“The righteous despise the unjust; the wicked despise the godly.” Pro 29:27 NLT
“Can’t we just get along?” The saying, while not quoted directly, may bring back memories of tension and division. Tension and division have been going on for some time, for all of time to be precise, but for good reasons. The godly and ungodly cannot reconcile, and any attempts at doing so will lead to further conflict.
The godly and the ungodly take very divergent paths. This is elementary for anyone to see. But what we often do not see is that not only are these paths different – they are also disgusting to each other. The word that is used in today’s proverb to describe the view that they have of each other is “abominable.” The word used here is the Hebrew word “ebah” which means anything that is offensive or what is an abomination to someone else. In Scripture God uses this word to describe those who depart from His Law. Often the word is used for more grievous sins – like idolatry, child sacrifice, and homosexual behavior. What God is saying to us is that there is a radical and serious difference between those who desire to live godly and those who do not. Let’s look at little further into this as we seek to understand God’s wisdom for us today.
The “unjust” man (“awel” in the Hebrew) is one who deviates from God’s way. This kind of behavior and choice is usually set in contrast to words like righteous, upright, and justice. There is a basic injustice in the one who deviates from God’s way – and God, being just, will have to bring judgment and punishment to the one who does so. This is why the unjust man is abominable to the righteous. The godly man sees that the unjust man is unjust first and foremost to God Himself – then from that infinite injustice flows all other lesser injustices to others. Since we know that the righteous man is not so because of his own works but due to God’s grace, the righteous man knows the cost of this ungodly behavior. That cost is God’s Son, crucified on the cross (to the Old Testament saint it was the promise of this in the sacrifices of the Law). To embrace such behavior is to treat God’s gift – the sacrifice made to forgive us and remove us from under God’s wrath – as worthless and empty. This is an abomination to the righteous man.
The same is true of the ungodly man toward the upright. What the ungodly see is a man who is “upright in the way.” This phrase communicates the path of the godly man. What the ungodly sees is a guy who is seeking to walk according to a set of rules that are different than his. He is seeking to be upright – which means to do what is good and what is right. That alone is offensive to the ungodly man. His worldview involves him deciding what is right and good. It even involves him changing his views to match his lifestyle if he desires. To have what he considers an arbitrary set of morals set by God – which is then viewed as ultimate truth is untenable to him. That would mean his own views of right and wrong are in error if they are different than those God has given. His value system cannot tolerate this – because his value system is that of the book of Judges. He does whatever is “right in his own eyes.” He is a law unto himself. He does not judge anyone else (unless they judge him or get in the way of him doing what he wants to do) and he expects the same from everyone else (of course always giving way to what he wants if there is any contradiction). Thus the “way” or lifestyle of this guy who is so arrogant as to call his way “right” is an abomination to him. It offends him to the core of his being!
There will always be a radical distinction between the righteous and the wicked. There will also be hostility to the way each other chooses to live. That is the wisdom that God is seeking to impart to us through today’s proverb. Therefore, the constant effort among Christians to make the gospel inoffensive is silliness. We can be gracious and kind in how we communicate the gospel – but to make it inoffensive to the wicked is impossible. There will always be the offense of the cross of Christ. There will always be the offense of God asserting that He is God and He is absolutely right on moral matters (and all others he touches upon as well). Thus, the constant effort to make Christianity inoffensive in its essence is a fool’s pursuit. It would be wise for us to abandon it and return to living it simply before the lost, loving them from the heart, and doing all that we can to share the message of the gospel with them. We do so not because we think we are superior. Perish that thought. We do it because we’ve received grace and desire for them to receive it as well. We want them to be saved – made righteous by grace – and abandon their abominable way to embrace a life lived by the grace of God unto the glory of God.
This week pray for the lost to be saved and pray for the gospel to go forth to bring salvation. Bringing reconciliation without salvation is a fool’s pursuit.
In His Hands,
John
