• Compromise?
• Put out a false testimony from ourselves when we still know what is right?
• Be a hypocrite to those who know we know what is right?
• Not try to grow in judgment?
• etc.

• evil communications?
• those who won't endure sound doctrine?
• those who preach a false doctrine?
• those who hurt, abuse, contend, strive, etc.?
• those who try to take away your peace attempts?

• No!
• Note: that if it NOT be possible - or if does NOT lie within you - then Paul still has something to say in your possible defense!
• Do we hide behind charity, kindness, longsuffering, patience, etc. and not step up as Paul tells us to in the 'hard situations?
• Do we hide behind not wanting for meat to destroy the work of God?
• Or are we willing to:
• Discover; Decide; Depart; Despise; Destroy the magnificence of ...; Deny; Prayer; Tears; Grace & Truth; Avoid foolish and unlearned questions, genealogies, contentions, etc. (unprofitable, vain, gender strifes and more questions, etc.); Follow after the things made for peace, may edify one another; Speak those things which become sound doctrine; Avenge not; Mercy; Charity*, (unfeigned faith, pure heart, good conscience or just vain jangling); Hold fast; Endure hardness; Consider what Paul says; Bear the infirmities of the weak; be gentle; Study; Be apt to teach; In meekness instruct those that oppose themselves; Please not your own self; Longsuffering; Patience; maintain good works; Continue in the things thou has learned and has been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; Reprove; Speak. and exhort. and rebuke with all authority; Be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel; Avoid*, etc.; Deliver to Satan...
• *Charity has strings attached as does the liberty*** in Christ - suffereth long; is kind; envieth not; vaunteth not itself; is not puffed up; doth not behave itself unseemly; seeketh not her own; is not easily provoked; thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity; rejoiceth in the truth; never faileth - but today, is not 'above' a rightly divided KJB - follow after charity, but rather that ye may prophesy!
• If your heart is not pure, if you do not have a good conscience and you do not have an unfeigned faith, then you are just vain jangling when you talk about charity to someone else.
• If you have to 'tell' someone you are offering a charitable situation, then it isn't charity!
• Charity towards others is between you and God!
• **Avoid- Paul notes that if it not be possible - or if doesn't lie within you - then Paul says to avoid, withdraw from such, not strive, neither give heed, purge, reject, be not partakers, mark, note them, have no company, put away from yourselves, cast off, have no fellowship, etc.
• *** Liberty in Christ - all things are lawful, but...  must be expedient; must edify; not use as an occasion for the flesh; not cause someone to stumble; nor be brought under the power of...

The classic bitterness verse is Hebrews 12:15 - Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;

• 1) This is not written TO us today!
• Bitterness can defile and destroy a person during the tribulation!
• 2) But we can still learn something from it!
• not having grace for someone can cause us to grow bitter towards them!
• bitterness will trouble ourselves - not the person you are bitter with!
• pride enters in to the picture!
• but we can't be defiled as in losing our soul - loss of salvation, but in the Trib, yes, that will be possible!
• So, this verse is not a verse to be preached TO us as a guilt trip or any serious warning about God leaving you, etc.

• We can learn from this verse, as well, even though it is NOT TO US!
• 1.  being in the gall of bitterness is a seriously bad place to find yourself in
• 2)  Christ broke our bond of iniquity!
• Romans 6:1,2; 6-14; 17-22
• 3)  Can our heart NOT be right with God today?
• Well, for the lost, sure - See Romans 2:5
• Our hearts can be blinded - Ephesians 4:17+

• Ephesians 4:29-31 - Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
• Romans 3:14 - Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:

• It won't hinder your prayers
• I Peter 3:17 - For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.
• That is a tribulation verse application, NOT to us today!
• However, if things are rough and are going to push bitterness towards your wife,
• I Timothy 2:12 - But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
• I Timothy 5:14 - I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.
• I Timothy 3:11 - Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things.
• Paul does say the following:
• I Corinthians 7:15 - But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace.

• Proverbs 17:25 - A foolish son is a grief to his father, and bitterness to her that bare him.
• (also causes mom shame, to be despised, be unblessed, bitter, heaviness and will chase her away! - see my sermon presentation on proverbs that shows how a foolish child can ruin a marriage when the mom and dad are designed to handle their responses to their foolish children differently - interesting - this could save your marriage if the wife gets mad at the husband because he isn't responding like she does when it comes to the foolish child!)

• Ecclesiasties 7:26 - And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her.
• This could be a sermon all by itself, but few women would sit still for this one!
• More bitter than death?
• Her heart is snares and nets!
• Her hands as bands!
• Stay away from her if you want to please God!
• The rest will be snagged and caught up in her snares and nets!