to be bitter independently of the
offender.

You
say, “No, he sinned against me, and when he says he is sorry everything will be
fine.” That is not true. I have known situations where an apology was offered,
and the person is still bitter. Suppose the offender is dead and cannot
apologize. I know people who are extremely bitter, and the bitterness is
towards their parents who died years ago. But the bitterness has not died.
Bitterness is the sin of the bitter person alone, unrelated to anyone else.

One
time around Christmas, I went to the Walla Walla State Penitentiary to spend
the day with the inmates. I spent about six hours there. During the afternoon,
I was in maximum security, talking about and teaching evangelism. One fellow
asked about reaching the really hard-core criminals. I thought he was really
interested in such evangelism and talked to him about it. Then I spent time in
minimum security, protective custody, and other places. In the evening, I was
back in maximum security, and thought I would talk on the subject of
bitterness. I figured there were probably some bitter people there.

The
same fellow who had asked about evangelism in the afternoon asked me another
question. He said, “How can you get rid of bitterness towards somebody who beat
up your three-year-old son unmercifully?”

I
told him how, and then I said, “You know, when you get rid of your bitterness
you can help this person so that he won’t beat up other little kids.”

He
said, “No, this guy cannot be helped.”

I
said, “Sure, he can.”

“No,
no.”

“Why
not?”

“He
is not with us anymore.”

This
inmate had murdered him. He had murdered him because of what he had done to his
three-year-old son—that’s why he was in prison. But even though he had killed
the man, he was still bitter. In other words, expressing his bitterness did not
get rid of it. Nor did the death get rid of it.

When
someone else says he is sorry, it does not get rid of our bitterness. The only
thing that gets rid of it is confession before God because of the Lord Jesus
Christ’s death and resurrection. This is the only solution.

You
may say that the person you are bitter toward died many years ago. You did not
kill the person like the man in prison. Otherwise, there is no difference; the
other person is dead, and you are still bitter.

If
the person who died was a believer, he is with the Lord, forgiven and pure. You
are bitter towards someone who is rejoicing in Heaven because his name is
written in the Lamb’s book of life.

If
the person who died was not a believer, then he is under the judgement of God
described in 2 Thessalonians 1:6–8: “God is just: He will pay back trouble to
those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as
well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing
fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do
not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.”

“Do
not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is
written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord” (Rom. 12:19). God
is just, and God does the repaying.

Even
if these people were alive, they could not take care of your bitterness, nor
could you by going after them. Being dead, they have been taken care of, either
way. That leaves you, alive and bitter, hurting yourself and everyone around
you for years. Your bitterness is your sin, regardless of what you think caused
it. God will allow you to experience the forgiveness and joy that is yours when
you repent and confess your bitterness as a great sin against God. We must not
keep it, and we must not share it with others. There is only one thing to do,
and that is to confess it as a great and evil sin. We must be as persistent in
the confession as necessary.

Once
I was speaking in Monterey, California, at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School.
There was a man there who had a great reputation as a Bible teacher. He was a
line officer in the Navy, but he had been passed over for the command of a
submarine, and he was bitter. I spoke on confession of sin and bitterness, and
he was really wiped out. He came and saw me and got rid of his bitterness. The
next morning, his wife said to me, “I’ve got a new husband.” He had been bitter
toward the Navy, but it was his sin, not the Navy’s.

Amy
Carmichael has a note in her little book If: “For a cup brimful of sweet
water cannot spill even one drop of bitter water, however suddenly jolted.”[1] If
a cup is full of sweet water and is jolted, what will come out of it? Sweet
water. If you give it a harder jolt, what’s going to spill? More sweet water.
If someone is filled with sweet water and someone else gives him a jolt, what
will come out? Sweet water. Jolts do not turn sweet water into bitter water.
That is done by something else.

Jolts
only bring out of the container what is already in it. If you are filled with
sweetness and light and you get jolted, you’re going to spill sweetness and
light. If you’re filled with honey, the honey will come out. If vinegar comes
out, what does that prove? It shows what was already in the container. In other
words, much bitterness is not based upon what the other person did at all. It
is the result of what we do and are.

Many
years ago, I was working in our bedroom at my desk. My wife Bessie was reading
in bed. Whatever I was doing wasn’t going well. Bessie said something to me,
and I turned around and let her have it. It was something un-Christian. She
looked at me in amazement and got up and left the room. I sat there thinking,
“She should not have said it. Look what she said. Look, look, look.” I did that
for around ten minutes. I was bitter towards Bessie, but all she did was jolt
the cup. What was in the cup came out.

If
I had been filled with sweetness and light, the jolt would not have mattered. I
sat there and thought about what she did. I knew better, because I had already
learned this truth about bitterness. Still, I thought about her “sin” because
there is enjoyment in accusing the other person. Some people do this for years.

I
sat there for a while and then got up and went over to my side of the bed, got
on my knees, and said, “Lord, I was the only one at fault. It was my bitterness
and my sin. I am confessing it, forsaking it, and please forgive me.”

I
got up off my knees and said, “But look what she said.” I got back on my knees.

“God,
I’m sorry for what I did. I accept the responsibility. It was my sin, and mine
only.”

I
got up off my knees and said, “God, You and I know who is really at fault.” I
knelt back down. I stayed on my knees for forty-five minutes until I could get
up and not say, “Look what she said.”

I
do not remember now what Bessie said, and I do not remember what I was doing at
the desk. I do not remember the details. The only thing I remember now is
getting up. But I also know that if I had not taken care of the bitterness I
would know to this day exactly what she had said. That is the nature of
bitterness.

In
order to get rid of bitterness, I have to see that it is evil, and that it is
my sin and my sin only. I do not get rid of it through the other person saying
he is sorry. I do not get rid of it if the other person quits or dies. I do not
get rid of it any other way except calling it sin against the holy God,
confessing it, and receiving forgiveness.

The
difficulty is getting my eyes off the other person’s sin. But just the fact
that I think it is his problem shows that it is not. If it actually were his
problem, and I were filled with sweetness and light, and not bitter, then I
would be concerned about him. I could say, “That poor guy! Look what he did. If
I did something like that, I would feel awful. He must really feel awful. I
think I will go help him.” If that is not my response, then I am bitter, and it
is my sin, not his.

I
believe that this sin is a major hindrance to revival in this country. When
Christians start confessing their sins, they will be able to forgive the sins
of others.

by Richard Baxter, excerpted from The Poor Man’s Family Book, 1672

In times when churches are corrupted, and good ministers are
wanting, and bad ones either deceive the people or are insufficient for their
work, there is no better supply to keep up religion than godly families. If
parents and masters will teach their children and servants faithfully, and
worship God with them holily and constantly, and govern them carefully and
orderly, it will much make up the want of public teaching, worship, and
discipline. Oh that God would stir up the hearts of people thus to make their
families as little churches, that it might not be in the power of rulers or
pastors that are bad to extinguish religion, or banish godliness from any land!

You have greater and nearer obligations to your family than
pastors have to all the people. Your wife is as your own flesh; your children
are, as it were, parts of yourself. Nature bindeth you to the dearest affection,
and therefore to the greatest duty to them. Who should more care for your
children’s souls than their own parents? If you will not provide for them, but
famish them, who will feed them? Therefore, as ever you have the bowels of
parents, as ever you care what becometh of your children’s souls forever,
devote them to God, teach them His word, educate them in holiness, restrain
them from sin, and prepare them for salvation…

Oh that I could speak what is deeply upon my heart to all
the parents of the land! God hath committed their children’s souls as much to
their trust and care as He hath done their bodies. It is they that are to teach
them, and to exhort them to keep the covenant, to catechise them, and to mind
them of the state of their souls, their need of Christ, the mercy of
redemption, the excellency of holiness, and of everlasting life. It is they
that are to watch over them with wisdom, love, and diligence, to save them from
temptation, Satan, and sin, and to lead them by the example of a holy life.

by Wes Callihan, (Antithesis, July/August 1991, p. 3)

Do you enjoy what you read to your children?

“No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is
not equally (and far more) worth reading at the age of fifty.” If C.S. Lewis
was right about this, then a good test of the quality of a given “children’s”
book should be whether or not adults can (not whether they do) enjoy it
as well. To put it another way, if it is only a children’s book, it is
probably not a good children’s book.

He’s right, of course. Consider those books that are called
children’s classics. Peter Rabbit is considered a classic. So is Winnie
the Pooh. So are many fairy tales, and so also (though for different
reasons) are the Little House books. Children love these stories—but the
same is true of the adults who read them to the children. Something in them
goes deeply enough into a person to obviate the question of age. A child may be
delighted in a story in different ways than the adult who is reading the same
story, but it would be surprising if those elements of poetry and romance (yes,
Beatrix Potter!) that delight the adult did not also delight the child, not
because of some remnant of the child in the adult, but rather because of the
human in both.

On the other hand, there is a class of books written
specifically for young people which is nearly impossible for adults to enjoy.
Nor should it be said that we shouldn’t try to enjoy them because they are written
for young people. That would be a great mistake. These are the teen series of
pulp or school book club variety wherein some teenager “learns about life”
through an adventure (in boy’s books) or a relationship (in girl’s books). In
these books, most of the elements that make the children’s books so delightful
are lost. The supernatural, the world of faerie, talking animals—all are gone.
Some might respond, “All good riddance, too! Escapism is alright for children,
but young people need to learn about the real world.” This response shows how
badly literary fantasy and the purpose of stories in general is misunderstood—and
what assumptions lurk behind such a remark about “reality”?

Something else is gone, too. In the best books, children are
taken seriously as people—young, yes, but people nonetheless. In the other
kind, they are talked down to in the attempt to give them “their own
literature.” If they have their own, and we have ours, how will they make the
transition? How do children’s minds become adult minds? What is the
essential difference between the best children’s books and the best adult
books? It is not a difference of kind.

by Richard Baxter, excerpted from The Reformed Pastor (1656)

Many a tailor can go in rags while making costly clothes for
others. Many a cook may scarcely lick his fingers when he has prepared the most
sumptuous dishes for others to eat. Believe it, brethren, that God never saved
any man for being a preacher. Nor did he reject a man because he was not an
able preacher. He saved a preacher because he was a justified and sanctified
man.

Take heed, therefore, to yourselves first. See to it that you
be the worshiper which you persuade your hearers to be. Make sure
first that you believe what you persuade others daily to believe.  Make sure you have heartily entertained the
Christ and the Holy Spirit in your own soul before you offer Him to others. He
that bids you love your neighbor as yourself implied that you should love
yourself instead of hating and destroying yourself—and others, too.

O dear brothers, what men then should we be in skill, in
resolution, and in unwearied diligence, that have all this to contend with and
to do?  Did not Paul cry out, “Who is
sufficient for these things?” (2 Corinthians 2:16). Can we then afford to be
proud and lazy, as if we were sufficient? As Peter says to every Christian when
considering the charge, there should be the reflection of our character: “What
manner of person ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness?” (2
Peter 3:11). So may I say to every minister, seeing how all these challenges
lie upon us, what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy endeavors and
resolutions for work!

John Murray, Collected Writings, vol. 1, (Banner of Truth, 1976)

I take it
for granted that we all believe the Bible to be the Word of God, the only
infallible rule of faith and practice. I take it for granted that we all read
the Bible with regularity. What I am going to plead for, however, is
concentrated, sustained, devoted study of the Bible, the kind of study that is
not fulfilled by the perfunctory reading of some passages each day. The set
periods of family worship are not, of course, by any means to be disparaged.
This is a highly necessary and most fruitful exercise. The influence for good
exerted by honouring God’s Word in this way is incalculable for all concerned.
Indeed, the minimal use of the Bible in this way has often left an indelible
impression for good. And furthermore, the set periods of family worship may
become the occasions for very concentrated and systematic study of the Bible.

But what I
stress here is the necessity for diligent and persevering searching of the
Scriptures; study whereby we shall turn and turn again the pages of Scripture;
the study of prolonged thought and meditation by which our hearts and minds may
become soaked with the truth of the Bible and by which the deepest springs of
thought, feeling, and action may be stirred and directed; the study by which
the Word of God will grip us, bind us, hold us, pull us, drive us, raise us up
from the dunghill, bring us down from our high conceits and make us its
bondservants in all of thought, life and conduct.

The Word of
God is a great deep; the commandment is exceeding broad; and so we cannot by
merely occasional, hurried, and perfunctory use of it understand its meaning
and power.

Sustained
and diligent study of the Bible is indispensable for several reasons. I am
going to mention three of these.

1. The
Bible is God’s Word, the revealed counsel of God. It is possible for us to
develop a certain kind of familiarity with the Bible so that we fail to
appreciate the marvel of God’s favour and mercy and wisdom in giving it to us.
We need to stop and consider what hopeless darkness, misery, and confusion
would be ours if we did not possess the Bible. We would be without God and
without hope in the world, endlessly stumbling over our own vain imaginings
with respect to God, with respect to His will for us and with respect to our
own nature, origin, and destiny. The Bible is the infallible revelation to us
of the truth regarding God Himself, regarding the world in which we live, and
regarding ourselves. It reveals God’s mind and will for us; it declares the way
of salvation; it discloses the knowledge that is eternal life. The secrets of
God’s mind and purpose, secrets which eye hath not seen nor ear heard, have
been laid open to us, the things that concern God’s glory, and our highest
interests against all the issues of life and death, of time and eternity…

If we truly
appreciate the mystery of God’s grace and wisdom, we shall study the Bible as
one who has found great spoil. The very nature and content of God’s Word will
compel our most earnest application to it.

2. We must
study the Bible with all diligence and persistence if we are really to know and
understand its truth. It is perfectly true and an unspeakable mercy that a
certain simplicity characterizes the Bible. We cannot read it with some measure
of intelligent attention without getting its great central message. The things
necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation are clearly
propounded in Scripture, and he that runs may read. But no Christian should be
satisfied with the bare minimum of knowledge necessary for salvation. It is,
indeed, to be lamented that the life of many earnest Christians is based upon a
fragmentary, piecemeal knowledge of Scripture teaching. . . We must understand
that the whole Bible stands together and that the fibres of organic connection
run through the whole Bible, connecting one part with every other part and
every one truth with every other truth.

3.
Painstaking study of the Bible is indispensable to our own thought and
practice. Life is very complex, and we are constantly beset with baffling
questions. New situations daily confront us. If the situations are not entirely
new, old situations take on new colour and new settings. We need to know anew
what is the right thing to think and what is the right thing to do. If we are
to meet these situations, we must be armed with the sword of the Spirit which
is the Word of God, and we must be equipped with such knowledge of the Word
that we shall derive from it the needed direction and strength.

Indolence
is one of our greatest temptations. We are in constant danger of becoming
static in our thinking. Perhaps we have a well-rounded and competent knowledge
of the Christian faith… But if we rely on such a reservoir of knowledge we are
in a dangerous and slippery position. Thought and life are too complex to be
adequately met by any such reservoir. The means God has provided for every
exigency that may arise is the Word of God itself. The demand of the multiform
situations in which we are placed in our thinking and in our life are met only
by the multiform wisdom deposited in the holy Scriptures. However much
assistance we may derive from formulations and expositions of Scripture
truth—and it is not only impoverishing but God-dishonoring to disparage and
neglect these—yet, after all, the Bible is the only sufficient rule of faith
and life as well as the only infallible rule. We must betake ourselves anew,
day by day, with humble and submissive minds to the law and to the testimony so
that our minds may be illuminated, replenished, refreshed, renewed, and
reinvigorated by the pure light that shines in the pages of God’s inerrant
Word. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom.” …

In all our
study and application of the Word of God, we must appreciate a divinely-fixed
coordination. It is that of the Word of God and the Spirit of God. “Where the
Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” God has not left us to our own
resources in the study of His Word. There is the never-failing promise and the
ever-present ministry of the Holy Spirit. He is the author of the Word, and it
is His peculiar prerogative to illumine the Scripture and to seal its truth
upon our hearts. These are the two pillars of faith and life—the whole organism
of Scripture revelation and the promise of the Spirit to guide us into all the
truth. The Spirit honours and seals His own Word, and the Word assures us that
“if ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how
much more shall the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?”

Here are two benedictions which we find at the end of
letters in the Bible.

“Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all
times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you” (2 Thess. 3:16).

“May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal
covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the
sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us
what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and
ever. Amen” (Heb. 13:20-21).

Please look at every phrase, for I will not comment on all
of them. Notice “at all times and in every way” and “everything
good for doing his will.” The God of peace does a thorough work in us.

Recently* I have been conscious of the lack of moderate
commands in the Scriptures. During the same period of time, I have noticed many
Christians moderating these commands. The commands are so extreme, we think we
have to run them through a transformer or a reduction gear to bring them down
to our size so we can consider the possibility of obeying them. This is not
honest nor necessary. There are also immoderate promises like the ones
quoted above. This is the way we can obey the immoderate commands.

*Written June 1999.

This post coordinates with today’s reading in the Same
Page Summer Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading
plan, please join us at TotheWord.com. We would love to have you reading with
us.

I have just written to a man in a California prison.* He has
just started on a 44-year prison sentence. After that, he has 35 years waiting
for him in an Idaho correctional institution. His children live with their
mother in Florida. He is not a Christian. I am sending him a Bible and books. I
am his only correspondent. We send Bibles and books to many people in prison at
their request. We correspond with some of them and take collect calls from others.
If you were here, you would think it is our only ministry. It is only a minor
part, but biblically it is a very important part.

Jesus said in Matthew 25:31-40,

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels
with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be
gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a
shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right
and the goats on his left.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you
who are blessed by my Father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for
you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something
to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and
you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you
looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see
you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did
we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?
When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you
did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’”

Notice the words, “you did for me.” Isn’t that wonderful?
Would you like to do something for Jesus?

Feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, clothe the
naked; invite strangers into your home, visit the sick, and visit prisoners.
Suppose it is not Jesus you visit; it is a con man, a panhandler, or a thief.
That is not a reason at all to choose to be with the goats and not with the
sheep. Have I been conned, cheated, ripped off? Yes, several times. However,
the blessing of giving and receiving has been much more than any negative
experience.

*Written September 1999.

This post coordinates with today’s reading in the Same
Page Summer Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading
plan, please join us at TotheWord.com. We would love to have you reading with
us.

“‘Haven’t you read,’ he replied, ‘that at the beginning the
Creator “made them male and female,” and said, “For this reason a
man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two
will become one flesh”? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God
has joined together, let man not separate’” (Matthew 19:4-6).

The marriage service says that marriage is a “holy estate.” The
Christian marriage is more than physical, economic, cohabitating and child
bearing and rearing. It is a spiritual fellowship; it is a picture on earth of
Christ and His body, the Church.

“Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband
is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which
he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should
submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as
Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing
her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to
himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but
holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as
their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself” (Ephesians 5:22-28).

At the time of this writing, I have recently seen eight
Christian marriages break up after over twenty years of marriage. I am watching
several more in the process. Is there an attempt to stop it? Yes! However,
there is encouragement for divorce from counselors, attorneys, family members,
and Christian friends. Intruding, teaching, and discipline may be in order, but
what is really needed is the convicting power of the Holy Spirit. Each of you
know friends of yours who are in this situation. Pray for the heavy hand of God
to be upon them until there is repentance.

If there is any sign of trouble in your marriage, repent to God
and call for help from the saints.

In case this all sounds too discouraging, we know of several
marriages that have been wonderfully saved.

This post coordinates with today’s reading in the Same
Page Summer Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading
plan, please join us at TotheWord.com. We would love to have you reading with
us.

“And when you pray, do not keep on babbling
like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do
not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him”
(Matt. 6:7–8).

Why do we need to pray when God already
knows what we need?    

First, we should pray because God commands us to. We are to obey Him. “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in
Christ Jesus” (1 Thess. 5:16–18). “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and
requests. With this in mind, be
alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people” (Eph. 6:18). The
quality of our obedience is inextricably linked with the closeness of our walk
with God. A major component of that walk is prayer. For a strong Christian
life, look to the Lord continually. Seek His face. Pray the prayers of
Scripture.    

God has chosen us to fulfill His will. He
taught us to pray for this fulfillment. “Your kingdom come, your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10).    

The Bible is the story of God reconciling us
to Himself. He wants to have a relationship with us. When you are in a
relationship with someone, you talk to them. If we want a healthy relationship
with God, we need to talk with Him, too. It is not enough to relegate prayer to
church and our prayer group.    

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight” (Prov. 3:5 RSV, italics mine). We are
absolutely dependent on God. “In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts
17:28). Many Christians forget this. God gave us brains, but not so that we
could trust them. We are to trust Him. Make it the habit of your life to be
constantly looking up to Him for guidance. Don’t let that be just a special
event when you are in trouble or trying to make a big decision. “If you really
believe in God, He will put all things right. He is both willing and able. Stop expecting the solution from yourself…and just yield yourself unreservedly to God
to work in you. He will do all for you” (Andrew Murray). “I will instruct you
and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you”
(Ps. 32:8).

Nothing is too big to ask God, and nothing
is too small to ask Him. If it is big enough to concern you, it is big enough
to concern Him.    

If there is anyone we might think wouldn’t
need to pray, it is Jesus. He is God! But what do we find in the Bible? Jesus
was constantly going up on a mountain or off into a deserted place to pray to
the Father. Read through the Gospels, and you will find that He spent many late
(or early) hours in prayer. His earthly ministry began with forty days of
fasting and prayer (Mark 1:13). Before choosing His twelve disciples, Jesus
spent the entire night in prayer (Luke 6:12–14). He gathered His disciples to pray
with Him the night before His death (John 17). After His ascension, the
disciples continued to meet regularly for prayer (Acts 1:4).    

If you want the Lord to be more and more
precious to you, start praying for His coming. In the next-to-last verse in the
Bible, Jesus said, “I am coming soon” (Rev. 22:20). John replies, “Amen. Even
so, come, Lord Jesus.” For the next few days, pray every day, “Amen. Even so,
come, Lord Jesus.” “But I don’t want Him to come; I’ve got things to do!” Begin
praying for His return, and see if it cleans up your act. It will! “He who has
this hope in Him purifies himself, even as He is pure” (1 John 3:3).    

John Owen, a great Puritan theologian, found
that “many saints have no greater burden in their lives than that their hearts
do not…constantly delight and rejoice in God—that there is still an
indisposedness of spirit unto close walking with him…. So do this: set your
thoughts on the eternal love of the Father and see if your heart is not aroused
to delight in Him. Sit down for a while at this delightful spring of living
water and you will soon find its streams sweet and delightful.”    

Unless you have a delight and a desire to follow Jesus, nothing else you learn
about being a Christian is going to work. It will just be mechanics. Get into
the habit of praying. You may be surprised at the results. When I think about
all the answers God has provided, I wonder that I am not praying every minute
of the day.

This is a chapter from Answered
Prayer: The Faithfulness of God Made Manifest, available at Amazon, Audible, and ccmbooks.org/bookstore.

This post coordinates with today’s reading in the Same
Page Summer Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading
plan, please join us at TotheWord.com. We would love to have you reading with
us.

“Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through
the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3).

There is a unity in the Spirit. We become part of that unity
at the instant we are born of the Spirit.

“There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to
one hope when you were called—one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Ephesians
4:4-5).

This unity is a reality! We are to make every effort to keep
it. We cannot establish it. It is true already by virtue of our being born into
the body of Christ.

Here are few of the ways we destroy this unity:

·      
We become men followers (1 Corinthians 1
& 3).

·      
We seek followers for ourselves (Acts
20:30).

·      
“We have the best church government.”

·      
“We have the best form of worship.”

·      
“We have the best doctrine.”

·      
“Our teaching on holiness is the right
teaching.”

·      
“The meaning and form of our church’s
sacraments/ordinances are most correct.”

·      
“Our view of the gifts of the Spirit is
the biblical view.”

·      
“We are the true church of Christ.”

Even if any of the positions we hold happen to be right from
God’s view, we might be in sin anyway because of how we hold them.

If all Christians of all cultures and nations were in 100%
agreement on all practices and doctrines, both primary and secondary, many of
the Christians would not like it. Why? Because none of us could then be the most
right. We want to be exclusive, not inclusive.

We are saved by grace through faith. Entrance into the body
of Christ is by rebirth; however, joining a local church is in many cases more
difficult than getting into the real church.

Here is where our focus ought to be in our relationship with
other Christians: “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through
the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3).

This post coordinates with today’s reading in the Same
Page Summer Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading
plan, please join us at TotheWord.com. We would love to have you reading with
us.