According to National Geographic, the worst country in the world to live in is the western African country of Burkina Faso (my condolences, admiration and blessings to my great friends and missionaries David and Cindy Pope). The best place to live is surprisingly Iceland, followed by Norway and Australia (the USA came in 12th).

Forbes Magazine ranked Camden, N.J., as the worst American city to live in (Atlanta was the second worst on the list), while Honolulu, Hawaii, was said to be the best.

The worst job in the world is said to be that of a lumberjack. The best job, according to the same survey, is to be a mathematician (that’s right kids, math is good).

Do you want to know the worst foods for you? The list includes pizza, fast food burgers, chicken pot pie and fettuccine alfredo. I’ve been there and done that too many times. The best foods include broccoli, spinach and skim milk (yum, yum).

It is interesting to look at lists of the worst and the best. God’s word contains these kinds of lists, sort of. He does not rank nations and cities, for he loves the world and has declared that the gospel should be preached to all the nations. He values all kinds of work and vocations that bless his name and benefit others, and a CEO and street sweeper can be of equal value in his kingdom. He has pronounced all foods clean (amen), but has also warned us that our bodies are his temples to be handled with care.

But while God does not necessarily rank these sorts of things, he does rank people. There are bad people and there are good people. There are different degrees of bad people and good people. And apparently, there is a worst type of person in the world; and, there is a best. What kind of person are you? Read Proverbs 15:8.

The wisdom of God revealed in Proverbs is painted in a series of stark contrasts. There are the foolish and the wise. There are the cursed and the blessed. In 15:8, there are the wicked and the upright (righteous).

This proverb and others simply concur with the rest of holy scripture that there are really only two types of people in the world: those who are lost and those who are saved.

The “wicked” in this verse represents lost people. The Hebrew word refers to anyone who is guilty of a crime, or a sin. You may not have broken a state law today, but certainly you have broken at least one of God’s laws. If you only committed one sin a day, you will commit about 30,000 sins in your lifetime. What will God — who is judge and jury — do with a habitual sinner guilty of 30,000 unatoned crimes? It won’t be good, I assure you. The wicked are the lost and the lost are in trouble.

But don’t saved people sin, too? Yes, but they are “upright” in the sight of God. The word means to have a right or just standing with God. Saved people have confessed the fact that they are sinners to God. They have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and the good news of his atoning sacrifice on the cross. They have repented of self control and put their lives under the lordship of Christ. They have been saved by grace and justified by faith and declared righteous (or upright) in their relationship with God. The upright are the saved, the saved have their sins washed away and the saved are in no trouble at all with God.

What kind of person are you? Before you decide, knowing that there are only two types of people in the world, you also need to know that there are categories or degrees within these two types of people. There is the worst of the worst and the best of the best. Next week we will take a look at these very short lists.