Thursday, August 5, 2021

7 Things in the Everything Else category

 Read Proverbs 6

There is God’s way and there is everything else.  Let’s spend a little time putting a few things into the everything else category. 

There are 6 things that the Lord can’t stand, 7 if you really think about it.

#1. Haughty eyes.  Are these like Betty Davis eyes?  It’s not really the eyes but the attitude. It’s someone with excess pride and arrogance, even hubris. It’s contempt for a person that one might perceive as being of lesser in stature.

It’s the opposite of the attitude that cares for the least of these my brothers and sisters. We are people known by our love, not our contempt.

#2. Lying tongue.  Don’t you wish that a liar’s pants really did catch on fire? You can cancel cable and satellite television as the day’s entertainment will be doing stop, drop, and roll somewhere in your neighborhood.

It’s tough to speak the truth in a spirit of love.  It’s part of our Christian maturity to be able to do that, but it’s just wrong to lie.

#3. Shedding innocent blood.  This one requires little explanation.  It’s not shedding of blood in combat.  Combatants expect that they have some skin in the game.  It’s not shedding blood defending yourself or your family.  Turn the other cheek is misapplied here.

It’s shedding blood without legitimate reason; thus, it’s shedding blood for no good reason.  Life is precious and the taking of life is seldom justified.

#4. Devising wicked schemes.  Think to the Apostle Paul’s words.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Our thoughts should be preoccupied with good things.  An idle mind can drift to devious things.  Devising wicked schemes stems from laziness—not using our minds for good. Solomon has already given counsel to the lazy—the sluggard.

#5. Rushing into evil.  I respect people who move towards the sound of gunfire.  I admire people who will rush into a burning building to save someone.  These are generally considered honorable things, but rushing into evil is another matter.

Rushing into evil is not to consider whether our course is good or evil, or worse, not to care. It’s depraved indifference.

What do we do?  Think on good things.  Pray. Meditate upon God’s word.  Use the sound mind that God gave us. And, if we consider the first part of this chapter, make it your priority to get out of a bad situation if you find yourself there.

If you rushed into something evil, then your priority is to find a way out

#6. False witness.  We have come back to lying, in this case, profuse lying and about someone.  We live in the age of fake news. False witness is a daily occurrence.  When occasionally, the paper prints a retraction, it’s on page 5.  When the television media corrects itself, it’s accompanied by twenty minutes of why it was ok to tell the lie.

God loves truth and hates lies.  God’s people need to keep this a simple dichotomy.  Truth good.  Lies bad.  Choose truth.

#7. Finally, number 7 on our list of 6 that grew to 7 is one who stirs up dissent.  It’s fun to stir the pot in a light-hearted discussion.  It’s another thing to stir up dissent for the sake of dissent.  Gossip thrives in people who love to stir up dissent.

If I can make someone else look bad—whether my words or true or not—then I might feel better about myself, at least momentarily.  Gossip is an addictive drug and it wears off in no time, so you have to stir up something else to feed your addiction.

I’m not talking banter such as might precede the Red River Rivalry or Bedlam.  I don’t care if the Hook ‘Em Horns sign is right-side up or upside down.  When I was young, people on both sides of the river only used one finger to signal each other before the big game.

I’m talking about—Solomon is talking about—people who stir up dissent for dissent’s sake.  These people covet your peace but won’t receive God so they can enjoy peace as well. They think because their life is a mess, they will just feel better if they can make everyone else feel like their lives are a mess as well.

Hubris, lies, murder, wicked scheming, embracing evil, lies against another, and stirring up dissent all go into the everything else category.

Do we want to be a disciple of God whom we know in Christ Jesus or an adherent of corruption?  It’s a simple dichotomy.  Solomon just put a few specifics to the everything else.

Amen.

No comments:

Post a Comment