Scoffing at God
September 2nd, 2009How would you feel is you were trying to help someone and they threw your help back in your face and even made fun of you? Sadly, many people react this was to God’s instructions. Instead of listening, they scoff. To scoff is to show contempt and derision for a person or idea. Often this will be done through the use of jeering, mocking, and sarcastic statements, but it can also be shown silently by ignoring or refusing to obey the Bible. Scoffers are the atheists who mock religion or the so-called “Christian” who does not believe you need to follow God’s Word. The attitude of a scoffer, however, can even be found in Christians who know God’s Word but do not follow it in their lives.
Scoffers enjoy their derisions (cf. Proverbs 1:22). They often think of themselves as wise, intelligent, and superior to others. They hate those who try to correct them (cf. Proverbs 9:8, 15:12). This is the attitude displayed when we refuse to hear others, because we think we know better. Too often we listen to a message and think to ourselves “This applies to so and so” while never realizing it applies to us as well. Scoffers tend to find something wrong in everything, no matter what good is may accomplish. As a result, they mock justice (Proverbs 19:28) and cause strife, contention, and dishonor among others (Proverbs 22:10).
Scoffers are a sad and pitiable lot because they do think of themselves as wise and seek after wisdom, but they do not find it (Proverbs 14:6). They are too clouded by their own opinions to truly find wisdom in God’s people or His Word. As a result, scoffers will face punishment and judgment for their actions (Proverbs 19:29) and they alone will bear the results of their actions (Proverbs 9:12).
As Christians, we must be careful not to have an attitude or lifestyle of scoffing. To humble ourselves to seek wisdom from God’s Word and His people. Our spiritual family can help to improve our wisdom and Christian walk (Proverbs 27:17), but only if we let them. We must also realize that as Christians, we will face the scoffing of others. We must realize they are not scoffing at us, but at God. We should not take their scoffing to heart or listen to them, but pray that they will learn better and turn to the path of wisdom.
