Episode 1. The Root Produces the Fruit
Bitterness is something that we sometimes carry around in our hearts. And so often – we don’t even realise that this root of bitterness has taken hold in our lives. What is it and what can we do …
I don’t know if you’ve noticed but when a seed falls down to the ground and dies ultimately it sprouts and takes root and if it was the seed of a plum tree we can be fairly certain that the thing that’s growing there is going to one day produce, well not apricots, not apples, not pears, we all know it’s going to produce a plum because it’s a plum tree that’s taken root and in fact it’s the root that ultimately produces the fruit.
It’s just one of those basic facts of life that actually we don’t have to think much about; the root produces the fruit and it’s it a bit like that in our hearts. If our hearts take root in goodness then we’ll produce good fruit, in bad things then we’ll produce bad fruit, in sweet things and we’ll produce sweet fruit, in bitter things and we’ll produce bitter fruit. It’s just not rocket science is it?
This week on the program we’re going to take a look at the phenomenon of anger in our society and in our lives, there was a great movie a few years ago called Anger Management. Anger is a real phenomenon in the hearts of so many people, you know how pressure builds up in life and ultimately people explode.
We have at home a pressure cooker and we cook things in it and there’s a vent and if the steam didn’t come out of the vent that pressure cooker would explode and it’s the same with us. So many people are out there venting their anger, it’s in epidemic proportions, you have road rage and supermarket rage and call centre rage. In fact this week’s program was prompted by a real life experience.
At the moment I have a couple of brothers, Greek guys, doing some painting in my old 19th century terrace, it just needed a bit of touching up and they’re doing a much bigger job, in parallel to ours, in one of the wealthiest streets in our country. This place they’re painting is a huge 5 storey mansion; they’re using a special paint that costs wait for it, $1,000.00 a tin. Unbelievable. And the houses in this street are worth between 15 and 25 million, this is where the mega wealthy live. Now lots of people in this fairly narrow street are having building work done and so it’s pretty crowded and so even though they’ve got great views and lots of money and massive mansions, there’s quite a bit of strife in this place.
The painters have been working there now for a few weeks and they were telling me that you wouldn’t believe the arguments raging between the neighbours. The house that they’re working on belongs to a couple who are in their ’70’s and they haven’t talked to their neighbours for 25 years because a 1/4 of a century ago they had an argument about some building works and all the neighbours in this street are fighting with one another. The woman that our painters are working for they’d done some work a few years before and she was very nice and now, all of a sudden everyone’s mean and nasty and horrible.
Now you stand back from that and you think that’s unbelievable, I mean these people have everything in life, there’s nothing they can’t have or buy or own really, everything their heart desires and yet there’s a spirit, well a spirit of anger and bitterness and dissention in this place. Makes you wonder what’s going on there.
I mean these two painters, I’ve used them before, they are lovely people, they do a brilliant job. They’re honest as the day is long, how can this woman be so nasty to them? I tell you what’s happened, anger and bitterness has taken root in her heart, that’s why. You let things get to you and you get angry with people over and over and over again and it’s like, it’s like bitterness takes root in your heart and the root produces the fruit.
God actually talks a lot about anger; you know it’s a word that pops up 376 times in the Bible which makes it one of the leading subjects that God talks about. Anger is something we all have to deal with and it springs up so often out of a root of bitterness. The writer of the book of Hebrews in the New Testament puts it like this, he says,
“Pursue peace with everyone and holiness because without them you won’t get so much as a glimpse of God. Make sure that no-one misses out on Gods grace so that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble because through it so many will be contaminated.”
You see there it is, the root produces the fruit, ‘make sure that no-one misses out on the grace of God so that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble.’ When a root of bitterness takes hold in our hearts it springs up and causes trouble and contaminates everyone around us.
We all have a problem with anger some days, we do, some people more than others but the longer we let it go on the more it takes hold of our hearts and our lives and it produces bitterness and a bitter root produces bitter fruit. A root isn’t something that happens over night, it’s something we cultivate and if we don’t want it to keep growing, we have to stop feeding it. The apostle Paul puts it this way in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 26. He says,
“Be angry but don’t sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger and don’t make room for the devil.”
See he knows, God knows we all get angry from time to time and it’s not a sin. I mean sometimes people do things and it just causes us to get angry because they’ve wronged us. But if we keep it inside, if we let the sun go down on our anger, if we keep it in our hearts and we brood over it and we work it over and over and over in our minds and we plan our revenge, that’s when it grows from a root into fruit.
The right way of handling it is just to get over it, to forgive and to move on and then we won’t be cultivating this root of bitterness which, as sure as God made little green apples, will produce fruit of bitterness because the root produces the fruit. Now this isn’t something we can do on our own, I believe we need an antidote to this venom. It’s something that heals and cleanses and just gives us a fresh perspective.
Can I just take you back to that earlier quote that we read before from Hebrews chapter 12, verses 14 and 15, where the writer says,
“Pursue peace with everyone.”
In fact that’s an active thing isn’t it? Pursue peace; go out of your way to “Pursue peace and holiness because without out them you won’t get so much as a glimpse of God and make sure that no-one misses out on the grace of God so that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble.”
See the antidote to bitterness that the apostle Paul is pointing to here is Gods grace. What’s grace? Grace is Gods unmerited favour; we’re going to talk about it a bit on the program tomorrow because it’s a really important thing. Gods grace is His unmerited favour, He has every right under the sun to be angry with you and me, a whole bunch more than He ever is and yet He sent His Son Jesus to die on that cross.
This cross is where justice meets love and turns into grace, Gods forgiveness and when we experience that grace, that’s what acts as the antidote to this root of bitterness. Without it it’s inevitable that a root of bitterness will spread out.
Comments
Berni Dymet
Some great insights there. Thanks for sharing!
🙂
Berni
S. McDougall
This is true. I like the ‘change the root, change the fruit’.
But I might add that it’s not just our hearts, but in how we ‘think’ about things. I’ve learned that I’ve had an ‘entitled’ and ‘critical’ mentality. I am ‘entitled’ to see my agenda through, and ‘how stupid can you be not to see it too’. I am ‘entitled’ to certain responses. I have a ‘right’ to sarcasm, belittling others, giving them what they deserve, showing them how far short they fall, what they did wrong…
I’ve learned this makes me a very unhappy and mean person, not to mention a poor representative for Christ. Also unstable. I reacted out of my emotions, trusting my heart, rather than God’s Word. I am learning that OBEDIENCE to God’s Word is paramount in my life to be able to live a life of grace, forgiveness, kindness, gentleness, compassion…
In my quest for real TRUTH, I had to first realize how wrong I was in my thinking in light of God’s Word, then apply it to EACH AND EVERY situation, conversation, and decision. Paul the Apostle talks about be ‘Transformed by the Renewing of our MINDS’. This is more true than I ever realized. (I LOVE this verse!)
We as Christians must stop living through our hearts and emotions all the time, and learn to be OBEDIENT to the Word of God, by reading His Word Faithfully, and acting on it every single day. This will bear much fruit, and transform our thinking. I’ve been doing this for the last 2 years, and it has born much fruit in my own life. I am now a faithful daily reader of God’s Word, and try to be diligent to apply it to myself and my thinking.
It has helped my marriage, my family relationships, work relationships, difficult relationships… I can’t tell you how this has transformed me. When I started applying God’s Word to MY heart and mind (instead of everyone else’s! LOL) I realized how far short I fell each and every day. The Holy Spirit revealed these things gently but truthfully to me when I went in search of TRUTH in the Bible. And I found it. I am not a ‘bad’ person outwardly by earthly standards, but in my heart and mind, I was corrupted, stained, warped, disobedient, rebellious, and couldn’t even live up to my own expectations of others!
I was truly a hypocrite, and didn’t realize it.
I can’t tell you how realizing all this, and that I must ‘Take Captive EVERY THOUGHT and make it OBEDIENT to GOD’ has changed my life. (2 Cor 10:13, I think) I didn’t realize I didn’t HAVE to ACCEPT every thought that came my way. I mean, the obvious ones, but the less obvious ones, like your description of being angry at the traffic light. That’s ‘entitlement’. You feel you are ‘entitled’ to get through that light. Where’s the grace? Do you fail at other things in life? These are the questions I ask myself in these situations.
Am I ‘entitled’ to think this way about others? NOPE. It certainly isn’t a reflection of Jesus. I now think, well, that person didn’t feel safe going through at that time. Maybe something else was going on in that car we couldn’t see. Maybe they just made a mistake… I now try to consider things from other’s perspective, and certainly from a Godly one.
2 Tim says he wrote 2 letters to stimulate us to ‘wholesome thinking’. We’ve had ‘stinkin’ thinking’ for far too long. We’ve been Worldly Christians in our perspective. We’ve let the world deeply influence our expectations.
Expectations…now there is another subject for another time, but it certainly weighs heavily in this one as well. What should our expectations be? This we must search out in scripture as well, and line up our thinking with it!
There is another scripture that says we should speak as if ‘using the very words of Jesus’. This can apply to our thinking as well.
I have found that our ‘culture’, with it’s never-ending access to media, has a HUGE influence on our thinking. I’ve cut out nearly all TV (no satellite bill now – woo hoo!) I don’t listen to secular stations except some classical. I am very careful what books and magazines I choose to read. I am careful about my conversations. I try now to look at each situation and conversation as a way to help the other person however I can in word and deed to further the cause of Christ by living as an example the best I can, for I am indeed an ambassador for Christ! M
y outlook should be ‘eternal’, and not ‘worldly’. I find it is so easy to get caught up in earthly things and we don’t realize how much the every day things affect us.
Finally, I’ve learned that God is ‘above’ culture. There are many cultures in the world, but God’s Word is above all that. Culture changes, fads come and go, but His Word remains the same, and is forever relevant in our lives, but it is a Choice, to be Obedient to it, Trust the Word of God as the Real and Absolute Truth, be Faithful to it, to Live as disciples of Christ, and Not ourselves.
Sorry for running on, but I wanted to share what God has done in my life, and how realizing my hypocrisy, how important OBEDIENCE to His Word is, and faithfully reading and applying it literally to my thought life, word and deed, every day has really made a lasting change, with the help of the Holy Spirit. Putting His Word FIRST, over my thoughts and desires, and holding everything up to the Light of the Word, shines real TRUTH in my life, and transforms me closer each day to be more like His Son. I am a work in progress, but progress I am making indeed!