Encouragement For Those Times When You Deal With Mockers

So many Christians are going through their daily lives just trying to live good and upright lives and yet many will be attacked by those who don’t believe.  They are treated badly, ridiculed, teased, mocked and scoffed at for no real reason sometimes.  Other times the actions of a few mis-guided Christians cause the Christians who are on the right track to be bombarded because of their actions, such as in the case of those who were mistaken about the May 21st and soon to be the Oct 21st dates that they promote.  We have to learn to accept as followers of God that we will be mis-treated and mis-understood during our lives this life on Earth.  If Jesus was mis-understood and mis-treated, we will be too.  However, we can put our hope in God during those times.  We can learn from His Word that He does take care of those who mis-treat His children.  Their time of judgment is coming.  Read II Peter 3:3-7.

“3 First, be aware of this: scoffers will come in the last days to scoff, following their own lusts, 4 saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they have been since the beginning of creation.” 5 They willfully ignore this: long ago the heavens and the earth existed out of water and through water by the word of God. 6 Through these the world of that time perished when it was flooded by water. 7 But by the same word the present heavens and earth are held in store for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.”

In Noah’s day there were scoffers that would not listen to Noah’s message that he preached to them warning them of the judgment that was to come to those who would not obey God.  He suffered through 120 years of hard physical work building the ark while he emotionally suffered through the mocking and scoffing of those who watched him.  In the end he saw God’s judgment come to pass and the mocking ended.  He saw his faith rewarded for his persistence and endurance during the mocking times.  Joshua and Caleb were others who also had great faith and endured others lack of faith.  In Numbers chapters 13 and 14 we read about the people of Israel reaching the edge of the promised land.  Moses sends out 12 men to spy out the land and come back give a report.  Only Joshua and Caleb give a good report and show faith that God will take them in to the land.  As a result the people get to the point where they are even going to stone Joshua and Caleb.  They scoffed at them.  God suddenly intervenes and the people stop while Moses goes and hears what God says.  The end result was that the people would not enter the land.  They were judged as despising God and would have to wonder in the wilderness until they died and then their children could go in.  Only Joshua and Caleb would be allowed to cross over.  They received the promise after enduring the mocking.  The others received judgment.

As we see in II Peter, all people will receive their judgment for their mocking and scoffing.  God will keep His word to us and see us safely to eternity, despite the mocking we may have to endure.  God will punish those who despise Him.  So cling to that hope and promise.  God’s promises found in His Word will serve as encouragement for those times when you deal with mockers.

 

A Common Sense Time to Answer a Mocker

When dealing with mockers and scoffers have you ever noticed how they throw lots of arguments and rationale out at you that don’t really make a whole lot of sense?  They are so bent on their opinion that they pick really lame foolish arguments to attack you.  You also know from a spiritual standpoint that they are being foolish to the point where they might be hindering their own spiritual well-being.  We have a tendency as humans to want to argue back and make our point.  We love debating and proving ourselves right.  We really do want them to see the truth.  We really want them to have a strong faith in God and in the Bible.  However, a lot of times when we debate and argue, we really don’t get anywhere with them.  We just end up frustrated and angry.  We make them frustrated and angry.  We even sometimes drive them further away from God.  We really need to study how Jesus dealt with mockers and scoffers.  He used different approaches.  We never did see him just argue and debate with them.  Sometimes He answered their foolish questions and statements and sometimes He didn’t.  This goes back to a bit of wisdom we find in Proverbs 26: 4-5.

“4 Don’t answer a fool according to his foolishness, or you’ll be like him yourself. 5 Answer a fool according to his foolishness, or he’ll become wise in his own eyes.”

It sounds like two contradictory verses, but really they are not.  It’s just learning wisdom or common sense in dealing with someone who appears to be foolish.  Sometimes it is necessary to answer them and sometimes it is just not worth it.  We need to learn to depend on the Holy Spirit and study God’s Word to get a handle on how to answer a mocker or scoffer.  We will gain common sense as we study Jesus and how He took care of those people in His life.  We will gradually gain enough common sense to know when it is the right time to answer a mocker.