Sunday: The Mastery of Resentments
WEEK 33
SUNDAY
THE MASTERY OF RESENTMENTS
1 Thessalonians 5:14-18
We have looked at the mastery of gloom and sadness in the Acts. One reason was this, previously quoted, “Joy is always found on the other side of the cross.” You go to the cross and are cleansed of all resentments, all hates, all inner conflicts. Then Joy comes automatically. Cleansing and cheerfulness are cause and effect.
This is in real contrast with so much of modern somber religion in which the length of the face is supposed to tell the strength of the grace. A visitor in a Scottish home happened to be there on the Sabbath. There was nothing to read except the Bible; all the other books were carefully put away. He read the Bible at length and then asked his host if it would be all right if he took a walk outside, and his host replied, “Yes, provided you don’t enjoy it.” The people in the Acts enjoyed living because living was enjoyed; joy had penetrated living to its depths. Some people were puzzled about Rufus Moseley, a saint of the South, jiggling his hands and his whole body when he talked; so I said, “His outer jiggling is a symptom of an inner jiggling. His brain cells are dancing with joy at the wonder of Jesus and the constant surprises that meet him at every turn, and this outer semi-dancing a manifestation of an inner dancing—the two sides of one fact!”*
Someone put it this way—J-O-Y—Jesus first, Others second, Yourself third. When that combination is put together in that order, you’re bound to have Joy. But if you have something else first, other than Jesus—for instance, resentments and anger—then you are bound to be joyless. The greatest killjoy is resentment. It eats at our joy like a cancer. Let us look now at the mastery of resentment.
There is an amazing absence of resentment among the early Christians. In the pages of the Acts there isn’t one single syllable of revenge or asking God to deal harshly or even justly with enemies. It is the most retaliation-absent account that has ever been written, for it depicts a society out of which all except love had been eliminated—a society of no inner hurts.
O Spirit of God, we thank you that you cleanse us from all inner bitterness and fill us with nothing save love. We open our hearts to you. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: My soul is too glad and too great to be the enemy of any person or even to hold resentments.
* For more about Rufus Moseley, see J. Rufus Moseley, Manifest Victory: A Quest and a Testimony (New York: Harper & Bros., 1941). E. Stanley Jones provided one of the forewords for the book.