Proverbs 22:10

Peace is easy! You can end fighting and strife in your home or organization easily. Throw out the scorner! Some people do not deserve friends, family, church, or job. They are scorners, and they should be rejected for the trouble they cause by haughty rebellion.

If scorners are eliminated, debate and fighting and shame will end. Scorners are the curse of any unit of society, and they must be rejected. Since execution is only a civil option, use any other means you can to get rid of them: it will turn to your blessing and success.

What is a scorner? An arrogant and opinionated person who resents correction, despises authority, or shows contempt for those trying to teach or warn him. A scorner is worse than a fool, since haughty defiance is worse than stubborn ignorance (Pr 26:12). A man who disrespects teachers, scoffs at instruction, or mocks rulers is a scorner. They are quite common, and wherever they are allowed any influence, they cause much trouble.

Scorners proudly presume they are right, so they refuse correction or warnings. They want to teach rather than learn. They selfishly want their own way. They look for any excuse to reject instruction or slander teachers. They are notorious for picking on the smallest things to criticize or condemn those in authority (Is 29:20-21). They have no sense of fairness, and they have no conscience about the pain they cause others.

God hates scorners, and He will destroy them. Thank you, blessed God. Read His harsh warning against the scorners in Isaiah’s day (Is 28:14-22). The Pharisees and other Jewish religious leaders were constant scorners – blaspheming Jesus Christ and looking for anything they could use against Him. But the Blessed and Only Potentate ground them to powder beneath the Roman legions in 70 A.D. (Matt 3:7-12; 21:41-46; 22:1-7).

Scorners do not deserve kindness, patience, or truth. Solomon warned not to waste any time dealing with scorners, because it only brings fighting and shame (Pr 9:7-8; 14:7; 23:9; 26:4-5). Jesus called them dogs and pigs and strictly forbad giving them precious things of His word (Matt 7:6). When told the Pharisees were offended at His teaching, He justly condemned them and their followers to perpetual ignorance (Mat 15:12-14).

Are you a scorner? It is easy to fall into this horrible sin. Do you love those who correct or rebuke you (Pr 9:8; Ps 141:5)? Do you love your teachers (Pr 12:1)? Do you easily and fully admit when you are wrong and commend the person that is right? Are you quick to admit guilt and say you are sorry? Do you believe you are an ignorant child and need to be taught? Can you easily and quickly forgive the faults of those in authority over you?

How can you make sure you never scorn? Do not speak privately or think internally any rebellious ideas against those over you (Eccl 10:20). Remember Solomon’s rule that love of correction, instruction, and rebuke is wisdom (Pr 9:8-9; 12:1; 13:18; 25:12; 27:5).

Choose to bow down your ear and hear the words of the wise – those in positions of authority or instruction over you (Pr 5:1; 22:17). Learn Solomon’s humble desire for wisdom when God offered him anything (I Kgs 3:5-13). Do not despise prophesying – neglecting or rejecting God’s truth from His ministers (I Thess 5:20; 2:13; II Tim 4:3-4).

Can you spot a scorner? There are more of them than you think. Can you detect body language and eye movement that reveal rebellion? Do you notice ridicule of authority, disrespectful speech about teachers, or a haughty attitude about instruction and warnings? Any defensive or offensive response to teaching or correction indicates a scorner, because a wise man is humbled by admonition and can only think about making changes.

Many men marry scornful women, who despise their husband’s authority, ridicule his ideas, show contempt toward him before the children, and haughtily act like they have life figured out. They cannot imagine the meek and quiet spirit God demands, even on their best days (I Pet 3:3-4). These odious women ruin the peace of marriages and homes, and they should be despised (Pr 12:4; 19:13; 21:9,19; 25:24; 27:15-16; 30:21-23).

Parent! You must crush this evil trait in your children. If you even smell scorn at your instructions, rules, warnings, or position, you must severely punish it. Neither can you allow it toward teachers, coaches, pastors, employers, or rulers. In God’s opinion, a child that speaks lightly about parents or mocks them with her eyes is worthy of death (Pr 20:20; 30:17; Deut 27:16). If you have an incorrigible problem teenager or older child at home causing trouble, read this proverb and know exactly what to do. Cast him out!

What is God’s answer to labor unions? Cast them out! Governments should destroy them. Haughty, lazy, rebellious, and seditious workers should starve. God put masters over servants, and the combined intelligence of a union cannot match even one average owner with earned capital at risk. If verbal instruction and warnings do not get results, corporal punishment will work. Union workers cannot even imagine the big picture of investment, risk, return, cash flow, taxes, competition, and so forth (Pr 29:19; Ex 21:20-21).

God ordained civil government, and He put the specific rulers in office that are there, from local policemen to the president. They are to be honored and obeyed. God considers those who speak against rulers and despise dignitaries to be mad beasts needing to be put down. He despises them for their arrogant presumption to think that they have any clue about what it takes to oversee a nation (Pr 24:21-22; II Pet 2:10-12; Jude 1:8-10).

If a church has a scorner, the church needs to throw him out. Peace will come in as soon as the scorner goes out. There is no place for debate, despite, gainsaying, implacability, railing, reviling, sedition, strife, swelling, tumult, or variance in the churches of Christ (Rom 1:29-31; I Cor 5:11; 6:9-10; II Cor 12:20-21; Gal 5:19-21; Jude 1:11). They are excludable offences that cannot be tolerated in the membership or at the Lord’s Table.

Solomon knew by inspiration, observation, and experience what would work in human society. He gave a precious rule here for keeping peace in the home and other places. Scorners are to be thrown out. You can apply this proverb by hating scornful traits in yourself and not allowing them in others. If a scorner persists, he must be put out.

The source of all scorn is the devil, who despised his office as the anointed cherub of God and aspired to be like God Himself (Is 14:12-14; Ezek 28:13-15; I Tim 3:6). But God has cast Him down to hell forever, and He has delivered you from his authority and claims (Luke 11:20-22; Col 2:15). Jesus Christ has destroyed the works of the devil, including your own scorn and rebellion (Heb 1:3; 2:14-15; I John 3:8). Praise His glorious name!