“An ungodly man digs up evil,
And it is on his lips like a burning fire.
A perverse man sows strife,
And a whisperer separates the best of friends.
A violent man entices his neighbor,
And leads him in a way that is not good.
He winks his eye to devise perverse things;
He purses his lips and brings about evil.” (Proverbs 16:27-30)
In Proverbs Chapter 16, King Solomon has a lot to say about the actions of the ungodly. It rings true, doesn’t it? Do you know people who seem to always be looking for (and finding) trouble? And often, not only for themselves, but they want to drag us into it, as well.
We live in a perverse generation (our parents would probably have said the same thing… and their parents…and…you get the idea). Our world seems to be slowly and continually becoming more and more ungodly.
What does this look like around us on a daily basis, though? I think it’s often subtle… people that we might deal with at work, see at parties, maybe even at church… I imagine most of them would not admit to being ‘evil’ or ‘ungodly’, nor would they think of themselves in those terms. Many of them may even seem like fine folks a lot of the time.
But then - maybe it’s a joke that goes too far; or a movie they want you to watch that you know is going to put images in your head that you don’t need; or perhaps how they spend their time and money when they think no one is watching; or (fill in the blank)…
But -- King Solomon also talked about a different kind of person in the very same chapter of Proverbs. The kind of person I want to be:
“The highway of the upright is to depart from evil;
He who keeps his way preserves his soul.” (Proverbs 16:17)
So if this kind of person preserves his soul, what happens to the soul of the others? This is an important thing to ponder - it could be the difference between the"Hiighway of the upright", or the Highway to Hell!