Jump Start # 643

Ephesians 4:31 “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.”

Our Jump Starts return to this verse again. I have written about these six attitudes not long ago. Today, I am looking at another expression here—”put away.”

This is trash day at our house. All the waste baskets are emptied and the trash cans are rolled down to the curb. The trash truck rolls by, very early and very loudly, and all the trash is taken away. It goes to a landfill and we give it no more thought. The trash is gone, the house looks better and everything is fine. Next week, we’ll repeat the process. The dumping of the trash today, doesn’t end all the trash in our house. There’s always more. When I’m out of town, I remind the kids to get the trash cans down to the curb.

I tend to think that’s how our verse works. There are things that cause a person to be angry and that connects and leads to these other five problems, and once a person dumps the anger in a Biblical manner, he’s not done for the rest of his life. That would be nice. There will be more things and more anger. A person has to take the anger and all these other things connected with it out to the curb of his heart and get rid of it. But he knows there will be more next week. We get upset with many things—most of which are connected to other people. The way people drive, the way people speak to us, the service, or the lack of service that they provide, the bills they charge us, the way some dress, the attitudes of some—all of these can move the needle in our hearts to the red area and look out after that!

The putting away of these things is a continual process. You may have done that very well last week, but this week has already accumulated much more trash in your heart. It too, has to go out.

Our hearts are very interesting—not the organ in our chest, but the spiritual heart. When it is filled with righteousness, the ugly stuff is pushed out. When wicked things take over, the good stuff gets suppressed. It’s like a constant battle. Dumping the spiritual trash is a key to winning the battle.

The active part in putting away these evil attitudes is self. We have to do that. For that to happen, we must walk through the rooms of our heart and gather up what we’ve saved and collected and dump the stuff that’s not good. It’s just like trash day! When we get rid of anger and wrath and slander, we look and feel so much better. Those wicked things make us wicked. We become sour, hateful and mean. If you don’t take the trash out the whole place begins to smell. That’s true with real trash and that’s true with spiritual trash. Trash has a away of increasing without us realizing this. Toss an empty bag to the back of your car and then another and before long the whole floor board is filled with empty cans, papers and trash. One of my kid’s car actually looked like that. It was so disgusting that I threatened to take their keys if they didn’t clean it out. I was fearful that they’d be killed by flying debris. When they took my words seriously, they cleaned the car out—happened to be on trash day. The guys in the trash truck got out of the truck to watch. They enjoyed it. They made the comment that there was more trash in the back of the car than what they had in their truck. It was a lot of work getting that car cleaned out. Had a certain child of mine been cleaning it out on a regular basis there would be nothing to it. Are we much different? Not with our cars but with our hearts?

We wait until it’s nearly overflowing with stuff before we start to toss things. By then it is a major job. It’s hard. The anger has grown into wrath and slander. There is a lot of cleaning to do now. There are people we have to go apologize to know. What could have been a simple job is now very messy and very hard and often involves many people. The trash in our hearts, unlike the trash in the back of a car, hurts other people. Some times the damage we cause can be lasting. Just saying, “I’m sorry,” seems like a band aid to the severe wounds we’ve caused by our words, attitudes and actions. We get that way because we do not dump the junk in our hearts. Put away are Paul’s words. Trash day is another way of saying it.

Work on this. It’s hard and messy and not easy. But once the trash is taken out, it’ll make you feel so much better. Holding on to these things isn’t good. We dump the trash with the help of the Lord. Grace, forgiveness and love are the key. Without those, the trash remains.

Time of me to get the trash cans—wish the trash men would take them away, but I know I will need them. Unfortunately, I always need them. The same is true of our hearts.

Roger

Jump Start # 635

Ephesians 4:31 “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.”

Our verse for today lists six evil spirits or attitudes that should not dwell within a disciple of Jesus. The following verse identifies three godly characteristics that ought to replace these. Those are kindness, tenderness and forgiveness.

What is interesting about our list of wicked attitudes is to see how they are all connected to one another and progressive. One naturally leads to the next. Each one getting worse and feeding off the previous attitude. These are not stages where one starts with bitterness and then leaves that for anger. No, instead, anger grows out of bitterness. Instead of having one problem, the person now has two, until all six are manifest and the person is a real mess.

I want to give some thought to the start of all this—BITTERNESS. Bitterness is the state of being sour, extremely upset, agitated, bothered. Mostly, a person becomes bitter about the way they were treated. They were expecting something else. It didn’t happen. They became bitter. Have you ever known a bitter person? Their face rarely smiles and the color of life seems to fade to a shade of grey. They look like a mess on the outside because that is how they feel on the inside. A bitter person is not pleasant to be around. Their tone is sharp. Their words are mean. They talk only about themselves and how they were mistreated.

Some become bitter when a loved one dies. Bitter with the medical staff. Angry, mean words, and threats of lawsuits fill the air. Some become bitter towards a company because they were downsized. Some become bitter towards a congregation of God’s people because they won’t put up with wrong behavior. Some become bitter towards God.

Bitterness moves to anger very swiftly. It doesn’t take long. The more a person stews over their plight, the more rage builds within them. Wrath, clamor and slander are the choices of an angry, bitter person. Wrath is about fighting—either with words or with fists. Clamor is simply stirring things up. Making trouble. Slander is a form of revenge. It’s spreading false things about someone to hurt them. A bitter person doesn’t think straight. They don’t see the trouble they cause. Like a tornado, they spin faster and faster and many that are in the way get hurt. Their families suffer first. Then, those that happen to be in their path. Often, the bitter person makes things worse than what they are. The bitter person sees them self as a victim, as the knight on the white horse, fighting a battle against wrong. Their perception is distorted. Their view is blurred. The bitter person is the one who is in the wrong. The bitter person spews their anger upon any who will listen, trying to gather an army to support them on their campaign against all those who have hurt them.

You can see why the apostle begins with the word bitterness. He tells the disciples to get rid of all bitterness—not most of it, or just the big stuff, but all of it. It doesn’t take much bitterness to set a person off. Bitterness grows. If it is not all removed, it will take over a person.

Is it possible for a bitter person to be kind, tender and forgiving? Yes. The Bible says so. Bitterness is not a person’s lot in life. They can overcome it. They can be compassionate like Jesus. It’s not easy. Nor does it mean that fairness, rightness and justice has prevailed. No. You may have been wronged. Bitterness is a choice. You don’t have to go to the land of bitterness and dwell there the rest of your days. Some do. They die a bitter old person.

I’ve noticed that bitterness tends to age a person. Those that harbor those ill feelings look old, tired and wrinkled long before they should. Some have been bitter for so long that they don’t even recognize it any longer. It’s like walking with a limp. It’s tough at first. But do it long enough and a person hardly even notices. Bitterness is the same. So sad.

How does a person get rid of bitterness? Forgiveness. Jesus. Prayer. Choosing. Wanting to. It’s not easy, especially when a person constantly sees the things or people that makes them bitter. Bitterness is hard to get rid of in a marriage. It must be done if the marriage has any hope. It’s hard to worship at a congregation that a person is bitter with. Most don’t. Sooner or later they will leave. If they take the bitterness with them, they tend to tell others about how rotten the last place was. Their anger will affect their relationships in the next congregation.

Some preachers are bitter. They were poorly treated, or at least they think they were. Their sermons reflect anger as they preach. The bitterness will taint the good that they are trying to do. It will influence the congregation that they work with. Some churches are bitter. They hate everyone. So sad. It’s hard to present the good news when you are not in a good mood.

Have I spoken some things that you found to be true about yourself? Do you have some bitterness deep within you? It’s time to cut it out and replace it with what God wants. Bitterness is not ok. The apostle says to put away all bitterness. When we don’t, we are not following apostolic instructions—we are not following Christ.

Pray that God will help you rid the bitterness and anger from your heart. Replace the bitterness with kindness and forgiveness. This is God’s way. This is the best way. Borrowing an expression from the state of Maine, ‘this is the way life is meant to be.’

Roger