Pursue peace with everyone, and holiness-without it no one will see the Lord. Make sure that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no root of bitterness springs up, causing trouble and by it, defiling many.     Hebrews 12:14-15 HCSB

I want you to seriously consider something. Do you want to see the Lord. God is perfect. He can’t look upon someone who is defiled by sin. The only way we can see the Lord is to accept Jesus as our Savior. When we do this, we will want to do what is right. We will strive to live as Jesus demonstrated. We will strive for righteousness in our earthly lives by confessing our sins to God and repenting so that we may be forgiven. Then we can get to heaven where we will be perfected, and we will see the Lord. As the song says, “When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be. When we all see Jesus, we’ll sing and shout the victory.”

Our Scripture passage for today tells us we must pursue peace and holiness with everyone because without it no one will see the Lord. The alternative to seeing the Lord is seeing the devil. There will come a time when we will either be welcomed into our heavenly home to spend eternity with the Lord or cast into the lake of fire with the devil. There are no other options.

None of us know how long we have to make this decision. We may have a matter of seconds or many years. We don’t know when God will call us home, but we can be sure of which home will be our eternal home. We can choose heaven, or we can choose hell. Have you made that choice? The choice must be made before you are called home.

Are you pursuing peace and holiness with everyone? It doesn’t say just those people we like. It doesn’t say just the lovely, lovable people, it says everyone. This includes the good, the bad and the ugly. It doesn’t say you have to trust them, but you are required to love them.

Verse 15 tells us to make sure that no one falls short of the grace of God. Romans 3:23 says we all sin and fall short of God’s glory. But praise God, He is graceful. He will forgive if we simply ask. We are told in Matthew 6:15, however, if we don’t forgive people of their wrongdoing, God will not forgive us. This is how we fall short of God’s grace.

The devil wants us all to spend eternity with him. He wants to see to it that we all fall short of God’s grace. Without His grace, we will never see His glory. One surefire way to do this is to plant a root of bitterness. If the devil can plant a root of bitterness, He can keep us focused on all the person has done wrong. He can convince us that this person does not deserve our forgiveness. And in turn, he can assure that we fall short of God’s grace and fail to receive forgiveness.

This is why verse 15 warns against allowing a root of bitterness to spring up and cause trouble. It warns us that this root will defile many. If we are defiled, we are not fit for heaven. We will not be fit to see the Lord.

How do we avoid being defiled? We follow Jesus’ advice when it comes to dealing with our enemies. We love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us as He commanded us in Matthew 5:44.

Don’t let bitterness and unforgiveness keep you from seeing the Lord. Pray for your enemies and at the same time pray for God to remove any bitterness from your heart. He will be glad to help with that. I know from personal experience.

Have a great day!