Worthless Men/Worthless Reasoning

Aim: To employ the mind of Christ (as the church purchased by Him).

Doctrine: Nothing of any ultimate spiritual good comes from unregenerate sinners. They craft their plans irrespective of the true God, and so He (The Lord) eventually destroys them.

Exegesis: How the worthless mind works in God's enemies: it contrives selfish schemes (vv. 1-2); it employs the scum of humanity (vv. 3-4); it practices great sin (vv. 5-6).

Further application: How the church is to think about ''worthless' people: we are to both love them and hate them (at the same time), and we are to thank God for Christ's delivering of us from that estate (of ''worthlessness'').

Key verse: v. 4 ''So they gave him seventy shekels of silver from the temple of Baal-Berith, with which Abimelech hired worthless and reckless men; and they followed him.''