Put Off - Put On: Bitterness

Sports replays are quite the trick to seeing action from a second view.  That base runner called “safe” by the umpire is sometimes only as good as a different camera angle.  Not all our relationships are lovely – some just downright stink!  Some, we can walk away from and some we can’t but all relationships have potential to make us better or … bitter.  We’re warned about the danger of bitterness, “Follow peace with all men, and holiness … lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.” (Hebrews 12:14-15)  God plainly tells us how to live with one another without becoming bitter: “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” (Ephesians 4:31-32)  It’s certainly not the world’s view; it’s a different angle, living God’s way peaceably with others.  PUT OFF bitterness and PUT ON kindness, tenderheartedness, and forgiveness!