Ponderings: Root of Bitterness

Hebrews 12:14-17 (KJV) “14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: 15 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; 16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. 17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. “

Holiness and peaceful living is the way of living for the child of God, but a root of bitterness sown in your heart will always bear an ungodly and destructive fruit. In fact, living in the holiness and peace of God following the forgiveness and love of God is the way to keep any such root from ever coming into your life.

Esau was born with the birthright of blessing from Isaac. But he, through a root of bitterness, became a profane person and he counted that which was holy and precious as being meaningless and could not be forgiven later. He was literally rejected by God because of it.

The ultimate fruit of a root of bitterness is APOSTASY, when a person who had known God turns from God and is rejected. This is the ultimate profanity and it blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. IF BITTERNESS IS NOT ROOTED OUT AND TAKEN OUT OF A PERSON’S LIFE, IT WILL DESTROY THEIR SOUL.

Bitterness is the poisonous root from the seed of unforgiveness. It springs up when we bury hard feelings instead of repenting of them and allowing forgiveness to flow. It’s poison, and it causes all kinds of sins/iniquities from hatred to lust to depression. It will grieve the Holy Spirit and then continue on to grieve the person and it will grieve anyone else that they come into contact with.

Fits of anger and wrath are secondary sins that spring from a deeper problem. They spring from a root of bitterness that was sown through unforgiveness.

Hebrews 12:14-16 (AMP) “ 14 Strive to live in peace with everybody and pursue that consecration and holiness without which no one will [ever] see the Lord.

15 Exercise foresight and be on the watch to look [after one another], to see that no one falls back from and fails to secure God's grace (His unmerited favor and spiritual blessing), in order that no root of resentment (rancor, bitterness, or hatred) shoots forth and causes trouble and bitter torment, and the many become contaminated and defiled by it--

16 That no one may become guilty of sexual vice, or become a profane (godless and sacrilegious) person as Esau did, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. [Gen. 25:29-34.]

Romans 3:10-18 (KJV) “10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 15 Their feet are swift to shed blood: 16 Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17 And the way of peace have they not known: 18 There is no fear of God before their eyes. “

This shows the sinful nature of those who do not have Jesus. They are ungodly and they follow their ungodly lusts because without the Holy Spirit in their lives, there is no power to live right. The farther in sin that they fall, the more cursing and bitterness and profanity fills them. But, Paul in Hebrews is speaking to Christians, and not the lost. BELIEVERS CAN GET A ROOT OF BITTERNESS, TOO.

Anyone, including children of God, can fall prey to a root of bitterness. Now, if we have the seed of the Word of God in us, and we tend to that ROOT OF GODLINESS and walk in the Spirit and the Word of God, then we can keep out the roots of bitterness that bring bitter weeds in our lives.

But when we refuse to obey God’s Word and refuse to walk in the love of God (such as when we refuse to forgive something or someone), then we allow an evil seed to be born in us. The Word of God and God’s presence begins to be choked out in our lives as we grieve the Holy Spirit.

1 John 3:9-10 (NASB) “ 9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.” This is how that we are supposed two live when the seed of God’s Word is within us and the fruit of the Spirit is being produced. But bitterness will choke out the Word of God and the fruit of the Spirit.

What is inside of your heart will come out your mouth eventually. You might be able to hide it at church when you have the support of other people acting godly, but when you are at home or at work when the pressure gets a bit on, what is inside will come out.

And if there is a root of bitterness inside of you, then it will produce an evil fruit that will come out in your actions, and especially your words.

Luke 6:44-46 (KJV) “ 44 For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. 45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. 46 And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? “

Jesus said that whatever is the treasure of your heart (the thing that you tend to and is center to your being) is will produce out of your heart words from your mouth. This fruit will come from the treasure inside of you. If faith and love and peace and edification comes out of your mouth, then it is because God is in your heart and the root of the Holy Spirit is producing the Fruit of the Spirit.

BUT, if evil speaking, bad language, cursing, nagging, gossip, backbiting, criticizing is what is coming out of your mouth, then this is corrupt communication coming from a corrupt treasure. There is some root of bitterness bringing an evil fruit through your lifestyle and words.

Ephesians 4:29-32 (KJV) “ 29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. 30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: 32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

We are commanded to NOT allow any corrupt communication come out of our mouths. We are commanded instead to replace the ungodly speech of the lost with the godly speech of the Holy Spirit. We are to edify or lift others up.

We are to minister grace to those who hear us. ARE WE MAKING PEOPLE BETTER BY OUR WORDS, OR ARE WE TEARING DOWN OR CREATING AN ATMOSPHERE OF EVIL BY OUR WORDS?

When we allow some bitterness to create evil in us and it comes through our words, we GRIEVE THE HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD and that is a dangerous thing to do considering He is the one who seals us to God.

If that root is not cut out of us by the two-edged sword of the Spirit (the Word of God), then we will wind up holding the truth in unrighteousness.

Romans 1:17-18 (KJV) “17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; “

If we do not allow the root to be cut out, then trying to modify our behavior by cutting this fruit off or that fruit off (such as cursing or temper) will not work because another evil one will rise up in its place because the root is not being dealt with.

Hebrews 4:12 (KJV) “ 12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. “

The answer to rooting out the root of bitterness is to use the sharp sword of the Spirit and praying in faith. You can curse the root of bitterness and the evil root and fruit will die. You can decide (it is a decision) to forgive and then you are forgiven and the root dries up.

Mark 11:13-14 (KJV) “13 And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet. 14 And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it. “

Mark 11:20-26 (KJV) “ 20 And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. 21 And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away. 22 And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. 23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. 24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. 25 And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. 26 But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses. “

Pray in faith and forgive, and the Word of God will operate through the power of the Spirit.

The reason that people get so bitter and this evil root is allowed to grow so much is that when people refuse to forgive, then God at that point quits forgiving their sins and those sins start building up in their lives. The fruit of the Spirit stops because the Holy Spirit is grieved, and they become totally miserable giving more and more into the evil that is growing in their heart.

More and more evil fruit grows from unforgiveness to bring other evils such as profanity and unbelief and hatred and cursing and bickering and strife.

James 3:14-18 (KJV) “14 But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. 15 This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. 16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. 17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. 18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. “

You cut out the root of bitterness with the Word of God and replace it with the fruit of righteousness. You sow the fruit of righteousness with the peace of God. You forgive and make peace, and God brings peace into your life and brings purity, mercy, good fruits, and kills hypocrisy in your life.

If you have bitterness and strife, then it opens the doors for every evil work and confusion in your life. You open the door wide in your life for the Devil to destroy you and demons will eat your flesh up and manipulate you. It will destroy you, and it is destructive to those around you. It brings EVERY EVIL WORK. It will lead you eventually totally away from God and into apostasy.

That is the ultimate danger and the ultimate fruit of a root of bitterness in a child of God’s life. It brings the profanity of Esau when you know the truth and reject God. It is dangerous.

When we give into unforgiveness, then God quits forgiving us. We are warned about this specifically. As the evil fruit keeps growing and secondary sins which could include sexual immorality, profanity, hatred, cursing, and keeping a critical attitude will grow and grow as fruits from that root.

When we hear the Word and we refuse to be a doer of the Word and refuse to repent and let that Word cut out that root of bitterness, then we as Romans 1 says, “hold the truth is unrighteousness” and will pull the wrath of God on our lives eventually.

God will chasten us at first and the fruit of the Spirit will cease, and we will have misery as the hallmark of our lives. The only time that people with that kind of bitterness has any relief is when they are making someone else feel worse than themselves. That is part of that evil fruit.

But there comes a point where we can do as Esau did and be rejected by God. If you read Romans 1, the reprobates mentioned there that fall into total perversity were believers or Christians at first, but literally disinherited themselves by holding the truth in unrighteousness.

They get twisted and will even feel justified in their sin. They will wind up literally hating those around them who are Christlike, even though they might still go to church and say that they are still Christians. It is dangerous, because it eventually leads to apostasy, or a falling away, where the name is blotted out of the Book of Life because of this blasphemy.

When the Word of God is moving in our lives, and we are walking in the Spirit, then that keeps bitterness out. Forgiving others will keep us forgiven and keep bitterness from our lives. The love of God is the cure for bitterness, and we have to move in that love to be filled with it.

If we walk in the Spirit and stay filled with the Spirit, then there is no room for bitterness inside of us. Instead, we will stay full of God.