“1 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? 2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. 3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts” (James 4:1-3).

     Many local churches are on the verge of implosion. Explosion means to burst outward. Implosion means to burst inward. We have all seen pictures on T.V. of giant skyscrapers imploded by bomb specialists. These very well trained specialists place intricately calculated amounts of explosives at critical structural members of the foundation of a building causing it to cave in on itself.

     This is what Satan is doing with carnal Christians in local churches all over our country. If Satan cannot destroy a local church with false doctrine or compromise, he will try to destroy it with internal conflict. A carnal Christian is defined as a person who wants his will (his way) over God’s will. A carnal Christian is a person who allows Satan’s Seed of selfishness to regularly and continually be sown through his life. Satan wants to place this kind of person in strategical positions of leadership within the local church at foundational levels of ministry.

     These people often appear to be outstanding Christians on the outside. They are faithful attendees of most, if not all, of the Church services. They are willing to volunteer for many positions within the local church, especially those positions that give them prestige in the community. I have noticed some common and critical character traits of these sticks of dynamite over the years. In talking with many wise Pastors with years of experience, they have confirmed these character traits.

1. Very seldom do these people ever lead anyone to Christ or actively minister to people outside the Church House walls.

2. Scorners are often women who have taken the leadership of their homes and resent any authority in their lives, or who it is someone covertly being influenced by such a woman.

     This statement is not intended to put a blanket shadow of suspicion on all women in our churches. Some of the most godly, loving, patient, supportive people I know are precious Lady Saints deserving of honor and praise. In many cases, women are better working models of spirituality and Christianity as a whole than men are.

     It is the Scorner (male or female) that we must watch out for. The Scorner is an unforgiving person who holds another person in contempt and is often indignant towards people, frequently castigating someone because the Scorner has been offended for some reason. The source of this contempt is either conviction of some sin that the Scorner is not willing to repent of or self-righteousness. The Scorner’s spirit is closed to the truth of his sinful selfishness and to anyone that he thinks sees him for what he is (a scorner) and understands what his real spiritual condition is.

     Scorner’s are often self-righteous people who hold everyone to a higher standard of living than they have for themselves. Contempt for those that do not meet their hypocritical evaluation criteria is the common way they manifest their self-righteousness and the way a scorner is exposed.

     My wife noticed a woman in one of our churches who obviously held me in contempt. She never laughed at my jokes and frequently showed her contempt for me by non-verbal communication (mannerisms such as folding her arms over her chest when she closed her heart to what I was saying or rolling her eyes in ridicule to what I said). I shrugged my wife’s comments off not giving them much consideration. However, not long after that, this person began to attack through Loaded Guns, doing much damage. When I finally left the church many years later, I was told she celebrated my leaving as a victory for herself.

     The contempt and carnal indignation of the Scorner comes from his/her own unwillingness to forgive or look beyond a person’s faults to his potential in Christ and help that person grow in the grace of Christ. The Scorner does not see people with compassion or with a heart to help them grow. The Scorner wants to be rid of the person held in contempt and will do about anything to get rid of him.

     The Scorner is a dangerous person in a local church. Be sure, if you have one, he/she will eventually be the source of serious conflict to the Pastor or within the local church. The reason this is true is due to the spiritual dynamic of preaching. As the pastor preaches the Word of God, a spiritual dynamic is taking place. The Spirit of God uses the truth being preached to confront the carnal Christian’s lifestyle. If that believer is not willing to yield his will to the will of God as the Spirit of God brings conviction, the hardening to the will of God will bring about guilt. The carnal Christian will then begin to rationalize about the area of his life he is not willing to yield to God’s will in order to justify himself. In doing so, his rationalization will generate contempt for the message preached and, ultimately, contempt for the preacher that preaches it. The conscience will become “seared” and the heart will become hardened and closed to any future confrontation resulting in running, covering, and hiding or attacking the Messenger.

     In my experience, when a Scorner reveals himself by contemptuous actions, this is usually the dynamic behind his contempt. The Scorner’s contemptuous actions seek to rid himself of the person he holds in contempt rather than seeking a solution to this conflict that is going on in his own soul through confession, repentance, and yielding to God’s will. The Scorner’s taking offense is often a mask of his own guilt about something he is not willing to yield to God.

“Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them” (Psalm 119:165).

     The problem here is simple. The solution is equally simple. The Scorner is under conviction about something the Spirit of God reveals about his life that is out of harmony with God’s Word. The solution involves confronting the Scorner with the fact of his own self-deception regarding whatever it is he is unwilling to yield to the Lord. Unless Christians understand this dynamic, the Scorner will frequently be successful in driving the person held in contempt out of the Church, often the Pastor. God forbid that any church allows this to happen to their Pastor.

     That is why God tells us to deal swiftly and harshly with the Scorner. However, if the Pastor is the person being held in contempt and being attacked by the Scorner, the deacons of the church need to surround him and protect him from the Scorner. The deacons should be the people dealing with the Scorner. The Pastor (or any person being attacked by the Scorner) will not be able to resolve this. The Scorner’s contempt will keep him/her from seeking resolution because the Scorner’s focus is on revenge and destruction (even though they will deny this). This is also why God tells us that when we try to deal with the Scorner, we should expect retaliation and implosion.

“He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame: and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot” (Proverbs 9:7).

     According to this verse of Scripture, the Scorner will seek to bring “shame” upon the person who seeks to correct him and the Scorner will try to put a “blot” upon his character (the “wicked man” is synonymous with the Scorner). Expect this kind of response from the Scorner. The word “shame” in the above verse is from the Hebrew word qalown (kaw-lone’). In the strictest sense, it means to expose a person’s nakedness (pudenda). In other words, expect this person to do just about anything to destroy the character of the one held in contempt or to demean that person in the eyes of other people. A Scorner will find something (even if he has to make something up or exaggerate some fault) to denigrate the person who seeks to reprove him.

     The following verses list other things you can expect from the “scorner.” These things do not mean you should not do what you are supposed to do in reproving the Scorner, it is just that God wants us to be aware of what can be expected from the Scorner when the Word of God brings him/her under conviction and he/she is not willing to repent. These responses are things that will make the Scorner evident to everyone.

“Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee” (Proverbs 9:8).

“A wise son heareth his father’s instruction: but a scorner heareth not rebuke” (Proverbs 13:1).

“A scorner seeketh wisdom, and findeth it not: but knowledge is easy unto him that understandeth” (Proverbs 14:6).

“A scorner loveth not one that reproveth him: neither will he go unto the wise” (Proverbs 15:12).

     Because Scorners can be such a difficult people to deal with, they intimidate many people. Scorners count on intimidation. They have learned that intimidation is a very powerful tool in getting their way. If the Scorner is allowed to play his little game of carnality in the church for very long, expect him to gather a following and expect war.

     God tells us to deal swiftly and harshly with the Scorner. There is too much at stake to play Patty-Cake with this type of person. Deacons should especially learn to discern the characteristics of Scorners and be willing to deal with them before they can attack the Pastor and his family (and Satan will eventually lead them there by that ring of carnality he put in mankind’s nose at the fall).

     God wants the Scorner dealt with swiftly and harshly to avoid the corruption of the “simple” in the church. The word “simple” in the following verses is from the Hebrew word p@thiy (peth-ee’). It refers to the person easily influenced by someone else or to the person easy enticed or seduced into error. It refers to a naïve person who does not understand the spiritual dynamic of truth, conviction, guilt and a proper Biblical response to that dynamic.

     This is the type of person the Scorner USES. The “simple” person needs to be protected from the Scorner. Primarily, the Scorner needs to be publicly dealt with clearly and directly to avoid the spiritual corruption of the “simple.”

“Smite a scorner, and the simple will beware: and reprove one that hath understanding, and he will understand knowledge” (Proverbs 19:25).

“When the scorner is punished, the simple is made wise: and when the wise is instructed, he receiveth knowledge” (Proverbs 21:11).

     The source of the Scorner’s carnality is his pride and self-righteousness. He becomes his own measuring stick for all other people of what is right or good. If anyone does not bow down to the Scorner’s opinion, that person automatically becomes another target of the Scorner’s contempt.

“Proud and haughty scorner is his name, who dealeth in proud wrath” (Proverbs 21:24)

     There is only one solution to the problem of the unrepentant Scorner.

“Cast out the scorner, and contention shall go out; yea, strife and reproach shall cease” (Proverbs 22:10).

“The thought of foolishness is sin: and the scorner is an abomination to men” (Proverbs 24:9).