Our lesson comes from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians where he commanded them to, “31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, [a]clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. 32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:31-32).
How then do we fulfill this command? Paul says to the church, “Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others” (Phil. 2:4), and Peter said, “all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be [a]courteous;” (1 Pet. 3:8).
Clearly, being Kind to one another incorporates having interest in each other, love and compassion. Without a doubt—it really helps to be of one mind…through the Spirit of truth—the word of God.
The first thing that Paul commands is that we put away 5 things from ourselves: bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor or quarreling and evil speaking. These individually – promote division. Separating us from one another—destroying what God wants for us. The first thing that Paul commands we put away is Bitterness. Shakespeare says: If each man gets his deserts, ‘who of us shall scape whipping?’ (Shakespeare)
Bitterness is a result of our inability to forget the “bad” things that happened in the past. . .
The question we must all ask ourselves—are there things that someone said, or did that we just cannot forget—that have cause bitterness in our hearts?