Contemplative Bible Reading

Hebrews 12:15 (New Living Translation)

Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many.

Here is some stark poetry – the poisonous root of bitterness growing up to trouble us. To me, this verse is talking about the group of us, the church, the congregation. Bitterness can grow among us – the church. The result is that many of us are corrupted.

To be bitter is to hold onto hate, to let it fester for a long time. A wound that has festered becomes poisoned.

That is an awful picture. This is an awful situation that affects us today as much as it did some 20 centuries ago. As the passage says,

watch out.