16 But to the wicked, God says: What right have you to recite My statutes or take My covenant or pledge on your lips,

17 Seeing that you hate instruction and correction and cast My words behind you [discarding them]? – Psalm 50:16-17, Amplified Bible (AMP)

I don’t like “litterbugs.” I hate it when people throw trash out of their cars, drop trash in the parking lot, or chuck trash all over the floor of a public place. Such actions are discourteous and disrespectful to others, and they are so because litterbugs have no regard for the sensibilities of others. Their actions are evidence that, in their minds, life is all about their convenience and comfort. If they want to make the world their personal trash can, who has the right to stop them?

Sadly, many people treat God’s Word as if it were a piece of litter. Like a man tossing a wadded up piece of paper behind him on the sidewalk, many folks toss God’s instruction on the ground with blatant disregard. They quote Scripture when it is useful to, but the idea of obeying the Scripture they quote is foreign to them. The words of God have no value in their eyes, and their actions make that obvious.

Psalm 50:16-17 directly addresses the unsaved wicked, but there is an application to us who are saved as well. When we pick and choose which scriptures to obey and which ones to ignore, we show just as much disregard for God’s Word as the unsaved. Granted, we will fail to obey God’s Word from time to time because we will occasionally give into the temptations that so easily beset us. In such times of failure, all we need do is repent and ask God for His forgiveness, and He will faithfully grant it. However, when we know what God wants us to do, but we habitually tell Him, “I’m not going to do that,” we become spiritual litterbugs. We cast aside God’s Word like a piece of trash, and when we do so, we can expect His chastening to follow in short order.

If God the Father, the Righteous Judge, were to stand before you today, would He classify you as an occasional offender, or would He label you as an habitual spiritual litter bug?