Now three days after Festus had arrived in the province, he went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea. And the chief priests and the principal men of the Jews laid out their case against Paul, and they urged him, asking as a favor against Paul that he summon him to Jerusalem--because they were planning an ambush to kill him on the way. Acts 25:1-3

Let’s not forget that Paul had been imprisoned for a little more than two years—unjustly, based on groundless charges. Felix, the Roman authority, was replaced by Festus as successor. The Jewish religious leaders were still consumed with hatred toward Paul. Their hatred toward Paul was really hatred for Christ Jesus. They “laid out their case against Paul” again! Two years later!

They asked Festus to have Paul moved to Jerusalem where they could be sure that Paul would get an even more unfair trial, while in actuality they still planned to “ambush [and] to kill him on the way.”

Besides the history lesson, there is a great lesson here about hatred and bitterness. It is bad enough that after two years they were still consumed with hatred and bitterness toward Paul (and Christ) if the charges were true. But they weren’t! They had no doubt become true in their minds, since hatred and bitterness don’t depend on truth.

Friends, it is wise when we are confessing our sins (you do that regularly, I trust?) to also ask the Lord to show us who we need to forgive. Besides the fact that if we are not forgiving, we are rather presumptuous to expect the Lord to forgive us. When we are not forgiving, when we are hanging on to hatred and bitterness (whether we were wronged or not), we do ourselves harm—not the other person(s).

As the saying goes, “Bitterness is like drinking poison and hoping the other person will die as a result.”