The consequence of ideas is illustrated well by this account from the USA, which took place in the early part of1900’s. Large business corporations were mushrooming everywhere and many of them were starting supermarket chains across the nation. However, they were facing a peculiar problem.
Thieves would strike at night, get into the clothes section, lift loads of clothes from the rails on which they were hung, and flee with them before the police could reach the supermarket. Electronic surveillance systems did not exist, the alarm systems were primitive, and modern electronics did not yet exist. Each robbery was costing them huge loss and they could see no way to prevent it.
After all their attempts at security had failed, the shop-chain owners turned to their own employees for suggestions. The request was that the employees come up with a strategy against the thieves that would be cheap but also effective. Many suggestions came in that would be very effective, but none was cheap or even affordable.
However, there was one suggestion that could be implemented free of cost, and made everyone laugh. Yet the management decided to give it a try.
The employee who made this suggestion said that the open side of all the hangers was always kept to the same side. He suggested that from then onwards alternate hangers should be hung facing opposite to each other. This was secretly done in all their establishments and nobody notice the change.
The next time the thieves hit one of their establishments, they got hold of a bunch of clothes with both hands and tried to pull the bunch off the rails as always. But the hangers could not be dislodged because half the hangers were facing the opposite direction. They tried to pull the bunch in the opposite direction, but to no avail because this time the other half faced the opposite side. Finally they had to pick up the clothes one hanger at a time, instead of the ten or twenty that they were always able to pull out at a time earlier.
No sooner had they started taking one hanger at a time, the time they needed increased to almost ten to twenty times what it had used to be. This delay in turn forced them to stay in the shop longer, without realizing it. This in turn enabled police to reach and arrest them.
Just a silly-looking idea, with no cost involved! Only a small change in the way things had been done before. The ultimate result was millions upon millions saved in the long run, as well as freedom from fear about the next strike by the thieves! Ideas do have consequences, and some consequences are astronomical in size or effect in comparison to the idea that brought them forth. This in turn means that, depending upon the attitude and goal of the idea-giver, the result can either be massively beneficial or massively destructive.
This is what makes the four groups of people God does not want us to become so crucial to analyze. Each group has its own ideas. And each group’s ideas can be massively destructive.
In my last two blogs, I analyzed two groups, one called Practicing Sinners (Prov. 1:10-19) and the other The Naïve or Simple Person (1:22). Now let’s analyze the third group:
3. The Scoffers (1:22b)
The scoffers are those who are basically arrogant. They know it all. They snub their nose at God’s revelation. They are the very ones whom Peter refers to concerning Christ’s Second Coming who mock and say, “Where is the promise of His coming? Ever since the fathers fell asleep, everything has remained the same since the beginning of creation until now” (2 Pet. 3:4). Yet, Peter tells us that their very presence among us is an indication we are living in the “last days” (v. 3; cf. Jude 1:18). Scoffers are people who follow after their own lust (v. 3) and who also forget some very crucial teachings found in the Word of God (v. 5). And the reason they forget such things is because they are blinded by their own arrogance.
Jude who apparently was quoting Peter in verse 18 of his little letter added to the description of scoffers by saying that they “cause divisions,” are “worldly minded” and “devoid of the Spirit,” which is just another way of saying that such people are without Christ. They are unsaved. Christians are not mockers. Their ideas which come from the bible and come from the Holy Spirit have beneficial results to others and to themselves.
One last thing. Back over in Proverbs 1:22, Solomon says that scoffers “delight themselves in scoffing.” The word “delight” means “to take pleasure in.” In other words, these people actually love to hear themselves talk, scorn, mock and scoff at spiritual matters. They take great pleasure in hearing themselves say such things. They think that their ideas are worthwhile and that such ideas matter. Perhaps, it is because they are somewhere out on a limb all by themselves with few others with them that they think of their ideas as wiser than others.
But God is going to get the last word, He always does. Paul said in Romans 3:4, “Let God be true and every man a liar.” Christians are not to turn into such people. We delight in hearing God’s Word preach, proclaimed and taught accurately. We delight in knowing that God takes the initiative to speak to us and when He does, scoffing about God’s revelation will have a damming affect.
Yes, ideas have consequences. We all have ideas and such ideas will affect the way we both think and behave. Scoffers get their ideas from the world and from their own flesh. But Christians get theirs from God’s Word through the Spirit of God making God’s Word plain and understandable to us.
If you do not want to turn into a scoffer, then do not hang with such and therefore learn their ways. Ideas matter. Be certain the ideas that you receive draws you closer to God and not away from Him.
