Bitterness is rotten

David Instone-Brewer unpacks the Bible’s teaching on anger and revenge

My teenage Saturday job involved delivering fruit and veg to hotels and restaurants, and I remember one experience particularly vividly: I flung a sack of potatoes onto my shoulder (I was strong in those days!), it burst open, and I was showered by foul-smelling black slime. The sack had been weakened by rotting potatoes. Starting with just one bad one, the whole sackful had been corrupted.