"Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners, Not sits in the seat of the scorn
ful; But His delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he
meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the
rivers of water, That brings forth it’s fruit in it’s season. Whose
leaf also shall not wither, And whatever he does shall prosper.
The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind
drives away. Therefore, the ungodly shall not stand in the judg-
ment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the
ungodly shall perish." (NKJV)
It has been said that the three acts described in the first two lines
of this song are progressive. To walk, to stand and finally to sit des-
cribes progressive familiarity with evil doers and shows our tendency
to become involved in that world by degrees. We will deal with the
final state of one who begins this sort of fellowship, “...sitting in the
seat of the scornful...”
You will find the word, “scorn,” in Webster’s having three shades
of meaning. The first is, “To reject with vigorous or angry contempt.”
Other meanings are similar to this. A synonym is “despise.” With
this in mind, what is our Lord’s attitude to one who holds another of
the race (the human race) in contempt? Having failed, until recently,
to think of my contempt for certain of my fellow beings as sinful, this
convicted me. The basis of our doctrine is always the mind of Christ.
Were our Lord to look directly into our hearts, how contemptible we
would be in His sight? We know the Lord looks upon His Children
through the blood of Jesus Christ and instead of seeing our sin, our
weakness and our utter inability to meet His righteous requirements,
He sees us in Christ Jesus. That being said, how should this know-
ledge affect our response to those around us who do not meet our
personal standards of decorum, or behavior. We must always keep in
mind just what the Lord has forgiven in us.
The first question raised is, What is our Lord’s attitude toward one
of us who holds another in contempt? Knowing the Lord’s disposition
to love His creation and to want the best for us, we know He wills us
to have the same mind toward one another. Our next thought is; since
He has paid the penalty for our bad choices through His Son’s death,
He has, as a high priority, the redemption of His creation. Holding one
in contempt removes him or her from our sphere of interest and would
likely keep one from sharing the good news of salvation with him/her.
We also know, if we have contempt or any other strong negative emo-
tion for an individual they sense it. It matters not how well we seem to
“live the Christ life,” if we do not live it with equal care for all of that
crowning creation, mankind, we will certainly fail to minister His love
and forgiveness to all those around us. We will be, as the Word in the
letter of James calls a “respecter of persons” or biased in our witness.
We read in His Word that God is not a respecter of persons. Taking
this line of thinking further, since Christ is living in and through His
Children, when we hold another of God’s creation up to scorn, are we
making Christ a party to that scorn? (Can you spell "Hypocrite?"
As we think along this line it’s always good to remember the New
Testament story of a servant who owed his master an amount close to
$20 million. He was called into audience with his master who, after
humble request was then granted a full pardon from the debt. In the
next scene, Christ tells of this same servant coming across a fellow
who owned him a debt of approximately $20.00. In spite of mercy
afforded him by their common master, this one who had been for-
given so much did not even give this fellow servant additional time to
meet this small obligation, but had him thrown into prison. Our Lord
gives to us a reminded of our responsibility, if we take the mercy of
our God for granted, but fail to show mercy to those around us. The
master of the two in question learned what had happened; became
incensed, throwing the first servant into prison giving him over to tor-
turers until he could pay his debt. The incident reminds us that we
who have been forgiven so very much, must have the mind of Christ
as we deal with our fellows, showing mercy at each opportunity. How
could we do less and still name Jesus Christ as Savior. When we
follow the example of Christ we show we are dead to self interest and
are given grace from the Lord living in and through us. How is it we
still find ourselves...
“...walking in the counsel of the ungodly, standing in the way of
sinners or sitting in the seat of the scornful?”
donporter 9.02.12, edit in process
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