The Worthless Person

For Thursday, October 12, 2006
Proverbs 6:12-15

12 A worthless person, a wicked man,
goes about with crooked speech,
13 winks with his eyes, signals with his feet,
points with his finger,
14 with perverted heart devises evil,
continually sowing discord;
15 therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly;
in a moment he will be broken beyond healing.

The worthless man considers himself cunning, able to get away with mischief. And yet, all he is doing is setting himself up for a great fall. Compare this description of how the worthless person uses his body to deceive and cause trouble with Paul's list in Romans 3:10-18:

"None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside;
together they have become worthless;
no one does good, not even one."
13 "Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive."
"The venom of asps is under their lips."
14 "Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness."
15 "Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 in their paths are ruin and misery,
17 and the way of peace they have not known."
18 "There is no fear of God before their eyes."

The scarry thing about Paul's words is that he is applying to all mankind. We are all under sin and are worthless under God's penetrating eye. We must all repent before we are broken beyond healing, regardless of how we seem in the eyes of others. Thanks be to God, that he has provided us with the righteousness of Jesus Christ, we who will receive by faith. Let us strive to have a good reputation among men, but let us find our confidence of how we stand before God only in Christ.