{"id":1334,"date":"2009-11-09T20:23:25","date_gmt":"2009-11-10T02:23:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=1334"},"modified":"2009-11-09T20:23:25","modified_gmt":"2009-11-10T02:23:25","slug":"romans-314-words-of-bitterness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/romans-314-words-of-bitterness\/","title":{"rendered":"Romans 3:14 – Words of Bitterness"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Romans 3:14<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

“Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Other people\u2019s words can be hurtful, but ours shouldn\u2019t be so.<\/p>\n

Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The word translated \u201ccursing<\/span>\u201d is ara<\/span><\/em>, which originally meant \u201ca prayer,\u201d but it has come to mean an imprecatory prayer or \u201ca curse.\u201d This word implies a plea made to a deity requesting vengeance or evil upon someone else.<\/p>\n

The word \u201cbitterness<\/span>\u201d is from the Greek word pikria<\/span><\/em>. This word was originally used to indicate the fruits of the wild vine or bitter gourd which are so excessively bitter and acrid as to be a kind of poison. Words can be like that!<\/p>\n

Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

In this verse (quoting Psalms 10:7<\/span><\/strong>) and the previous verse, the Apostle Paul is quoting from Old Testament scriptures (the Greek translation, called the Septuagint). These verses identify some of the characteristics of people\u2019s words when left to themselves without the influence of a Holy God. <\/span><\/p>\n

Do you notice the commonality between this verse and the previous one? Both of these verses talk about parts of the body associated with harmful speech. In the previous verse Paul talked about their throat as being an open grave. According to Albert Barnes in his Notes on the Bible<\/em>, <\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026 as the grave is ever open to receive all into it, that is, into destruction, so the mouth or the throat of the slanderer is ever open to swallow up the peace and happiness of all.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second quotation (from yesterday\u2019s verse) says that the poison of asps is under their lips. The particular snake referred to could also be the adder, which is one of the most deadly snakes known to man. This snake is small and commonly lies concealed in the sand or loose dirt beside a road, striking the traveler before he sees it. This, again, is a metaphorical reference to the words of man and how quickly they can cause harm when used in a deceitful and intentionally harmful way.<\/p>\n

In today\u2019s verse we see that Paul is still talking about intentionally harmful words. These words are full of bitterness, used to express evil toward others. Here\u2019s what James says:<\/p>\n

And the tongue<\/span> is<\/span><\/em> a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no man can tame the tongue.<\/span> It is<\/span><\/em> an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.<\/span> (James 3:6-10<\/span><\/strong>)<\/p>\n

And Paul is not yet finished with his description of mankind apart from the Spirit of God. There are still four more verses describing us all.<\/span><\/p>\n

Application<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

It is easy to recall when others have used words to harm us. It is not so easy to remember when we have used words to harm others. As God\u2019s children we should never intentionally attack others with vicious words. Let us all humble ourselves before God right now, asking for His Spirit to change our words of cursing and bitterness into words of encouragement and love.<\/span><\/p>\n

In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"signature\"<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2009 Will Krause. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n

<\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone \"\"(618) 614-3070<\/span><\/span><\/span> and leave a message telling us your name and e-mail address or you can send an e-mail to:\"e-mail<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Romans 3:14 “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” Truth to Learn Other people\u2019s words can be hurtful, but ours shouldn\u2019t be so. Behind the Words The word translated \u201ccursing\u201d is ara, which originally meant \u201ca prayer,\u201d but it has come to mean an imprecatory prayer or \u201ca curse.\u201d This word implies a plea […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[578,579,580],"class_list":["post-1334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bitterness","tag-cursing","tag-mouth"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-lw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1334\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}