Bitterness Is Dangerous

All the hatred and bitterness you see right now between white and black or black on black crime comes from unforgiveness. The Bible tells us that resentment or bitterness causes trouble and bitter torment, and many become contaminated and defiled by it (see Hebrews 12:15). 

Wherever there has been a hurt, the human reaction is usually one of rebellion, hatred, and unforgiveness—the biggest bondage of these three is hate. When we hate, we give away our heart and mind because bitterness only hurts ourselves.

But there is no sin or past action that is unforgivable. Forgiveness is not easy—that is why it’s an act of faith. When we forgive someone else, we are leaving the injustices in God’s hands, who tells us not to take revenge. “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. (See Romans 12:17–21).

As black people, we need to reject the legacy of bitterness that resides in our hearts. We have to love and forgive one another, even if we’ve suffered racial discrimination.

We need to remind our black brothers and sisters that those who are embracing bitterness against whites should remember that many white people died fighting to end slavery, and many voted to put the first black (mixed-race) president in the White House.

Blacks should also understand that many white people are standing up for the God-given freedom and liberty of blacks in America and around the world, while the corrupt white and black leadership is profiting off the hatred they foster within the black community. Those who are harboring hatred because of what happened in the past are poisoning themselves, believing that it will kill the whites.

We blacks are blaming whites as being the racists, forgetting the fact we are also harboring hatred and racist negative attitudes in our own hearts toward them. How many of us genuinely reach out to the white community to serve them?

Look at the racist statements that flow from black politicians with the exception of a very few, which serves to further divide the races. Booker T. Washington had a great deal to say about how black leaders exploit their own race for financial and political gain. In his book My Larger Education, he wrote:

There is another class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs—partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.

I feel sorry for those of us who are using hate, division, and revenge by twisting the truth for material and political gain. When we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, there will be no one to blame except ourselves. For the Bible says,

We must all appear and be revealed as we are before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive [his pay] according to what he has done in the body, whether good or evil [considering what his purpose and motive have been, and what he has achieved, been busy with, and given himself and his attention to accomplishing]. (2 Corinthians 5:10 AMP)

Our power, party, influence, riches, and interfaith services will all fail us—we can be assured of that. It won’t matter whether we made a million dollars and made ourselves a name by selling our soul and others; what will be important is our relationship with Jesus Christ and how we served Him in the way we treated our neighbor—whether black or white—during our lifetime. All the applause and accolades we are now receiving will mean nothing in eternity.

If you are a black person doing this, you have to remember you have to totally forgive the injustices done against you. Until you forgive the white people, you will be in far greater chains than your ancestors ever experienced. God forgives our debts as we forgive our debtors. Release the white man and you will be released as well.

All the problems of blacks don’t come from white racism, and even if white racism is the root of all our problems—which is not true, it’s not going to change our circumstances. Some white people are not likely in the foreseeable future to feel respect for the black man considering what even the first mixed race or black president has done to fundamentally transform America.

You have to remember that it pleases most whites to imagine that they are inherently superior to an entire race of people. Whites suffer from a superiority complex and blacks from an inferiority complex. We all desperately need the gospel of Jesus Christ regardless of the color of our skins. If you are a black person and you meet a white person who is a racist, forgive him, just love him, preach the gospel to him/her and trust God for the results.   

Here is an Example of Forgiveness

A story is told of an elderly black woman who experienced racial prejudice at about seventy years of age. She was facing a man in court named Mr. Van der Broek. He was guilty of brutally murdering her husband and son, who were all the family she had. In court the judge asked her, “How should justice be done to the man who murdered your family?”

Her response was this: “I want three things: First, I want to gather the ashes of my husband (who the accused man had burned to death while she watched) and bury them. Secondly, since my husband and son were my only family, I want this man, Mr. Van der Broek to become my son.

I would like him to come to the ghetto where I live twice a month and spend the day with me so that I can pour whatever love I have left in me on him.

Lastly, I would like to cross the courtroom and take Mr. Van der Broek in my arms and embrace him and let him know he is truly forgiven!

Wow! What a grace to forgive. We need to pray for this grace all the time especially as the love of the great body of people is getting more and more colder.