What is the Enemy of Love?
The Enemy of Love: Bitterness
by Charles Stanley
The story of the prodigal son gives us a wonderful illustration of God’s love. Jesus told the Pharisees this parable to reveal how the Father cares for human beings and delights when an errant child returns home. However, the Pharisees were lovers of law, order, and the appearance of righteousness. They probably identified more with the angry sibling than with the prodigal or the father.
The older son had already allowed bitterness to take root as a result of his younger brother’s departure. Even so, he was apparently proud of his appearance as the “good son,” just as the Pharisees would have been (Matt. 23:27). Often forgotten in this story is the fact that there was an inheritance for the older brother too—the land he was working and the animals he tended would all one day be his. In other words, he
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