"Who delight in doing evil and rejoice in the perversity of evil"
As strange as it seems, there are people who delight in evil. They deeply enjoy being selfish even after they know that their deeds cause others to lose, to be in pain, to suffer. They still delight in the pleasure they enjoy doing – the evil thing.
This is the definition of evil: a form of selfishness that damages the individual, others, God, or the society. Everything would be permissible if there were no consequences. But because God knows how the world is wired and that there are consequences for certain levels and forms of selfishness, He has outlawed them. But we still fight against His telling us NO and want to experience those things because they seem pleasurable.
delight
This is the Hebrew word sameah which means joyful, merry, glad of heart. People find great joy in all kinds of things irregardless of what it does to other people or the society as a whole.
One of the wake-up calls that Solomon wants young people to hear loud and clear in these early chapters of Proverbs is that there are people who don't care what happens to others as long as they get theirs. They will deceive, use, abuse, hurt, lie, damage, and impoverish you in order to get the pleasure they want. There are a lot of naive people who want to believe that everybody wants the best for them like their parents do but will not tell them NO like their parents.
Just because someone tells you YES! all the time does not mean they love you. Most likely they are after what they want. Many kids only wake up after they have been severely broken or damaged.
evil
This is the Hebrew word ra which means that which is outside of the boundaries of the Ten Commandments. Our society has adopted the emotivistic ethic that only that which is revulsive is wrong, but that is not a biblical ethic. God has said that the boundaries of selfishness must stop at the lines of the Ten Commandments.
perversity of evil
There are actually people who enjoy the twisted nature of evil. They enjoy torture; sexual perversity; devious schemes to defraud people; bizarre demonic rituals to other gods; elaborate plans to take the property, employees, or spouses of others. There are people who find great joy in the twisted nature of evil and in making others suffer and lose. There is more and more interest in the universities of western civilizations to study the perversities of evil. This is a sick and distracting pursuit. It is usually pursued by those who enjoy the field of evil and need a cover to protect their bizarre interest. Avoid this if at all possible.
Wisdom will protect you from these kinds of people. It is best not to even be connected to these people. I constantly meet people who want to know how to rescue people who love evil. They are only savable if they want to be saved. It is best to steer a wide path around those folks unless you have been specifically called by God to minister to this group.
Until tomorrow,
Gil Stieglitz