The Way of the Righteous and of the Wicked

Psalms 1 “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.”

All people are separated into their respective spiritual categories:

All people are separated ethically

A picture of the Godly ( vs1-4), The man who refuses the counsel of the wicked. The man who refuse to run in the crowds of those who are worldly. The man who does not align himself with the arrogant and the self centered.

A picture of the ungodly (vs 5-6) The flip side of the godly man is the ungodly. Everything that the psalmist recommended avoiding the ungodly does. A wicked man gives evil advise. They advise getting due vengeance while Christ tells you to be humble, lowly, and turn the other cheek. They tell you to retaliate when God Himself said “vengeance is mine.” A wicked man is quick to devise evil plans, and his mind is always seeking ill will toward his fellow man and he is always scheming to put himself ahead. The ungodly seek personal gain at the expense of all of those around them and ultimately cannot be trusted. They are as snaked in the grass waiting to striking indiscriminately at their next victim.

Proverbs 6:16-19 “There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.”

By outcome, all people are separated judicially

The failure of the ungodly (5) All must be judged by God. Not a single man nor woman will escape His ruling eyes. Those who are found to be ungodly will be destroyed in His fiery judgment, while those who are righteous will stand in His glory. there will be no mistakes in this moment. There will be zero gray areas. There are no good men who made a few mistakes. There are no girls who just went a little astray. You are either righteous, or wicked, and those who are wicked will not be found amongst the standings of the righteous and vise versa.

The fruition of lifestyles

Recognition of godly (6a) God does not make mistakes. God created you whether we follow Him or not. God knits our complex bodies together inside of our mothers and when we are turned outward we will be given the choice to follow and love, or rebel and hate toward our Great Creator, but God knows who is who. No one will stand before God and pull a fast one on Him. Jesus is clear that men will try when this time comes. He said that men will say “Lord, did we not prophesy and cast out demons in your name? Did we not do many mighty works for you?” Meaning is this not enough to simply do good works? But Jesus will reply “I never knew you, depart from me, you evil doers.” No one gets past Jesus without having their faith placed in Him.

Ruination of ungodly (6b) Those who are evildoers will be cast out where there are weeping and gnashing of teeth. All of the fun, all of the parties, all of the seemingly harmless nights, all of the comments, all of the times they said ‘just one more time’, all of the sinful things that were committed will land one in a place of eternal anguish and suffering. You may say “What will one time hurt” or “Just this time and I will quit”, maybe you say “Well this group of people are fare worse than I, surely God will take that into consideration.” I assure you He will not. God does not play games. He is cut and dry. What He calls evil is evil, and what He says is right is holy. Even is it is only one time, consequences come.

I am not sure whether you know this or not, but you control your own life. Your parents try to govern and guide, but you run the show. They take your phone away? You could sneak a burner. They say you cannot hangout with a certain group? They cant watch you 24/7. They ground you? You could always sneak out.

— You can always rebel and be successful at it, but it does not make it right. I tell you that to say this. You make your own choices. You choose the company that you throw your lot in with. But if you hangout with drunkards you are branded as a drunkard even if you have never drank a drop. The same as with smokers, druggies, liars, people with loose morals, back talkers, “troubled kids” (they are called troubled because they are clearly always causing trouble. You don’t need that) They say that you are what you eat, well I will tell you that you are who you hangout with.

This is a good opportunity to get a fresh start, hit the reset button, and cut some dead weight out of your life. If you did not make the best decisions in 2022, start 2023 off in a different manner. If you are the one that people need to cut off, then you really need to take inventory of your life and rearrange your priorities to start looking more like Christ and less like the world.

Ultimately we will answer for the decisions that we make, and no one else’s. Make sure you are choosing good company.

New Year’s Resolutions

Bowling