The senselessness of scorn, etc
Here is a triplet of truths we may gather from these three texts.
I. THE SENSELESSNESS OF SCORN. (Proverbs 29:8.) To be of a scornful spirit, to bestow scornful looks, to use scornful language,—this is gross folly.
1. It is utterly unbecoming. Not one of us is so removed above his fellows as to be entitled to treat with entire disregard what they may have to say or what they propose to do.
2. The wisest men, and even the Wise One himself, think well to listen to what the humblest can suggest.
3. It leads to a blind opposition to true wisdom; for often wisdom is found with those in whom no one expects to discover it; even as the scornful Greek and the proud Roman found it in the despised teachers from Judaea.
4. It ends disastrously. It "brings a city into a snare," "sets a city in a flame." It refuses to consider the serious danger that is threatened, or it provokes to uncontrollable anger by its disdainfulness; and the end is discord, confusion, strife.
5. It deliberately neglects the one way of peace. A wise man who does not refuse to listen and to learn, who prefers to treat neighbours and even enemies with the respect that is their due, "turns away wrath," and saves the city from the flame. Scorn is thus a senseless thing in every light.
II. THE USELESSNESS OF CONTENTION. (Proverbs 29:9.) We are not to understand that it is a vain or foolish thing to endeavour
III. THE AIM OF THE UPRIGHT. This is twofold.
1. Peace. The wise man, who is the upright man, "turns away wrath;" and he objects to a contest with the contentious, because "there is no rest." Those in whom is the Spirit of Christ are always setting this before them as a goal to be reached; they speak and act as those that "make for peace." They feel that everything which can be should be avoided that makes for dissension and strife; they are the peacemakers, and theirs is the blessing of the children of God (Matthew 5:9).
2. Life. They (the upright) "seek the soul," or the life, of the man whom the bloodthirsty hate (Proverbs 29:10). To "seek the soul" or the life of men is the characteristic of the good.