Group relationships are not the same as one-on-one relationships. If you lead a group—a class, a team, a division of a business—you know certain people require leaders of groups to take measures leaders would NOT take if the relationships were one-on-one.
That bad kid whose mocking behavior influences everyone else? For the sake of the group, sometimes the “bad seed” may become a sacrificial lamb: get rid of him for the benefit it will have on the group as a whole.
“Drive out a mocker, and conflict goes too. Quarreling and dishonor will cease” Proverbs 22:10.
Remember the complaining children of Israel? No sooner had they left slavery in Egypt than they began whining about food and water and everything else. Their attitudes were so bad, the earth opened up and swallowed the rebels on one occasion, God sent snakes to kill them on another, and the remainder died while circling the wilderness for forty years.
Not one mocker saw Israel move into the Promised Land. Not one. Do not feel sorry for them. Instead, remember God’s sovereignty.
Do you feel sorry for the bad kid who is expelled from private school? Or the mocker who loses his baseball scholarship because the coach wants players who are grateful to be here? Don’t.
Teaching high school, I repeatedly saw the way one bad kid could stop 25 others from learning. The ONLY way to ensure that the innocent received the education they deserved was to get rid of the mocking scoffer. I do not regret sending a single one out of my room. You CAN’T save them all. Instead, learn to focus on the ones you CAN help—and often you help them most by removing their most offensive, mocking peers.
God, we want to be people of mercy. But when we lead groups, give us the wisdom and courage to be tough with the ones who leave us no choice.
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Household Words: 