Blessed Man 3

 “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the consul of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.” There is no time in our life that is unimportant to God. He did not drop us off here and will be back for us later. He is with us always. God is concerned with our rising up and our lying down. The manner of our walking, standing and sitting matters to Him. We are important to God because He loves us.

Sitting, as God sees it, is not the passive activity we suppose. Where we chose to sit speaks volumes about how we see ourselves. Jesus criticized the Pharisee's for their love of the chief seats in the synagogue. It wasn't the seat that was evil. It was the intent and inflated self-view of he who sat there.

Let's jump ahead a couple thousand years and slide into the modern seat of the scornful. You know the place. It's just above four wheels and behind another. The Pharisees loved the driver's seat and so do we. Think about that for a moment. When you're behind the wheel of your car it quickly becomes clear the world is full of reckless idiots and ponderous dimwits.

 The idiots are the people riding your back bumper and the dimwits are those clogging the road in front of you. Now, that guy on your bumper may indeed be a reckless idiot, but that is immaterial. In labeling him, we are not evaluating his driving skill; we are expressing our attitude toward him. Attitude is everything. Idiot or not he deserves our forgiveness and hope that he will saved from his wicked ways.

Why is he entitled to salvation and forgiveness? Because that's what we want for our self and this is the point of the second great commandment---love your neighbor as yourself.

We do not want scorn heaped on us and so we must refrain from scorn for others; no matter how unskilled they may be.

One real danger of the seat of the scornful is that it is so comfortable. It lifts us above the crowd. Unfortunately, it does so by stomping on everyone else. We will never rise in God's eyes by climbing over our neighbor. We get there by lifting him up. Where we walk, stand and sit influence who we become in God's kingdom. The blessed man avoids the seat of the scornful.