The Invisible and Visible Church
“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” (Hebrews 12:15).
Sowing and harvesting follow a law of nature. What we sow we will surely harvest. Good thoughts, kind words, and Christian actions will produce a very positive harvest, and people around us will be blessed by our Christian behavior. On the other hand, impure thoughts, bad words, backbiting, criticism, false rumors, and accusations all produce a harvest that will bring terrible results.
All kind of actions, either good or evil, react first and more heavily upon the doers than upon the victims. We feel very happy when we can help other people. On the other hand, we are also the first to suffer the consequences of our own wrong procedures.
Always when we hear experiences of young people who have been involved in humanitarian missions, they are almost unanimous in saying that they were the most benefited by helping those in need. On the contrary, those people involved in war, taking part in destroying and killing people, suffer the tragic scars of their own aggressive actions for the rest of their life.
The inspired apostle Paul warns us against keeping any root of bitterness within our hearts. If we have offended someone or have been offended ourselves, our human nature makes us inclined to harbor those bad feelings in our heart. Doing this, we just multiply our own suffering. The Christian way to deal with this situation is to forgive those who have caused any damage to our reputation or our life.
But in order to be able to really forgive our offenders, we need to accept Christ’s forgiveness.
I remember reading a story of a family whose husband and father abandoned his wife and children by leaving home to live with another woman.
The wife with her children had to work hard so that the children could be educated in the absence of the father.
After some years, one of the boys graduated in medicine. But to his terrible surprise, he was soon diagnosed with cancer in his throat. He was really devastated.
God then placed in his pathway a Christian psychologist who talked to him about the love of Christ and asked him if he had some bitterness in his heart. He answered that yes, he had a mortal hatred against his father who had abandoned their family when he was a child. The psychologist then told him that he needed to forgive from his heart the evil action of his father. At the beginning the man said that this was impossible. Later, as he experienced the love of Christ, he forgave his father. To his great surprise, his throat cancer receded.
Then the man decided to treat cancer patients with these remedies:
1. Accepting Christ and His forgiveness;
2. Forgiving any offender;
3. Detoxifying the system, purifying the blood.
He was very successful in these cancer treatments.
One very good professional in natural medicine in Brazil, used to tell me that cancer has many causes, but one of the strongest is the keeping of bitterness in the heart. And he was right. Keeping bitterness in the heart causes damage to many people, but mainly in the one in whose heart bitterness abides.
“As the seed sown produces a harvest, and this in turn is sown, the harvest is multiplied. In our relation to others, this law holds true. Every act, every word, is a seed that will bear fruit. Every deed of thoughtful kindness, of obedience, or of self-denial, will reproduce itself in others, and through them in still others. So, every act of envy, malice, or dissension is a seed that will spring up in a ‘root of bitterness’ (Hebrews 12:15), whereby many shall be defiled. And how much larger number will the ‘many’ poison. Thus, the sowing of good and evil goes on for time and for eternity.”1
“While you so readily think and speak evil of one another, while you allow the root of bitterness to spring up and be cherished, your influence scatters from Christ and hardens hearts in resistance to the sweet spirit of unity and peace. Put it all away without a moment’s delay. ‘Love one another,’ Christ says, ‘as I have loved you’ (John 15:12).”2
“It is a most serious matter to go from house to house, and under pretense of doing missionary work, cast in the seed of mistrust and suspicion. Each one speedily germinates, and there is created a distrust of God’s servants, who have His message to bear to the people. When God speaks through His servants, the seed [of mistrust and suspicion] sown has developed into a root of bitterness. The word falls upon hearts that will not hear, on hearts that will not respond. No earthly or heavenly power can find access to the soul.
“Who is accountable for these souls? Who shall eradicate that poisonous root of bitterness that has prevented them from receiving the word of the Lord? A good sister or a brother planted the evil seed, but how can that one restore the soul thus imperiled? The tongue that should have been used to the glory of God in speaking words of hope and faith and confidence in God’s workmen has turned away a soul from Jesus Christ. Those who themselves despised the words of Christ, and refused to hear His voice and to be converted, have leavened other minds with the leaven of evil surmisings and evil speaking.
“This is the day of the Lord’s preparation. We have no time now to talk unbelief and to gossip, no time now to do the devil’s work. Let everyone beware of unsettling the faith of others by sowing seeds of envy, jealousy, disunion; for God hears the words, and judges, not by assertions, which are yea and nay, but by the fruit one’s course of action produces. ‘By their fruits ye shall know them” (Matthew 7:20). The seed sown will determine the character of the harvest.’ ”3
“I beseech all who engage in the work of murmuring and complaining because something has been said or done that does not suit them, and that does not, as they think, give them due consideration, to remember that they are carrying on the very work begun in heaven by Satan. They are following in his track, sowing unbelief, discord, and disloyalty; for no one can entertain feelings of disaffection, and keep them to himself. He must tell others that he is not treated as he should be. Thus, they are led to murmur and complain. This is the root of bitterness springing up, whereby many are defiled.
“Thus, Satan works today through his evil angels. He confederates with men who claim to be in the faith; and those who are trying to carry forward the work of God with fidelity, having no man’s person in admiration, working without hypocrisy and partiality, will have just as severe trials brought against them as Satan can bring through those who claim to love God. Proportionate to the light and knowledge these opposers have is Satan’s success. The root of bitterness strikes deep, and is communicated to others. Thus, many are defiled. Their statements are confused and untruthful, their principles are unscrupulous, and Satan finds in them the very helpers he needs.”4
Will we be able to enter heaven with bitterness in our heart? Absolutely not.
Only those who have heaven in their heart will enter heaven.
“To save the transgressor of God’s law, Christ, the one equal with the Father, came to live heaven before men, that they might learn to know what it is to have heaven in the heart. He illustrated what man must be to be worthy of the precious boon of the life that measures with the life of God.”5
“Love to man is the earthward manifestation of the love of God. It was to implant this love, to make us children of one family, that the King of glory became one with us. And when His parting words are fulfilled, ‘Love one another, as I have loved you’ (John 15:12); when we love the world as He has loved it, then for us His mission is accomplished. We are fitted for heaven; for we have heaven in our hearts.”6
“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus”(Philippians 3:13, 14).