Sound Moral Judgment: Honoring the Righteous, Despising the Vile

Psalm 15:4 demands a rare virtue: sound moral discernment. "In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the Lord." The righteous person refuses to pay respect where it is undeserved and withholds it nowhere it is merited. As one Puritan sage observed, "We must be as honest in paying respect as in paying our bills."

Respect must flow to the correct quarter. Do not honor the vile person merely because he wears purple and fine linen and feasts sumptuously each day. Conversely, do not despise the noble soul whose equipage is poor and whose nobility is clothed in rags. Call villainy vile wherever it appears; esteem nobility as noble in whatever guise it manifests.

This marks the true friend of God: to him, the sweet tastes sweet and the sour tastes sour. Evil remains evil; good remains good. No temporal advantage corrupts his judgment, no verbal jugglery clouds his discriminating vocabulary. He knows the superlative and loves it. As Elohim declares through the Psalmist, "As for the saints that are in the earth, they are the excellent ones in whom is all My delight."

John Fox exemplified this virtue. When asked if he remembered a poor servant of God who had received his help in trouble, he answered: "I remember him well; I tell you, I forget the lords and ladies to remember such." Character transcends station. Faithfulness to oath—even to one's own hurt—reveals a soul whose values align with Heaven's.