The Spiritual Sanitation Department Text: Proverbs 22:10
Introduction: The High Cost of Cheap Peace
We live in an age that prizes a certain kind of peace. It is a fragile, effeminate peace, the kind that cannot bear the slightest disturbance. It is the peace of the committee meeting, the peace of the HR department, the peace that papers over deep, festering wounds with polite smiles and carefully worded emails. This is the kind of peace that will tolerate any amount of heresy, foolishness, and outright rebellion, so long as no one's voice is raised. But the Bible knows nothing of this kind of peace. The peace of God, the shalom of God, is not the absence of conflict. It is the presence of righteousness. It is a robust, hearty, and masculine peace, built on the solid foundation of truth. And because it is built on truth, it knows that some things, and some people, are utterly incompatible with it.
Our text today is one of those bracing, cold-water-in-the-face passages from the book of Proverbs. It is a piece of intensely practical wisdom that our modern, conflict-averse churches have largely forgotten, and to their great peril. It gives us a divine command, a piece of spiritual sanitation work, that is absolutely essential for the health of any covenant community, whether that be a family, a church, or a nation. We are told that true peace is not achieved by endless negotiation with fools, but by the decisive removal of those who are constitutionally committed to destroying peace. We have been duped into thinking that unity is the same thing as uniformity, and that love is the same thing as a blanket refusal to make necessary judgments. But the Bible teaches us that sometimes, the most loving thing you can do for the sheep is to drive out the wolf.
This proverb gives us a simple, cause-and-effect spiritual law. If you want to get rid of a certain kind of persistent, soul-destroying trouble, you must be willing to identify the source and act decisively. This is not about being cantankerous or looking for a fight. It is about loving peace enough to fight for it. It is about loving the body of Christ enough to perform the necessary surgery. When a body has gangrene, you don't form a committee to dialogue with the gangrene. You cut it out. And you do so for the sake of the whole body.
The Text
Drive out the scoffer, and strife will go out,
Even contention and disgrace will cease.
(Proverbs 22:10 LSB)
The Diagnosis: Identifying the Scoffer
The first part of the verse gives us the command, and it begins by identifying the troublemaker. We are told to "Drive out the scoffer."
"Drive out the scoffer..." (Proverbs 22:10a)
So, the first order of business is to have a biblical definition of a scoffer. A scoffer is not just someone who disagrees with you. He is not someone who simply has a different opinion. The church of God is broad enough for all sorts of disagreements on secondary matters. A scoffer is a particular kind of character, a specific type of fool. The Hebrew word here is 'luts,' and it carries the idea of mockery, derision, and arrogance. The scoffer is a man who has set himself up as the ultimate standard of wisdom. He does not merely reject correction; he despises it. He greets godly wisdom with a sneer.
Proverbs tells us a great deal about this individual. "A scoffer does not love one who corrects him, Nor will he go to the wise" (Proverbs 15:12). Why? Because in his own mind, he is already the wise one. To accept correction would be to abdicate his throne. He is puffed up with a pride that makes him unteachable. "Proud and haughty scoffer is his name, Who acts with arrogant pride" (Proverbs 21:24). This is not a man struggling with a particular sin; this is a man whose entire posture toward God and man is one of contempt.
In the context of a church, the scoffer is the one who is perpetually cynical. He questions every decision of the elders, not with a humble desire to understand, but with a spirit of perpetual opposition. He traffics in gossip, whispers, and innuendo. He rolls his eyes during the sermon. He gathers a little faction of the discontented in the church foyer after the service. He sees the earnest faith of others as simple-minded naivete. He treats the commands of Scripture not as holy writ, but as suggestions to be debated and, if they are inconvenient, dismissed with a clever quip. He is a spiritual arsonist. He doesn't want to build anything; he just enjoys the warmth and light of the fire he has started.
And notice the verb: "Drive out." This is a strong, definitive action. It is not "dialogue with the scoffer," or "find common ground with the scoffer," or "validate the scoffer's feelings." It is to expel, to banish, to excommunicate. This is the Old Testament equivalent of what the Apostle Paul commands in the New. "As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him" (Titus 3:10). This is not a suggestion for extreme cases. It is a standing command for the preservation of the covenant community. The health of the body requires the removal of the tumor.
The Promised Result: The Departure of Strife
The second clause of the verse gives us the direct and guaranteed result of this difficult but necessary action. When you obey the command, you get the promise.
"...and strife will go out," (Proverbs 22:10b)
The departure of the scoffer is immediately followed by the departure of strife. Strife is not some free-floating miasma that just happens to settle on a church. It has a source. It is manufactured. And the scoffer is a one-man strife factory. He is the Typhoid Mary of discord. Where he goes, an epidemic of quarreling, suspicion, and back-biting is sure to follow.
Many a church session has spent countless hours trying to manage the strife, trying to put out all the little fires, without ever dealing with the arsonist. They try to mediate between the scoffer and those he has offended. They try to calm the waters. But this is like trying to mop the floor while the bathtub is still overflowing. The Bible's solution is far more direct: turn off the faucet. Drive out the scoffer.
When you do, the strife "will go out." It doesn't just diminish; it leaves. It packs its bags and follows the scoffer out the door. Why? Because the strife was not really about the issues the scoffer was raising. The issues were just the fuel. The fire was his own arrogant, contentious spirit. Without him to fan the flames, the quarrels simply die down for lack of oxygen. The peace that follows is not the result of having solved every little disagreement. The peace that follows is the result of removing the man who was committed to a state of permanent warfare.
The Full Extent of the Peace
The final clause of the verse expands on the blessing that comes from this act of spiritual courage. It's not just that the general atmosphere of strife disappears; specific and ugly manifestations of it cease as well.
"Even contention and disgrace will cease." (Proverbs 22:10c)
Contention is the noise of strife. It is the arguing, the bickering, the endless debates that go nowhere. It is the war of words that exhausts the saints and distracts the church from its mission. The scoffer loves contention because it is the theater in which he performs. He loves to argue, not to find the truth, but to win. When he is gone, the arguments stop. The constant, draining noise of conflict is replaced by the quiet pursuit of godliness.
But the verse adds one more thing that will cease: "disgrace." The word can also be translated as shame, ignominy, or reproach. A church that is constantly embroiled in internal conflict brings disgrace upon the name of Christ. The world looks on and sees not a body of believers united in love, but a squabbling pack of fools. They see our infighting and conclude, quite reasonably, that our God is not a God of peace and our gospel has no power. The scoffer, in his selfish pursuit of vainglory, brings public shame upon the bride of Christ.
When the church, through its appointed leaders, finally acts in obedience to this proverb, it is not only restoring internal peace, but it is also restoring its public witness. By driving out the scoffer, the church is declaring to a watching world that it takes holiness seriously. It is declaring that the peace purchased by Christ is too precious to be sacrificed on the altar of a fool's pride. The cessation of disgrace is the return of honor. The church once again looks like what it is supposed to be: a pillar and buttress of the truth, a city on a hill, a people zealous for good works, living at peace with one another.
Conclusion: The Courage to Be Clean
This proverb is a hard word, because it demands a hard action. It is never pleasant to discipline someone. It is never easy to confront a scoffer, because, as other proverbs tell us, he will hate you for it (Proverbs 9:8). But the elders of a church are not called to a popularity contest. They are called to be shepherds, and a good shepherd carries a rod as well as a staff. The rod is for driving off the predators.
A church that refuses to practice this kind of biblical sanitation will soon become a toxic waste dump of bitterness, resentment, and perpetual conflict. But a church that has the courage to obey God's Word, a church that loves its people enough to protect them from the corrosive influence of the scoffer, will find that God is faithful to His promise. When the scoffer is driven out, he takes the strife, the contention, and the disgrace with him.
And what is left? A people free to worship God in the beauty of holiness. A community at peace. A family that can get on with the business of the Great Commission, no longer distracted by the endless, foolish quarrels of an arrogant man. This is the peace that is worth fighting for. May God grant our leaders the wisdom to identify the scoffer, and the courage to do what must be done.