Proverbs 24:9

The thought of foolishness is sin.

The nature of evil thoughts

I. What is meant by the “thought of foolishness”? Folly and sin signify the same thing in Scripture. We are not to understand thoughts of pure speculation as simple acts of the understanding; nor even a thought of sudden and transient inclination towards sin, which arises in our minds before we are aware and which we endeavour to stifle. Though such thoughts are sinful in their first rise and tendency, when the imagination has been long heated or their hearts corrupted by any criminal excess or disorder. We are to understand by a thought of foolishness one of complacency. Such a thought as the will not only consents to entertain, but which the mind delights to dwell and dilate itself upon. These evil thoughts proceed from some vicious reigning passion, or perhaps presumptuous sin. To give way to such vain and foolish thoughts is an argument of a mind very much turned and estranged from God. Such impure and loose thoughts are directly contrary to the fruits of the Spirit, and to those precepts of Holy Scripture which require us to be spiritually-minded. Many mistakenly think there is no sin in dwelling on evil thoughts, so long as they abstain from gross external acts of sin.

II. Rules and directions for the better regulation of our thoughts.

1. Take care to be always usefully or at least innocently employed.

2. Carefully examine what those things are which have been most apt to excite evil thoughts in us. And refrain from company, books, and circumstances which influence us for evil.

3. Evil thoughts frequently arise from prevailing natural temper.

4. Live under a constant sense of God’s presence and inspection over us.

5. All rules and directions will avail but little toward the better government of our thoughts without the illuminating and sanctifying graces of the Spirit of God. (R. Fiddes, D.D.)

And the scorner is an abomination to men.

The scorner

I. A description of the scorner.

1. He is one who runs counter to the general reason and maxims whereby the rest of mankind govern themselves. He places his greatest glory in those disorders which the rest of mankind are most ashamed of.

2. He is one who delights to walk in the way of sinners.

3. He would be thought of as believing that there is no God.

4. He delights in ridiculing those persons or things which have a more immediate relation to God.

5. The greatest effort of the scorner is against that order of men whose peculiar office it is to minister in things pertaining to God.

6. He makes it his business to confound the distinction of virtue and vice, to call evil good and good evil.

II. His rendering himself an abomination to men. This he does by--

1. His common swearing.

2. His profaneness.

3. His confounding the distinction of virtue and vice.

III. Useful improvements.

1. Men generally entertain a secret esteem and veneration for religion.

2. Take care to keep ourselves at as far a distance as possible from the profane temper of mind of the scorner. Never think of God, or speak of Him, save with reverence. Be careful not to obstruct the influence of religious considerations on our hearts. (R. Fiddes, D.D.)