Proverbs 29, verse 27, he that is upright in the way

 

Proverbs 29:27 ¶ An unjust man is an abomination to the just: and he that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked.

What is an unjust man? He is deceitful.

Psalm 43:1 Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation: O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.

Notice that usually in the Bible things joined by “and” are synonymous. This is one way that the Bible defines its own terms and lays out doctrines.

The unjust man is wicked as it shows in the following verse just as it shows in the one we’re studying.

Proverbs 11:7 When a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish: and the hope of unjust men perisheth.

Notice that usually in the Bible things that the phrase that comes after a colon further defines the intent of the phrase preceding a colon.

Who is upright? This verse in Proverbs reveals that as the unjust man is wicked, the just man is upright. Note how after the colon a similar thought is presented in reverse order helping to reinforce the first thought.

He is pure.

Job 8:6 If thou wert pure and upright; surely now he would awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous.

He neither participates in presumptuous sins or great transgressions, and it is God who makes that possible. Note that the prayer is that if God keeps the servant from those sins then he shall be upright.

Psalm 19:13 Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.

If he is truly upright in heart he is constantly rejoicing, is glad in the Lord, and is righteous.

 

Psalm 32:11 Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.

The upright can’t take any credit for anything he does that is good or doesn’t do that is evil because his uprightness is a work of God. It is Christ that makes us just and upright. We are saved by what He did not by what we have done.

The wicked, unjust and the saved just and upright can’t stand each other. Nor should they?

2Corinthians 6:15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?

But, don’t assume that there are no wicked, unjust in the church and that this is merely a reference to the unsaved. We are to have compassion for the lost, a concern for their souls, and a love for them that leads us to tell them the Gospel and let God do His work in their hearts. However, there are plenty of people sitting passively in pews across America on Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday even that are as wicked and unjust as any child of Satan. But as one writer from the 1800’s put it, “men often get out of their faith what they bring to it,” so just as a church can be led by a man seeking God’s own heart it can also be led by a malignant, narcissistic psychopath. Just as a person sitting in a pew, or in the case of a house church, someone’s living room, may be a humble saint of God they might also be a hateful, paranoid, and deceitful infidel.

The wicked can’t stand the just. The very presence of a person saved by the grace of God humbly trying to draw close to God through His word drives the wicked to distraction. But the just should also not be able to stand the presence of the wicked in the assembly. The lack of discernment and the ability to judge the spiritual from the worldly and even the Satanic is one of the failings of the modern church.

Why? Because Christians don’t know the Bible that God gave them, the principle means by which God speaks to His people. They know what they’ve been told from the agendas of people who want to control them but they are usually not willing to sit with God and pray that the Holy Spirit guide and teach them as they read and pray. They have no discernment because they will not have the God whom they say they love so much as speak to their heart through His words in His Book.

Pick up your Bible. Read it from Genesis to Revelation or as the backcountry Christian said, “from Generation to Resolution,” and come to it expecting something, praying to God for guidance and light.

This failure is why most Christians wouldn’t know a wicked man in the assembly if he walked up and handed them a card introducing himself as Mr. Wicked of the firm of Wicked, Deceitful, and Unjust Inc. Sadly, most Christians are so much like the world the wicked can’t possibly be offended by them because they are unrecognizable from the wicked. Think on this verse in Proverbs some, will you?