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In its rawest form, contempt is an advanced form of anger that takes what is high and lofty and brings it down. That’s the goal of contempt. It always makes us feel bigger, even if it means belittling God and others in the process. It expresses the feeling that other people are somehow lower than we are; viler than we are; less worthy than we are. It robs people of their dignity.

Here’s how the Bible describes what it feels like to be on the receiving end of contempt. David writes in Psalm 31:11-12, "I am the utter contempt of my neighbors; I am a dread to my friends--those who see me on the street flee from me. I am forgotten by them as though I were dead; I have become like broken pottery." How about another one? Psalm 22:6-8 says, "I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads: "He trusts in the Lord; let the Lord rescue him ..."

Contempt humiliates others and lowers them to the status of a worm, while we, of course, remain fully human or even god-like. Someone has said that there are two ways to keep your head above water - either learn to swim or look for people to push down below you. Contempt chooses the second option.

At first, I couldn’t imagine myself as a contemptuous person--downgrading and humiliating people to worms. I’m a pastor. I’ve got the seminary degree to prove it. Then I made the mistake of doing a personal contempt audit.

1. I found myself regularly berating people—especially those at four-way stops. Everyone knows the first one to the stop sign gets to go first, but all common sense and intelligence disappear at that moment. Of course, the unspoken implication is that I would never make a mistake at four way stops because of my superior driving skills.

2. Then I discovered how belittling I had been of others by boasting. I found myself listening to people tells stories and then grandstanding them by one-upping them with a better story. On top of that, I found myself: name dropping, status seeking, inflating numbers, and reminding others of my achievements as my subtle way of making sure no one would steal my limelight. It’s all about my self-glory while putting others down.

3. Then my audit exposed my criticizing. "If I had been in charge, I would have done it differently. What was he thinking? What an idiot!" To make matters worse, I included others in my put-down session—a gossip session. Of course, I would never mention these things directly to the person I was criticizing. Criticizing empowers me to slice and dice my prey while elevating myself with a smug satisfaction that I’m not like that worm.

4. Another form of contempt also creeped into my world. It is the attitude of indifference. Rather than listening, caring and engaging others, more important things on my mind and palm pilot sometimes distract me. I’m even prone to branding people as unworthy of love.

I’m sure you could make up your own list, but I suppose the question at this point is…so what? What danger does contempt present to you and me?

Contempt blinds us to our need for God’s mercy. Check out this story in Luke 18:9-14—

Expressing contempt signals we’re on thin ice with God. It’s a warning sign that we are on the road to becoming spiritually hard and insensitive toward God and others. So there’s the bad news. But our dark-sided emotions can help expose the character of God and lead us to an extreme makeover by Him. God uses our contempt as a springboard to change if we will let Him.

You might be surprised to know that God feels and expresses contempt. No place is God’s contempt so bold as in the Old Testament book of Nahum where God heaps his scorn on the rebellious and wicked city of Ninevah. Nahum 3:5-6 says, "I am against you," declares the LORD Almighty. "I will lift your skirts over your face. I will show the nations your nakedness and the kingdoms your shame. I will pelt you with filth, I will treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle."

It’s amazing that God feels and expresses contempt towards evil; but it’s even more shocking that he poured out his contempt, not on us, but onto His Son. Galatians 3:13 says, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." God the Father mocked his own Son. The Apostle Peter tells us in 1 Peter 2:24, "He [Jesus] himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness."

The authors of "The Cry of the Soul," Allender and Longman, say: "You and I, who have treated God and others with contempt, have the opportunity to escape the mockery and contempt that will one day rain down against all who are His enemies. Because of the cross, we can - even as guilty sinners - turn to the Father and discover not the cold and cruel eyes that we deserve, but the open arms of one who joyfully longs for our return."

This is the mystery of the cross. I pray you’ve experienced it personally.

Through your trust in Jesus as your Savior, God begins his extreme makeover in you—to strip away the clutter in your heart and turn it into something beautiful. God can actually use your contempt to facilitate this extreme makeover. So when those feelings of contempt rise to the surface, rather than ignore them or stuff them, run to God—and ponder the following three deeper issues about God and yourself. So when contempt surfaces:

1. Ponder the fact that people matter to God. The drivers at four-way stops matter to God. The people I berate, belittle, grandstand or make small, matter to God. Those that I criticize and treat indifferently matter to God as well. They are all important enough that Jesus died for them.

2. Express your gratitude to God that his contempt is turned toward Jesus and not you if you are a Christ follower. Imagine if you were to fall into God’s hands who has the right to belittle, berate, mock and humiliate you because of your failures and shortcomings. At that point you deserve his contempt, but thank God that He chose to direct his contempt at Jesus so you could escape his contempt and be forgiven when you trust Jesus as your Savior.

3. Display a godly contempt. Like anger, your contempt is not so much wrong as it is misdirected. The Bible suggests you mock and taunt two enemies—weakness and death. The first enemy is your own weakness and suffering in this world that tries to convince you that God isn't really there, that He really doesn't care or love you.

Here’s how Paul disregarded his weakness and suffering in 2 Corinthians 12:9b-10, "... Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

Paul mocked his weaknesses and suffering with the confident laughter of trust that God would somehow use them to accomplish something inconceivably good in his life. The second enemy Paul belittles or berates is death. Death seems so final, but God guarantees for Christ followers that it’s not. Death is a new beginning—a promotion into His presence. Our bodies may perish, but that is not "our final answer." The Apostle Paul puts it this way in 1 Corinthians 15:54-55, "When our perishable earthly bodies have been transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die-then at last the Scriptures will come true: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’"

So, friends, if you want something to "raca" over, then "raca" over the inability of your weaknesses and sufferings to keep God from showing off His power and glory in you. Call death a "fool" for its failure to snuff out your life as a Christ follower. Have at it with all the contempt you can muster, because these things will never win over those of us who have trusted Jesus as our Savior!