Today's Reading:
Philippians 1:1-11
Ezekiel 18
Isaiah 47
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Thoughts and Commentary on Today's Reading
Today we begin reading in the book of Philippians and we will continue our short series on eradicating bitterness. As it says in Philippians 1:6 - "Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the Day of Yahshua Christ."
One vital part of that "good work" which Yahweh is doing in each of us is removing every root of bitterness.
Hebrews 12:14-15 "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see Yahweh
Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled."
Yahshua gave us seven keys to conquering bitterness, which are contained in seven of His Commands. Exercising these keys (by His Grace) is wearing the Helmet and Breastplate effectively against becoming bitter.
So what are the seven keys to conquering bitterness? Yesterday, I only discussed the first key. Today, we'll continue starting with the second key, which is "Be a Servant of all". Again, these keys (when appearing in the list) may seem strange and unrelated to overcoming bitterness, but bear with me as I will explain how living by these Commands of Messiah is effective against the soul-poison of bitterness:
Key #2: Be a Servant of All
The Command of Christ regarding being servants is found in Matthew 23:11-12. How does this apply to bitterness? Consider the following example:
A husband was bitter at his wife for failing to carry out his
instruction. When he heard that husbands should not be bitter towards their
wives (1 Peter 3:7). He became convicted and forgave her. But, she didn’t
change. She continued to offend him in this area. Soon he was bitter at her
again – his forgiveness was not working!
Expectations destroy relationships. They are like bars of a prison that we put around those whom we expect to serve us. Expectations are also bars of a prison of bitterness that put around ourselves when others fail to fulfill our expectations. We are not able to fully love someone as long as we have unfulfilled expectations of them. Genuine love focusing on giving to the needs of others. Expectations focus on getting what we think we need for ourselves.
•True
service is “hoping for nothing again” Luke 6:35
•Expectations
must be given to God, as we told in Psalm 62:5 “My soul wait thou ONLY UPON
YAHWEH; for my expectation is of HIM.”
Key #3: Deny Yourself
Yahshua
requires all those who want to follow Him to deny themselves, take up their
cross daily, and follow Him (Mark 8:34). Denying ourselves is renouncing the
wrong desires of our souls, such as indulgence in bitterness.
When Yahshua said, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will
lose his life for My Sake shall find it,” (Matthew 16:26),
He
used the Greek word pseuche for
life. This word has the same meaning as the word “SOUL”. It is in our soul that
the battle takes place between our flesh and our spirit. If we lose the battle
in our souls, we will experience anger, guilt,
lust, bitterness, greed, fear, and envy.
The word “deny” (in Matthew 16:25) is translated from the
Greek word aparneomai. It
involves a voluntary putting away, to remove from
oneself, to refuse, disown, decline, or withdraw from fellowship.
When
we relate this to our souls – the meaning of the word life – we find that this
means we are to deny our souls the “right” to become bitter by not allowing our
minds, wills or emotions to run in an embittering vein.
Key #4: Love Your Neighbors
The next key to overcoming bitterness is found in Christ's Command to love our neighbors. This injunction involves loving people, even when they wrong you.
Love for
Yahweh and others is the essence of all the Law, because “love worketh no
ill to his neighbor” Romans 13:8-10.
With this command there is absolutely no
grounds for bitterness, because Yahshua laid down His Life for us when we were
His enemies. Loving all others is how we conquer the
source of bitterness.
But learning to love others, especially those who do wrong to us, is much harder to put in practice than it is to write about on paper! Peter gave us a spiritual "ladder" for Christian character development. In that ladder, love is the final rung - which is only fully accomplished when the earlier rungs are first addressed:
One of the most powerful steps in loving and gaining a forgiving spirit toward our offenders is going the extra mile for
them. This means that we are to voluntarily invest
something of our time, talents, or resources into the life of our offender, for
where our treasure is, there will our hearts be also (Matthew 6:21).
In Christ’s day, the Roman soldiers could
command a male twelve years old or older to carry his military pack for one
mile in any direction. Many Jews resented this. To them, it was just one more
way the dictatorial Roman empire dominated them. But, Christ taught that rather
than just going the required one mile, His followers were to go two (Matthew
5:38-40). This command goes dipolar opposite to our natural response to
injustice! But the Bible warns that our natural responses are usually wrong
(Proverbs 14:12).
But, in the principle of going the extra
mile, we reclaim our joy in Yahweh, and truly overcome the last vestiges of
bitterness! It is also not until we go the “second mile” so-to-speak, that we
have opportunities to witness to our offenders. Thus, we should pray and seek
the Father’s insights as to how we can invest some voluntary “treasure” in the
lives of our offenders. And as we do so,
we find a window of Heaven opens flooding us with divine grace to triumph amid
the suffering.
Continued tomorrow...
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