Article November 27, 2017 Issue

Christ’s charity—an antidote to bitterness

Melanie Ball

Today, many yearn to be “moved with compassion,” as was Christ Jesus, so that we may help heal the rancor and divisiveness in the world and the family of mankind. Many are praying to more fully understand and embody the love of God, which neutralizes bitterness with the sweetness of Christ’s charity.

In the epistle to the early Christians at Ephesus, we read: “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). These words offer a cooling balm to the heated rhetoric of today’s public discourse. They also serve as an invitation to individual and collective healing prayer for the Christianization of mankind—a call for charitableness and forgiveness, rather than reaction.

The sweetness and power of Christ’s charity neutralizes bitterness and wrath.