Drive Out the Scoffer
Today’s devotional meditation comes from the Proverb of the Day — Proverbs 22, because today is the 22nd. Specifically, I have meditated on Proverbs 22:10, which provides:
“Drive out a scoffer, and strife will go out, and quarreling and abuse will cease.”
In case you’re wondering, according to my dictionary, a scoffer is “a person who mocks or makes fun of someone or something, often of religion or moral values.”
Those who engage in name-calling and character assassination (ad hominem attacks), who make fun of others, and who laugh at others’ misfortune or pain are scoffers.
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When such people are in your life, you will experience more quarreling and abuse. If you drive them out of your life, quarreling and abuse will follow them out the door.
See also the following related verses from Proverbs: 18:19; 19:13; 20:3; 21:9; 25:24; and 26:20–21.
To enhance peace in your life, first, do not be a scoffer! Next, encourage those around you to commit to refraining from mocking others, uncharitably making fun of others, and mocking religions or moral values. If they cannot, or will not, refrain from scoffing, you may want to find a charitable way to create distance in the relationship until they have a change of heart.
Polite disagreement is always sufficient. Mockery is a hallmark of insecurity — evidence that one must push down someone or something to feel superior. The truly superior person has no need to push down others, for they are comfortable and confident treating everyone as an equal, thereby obtaining others’ respect and admiration.
Confidence, humility, gentleness, and respect for others will earn one a place of honor. Scoffing will earn the one only contempt, and will motivate others to drive out the scoffer.
© 2021 Noel Bagwell. All Right Reserved.
