Righteous Ridicule
There is a kind of mockery that is holy.
Not the kind that tears down a struggling soul or settles a personal score. The kind Elijah used on Mount Carmel when he stood before 450 prophets of Baal and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked (1 Kings 18:27). God sent fire on that altar. He didn't correct Elijah's tone.
God Himself used it with Job. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding (Job 38:4). Nobody was waiting on an answer. Job turned it on his friends: No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you (Job 12:2). Paul unloaded sarcasm on the proud Corinthians: Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us (1 Corinthians 4:8). Jesus looked the Pharisees dead in the eye and said, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition (Mark 7:9).
Every one of those moments has the same target. False religion. Religious pride. The arrogance of men who know better and choose worse. Scripture has just as much edge for the man who sits quietly in critical judgment, saying nothing out loud but condemning everything in his heart. That posture is pride wearing the mask of discernment, and God has never been gentle with it. Righteous ridicule was never meant for a broken sinner or a weak believer. Turn it on them and it stops being prophetic. It becomes cruelty dressed in the clothes of conviction.
The modern church has been trained toward softness and forgotten this category exists. Somewhere along the way, niceness became a fruit of the Spirit and every sharp word became a character flaw. So men who should be prophets become diplomats, false teaching gets a pass because nobody wants to seem unkind, and the Elijahs sit down and apologize.
Righteous ridicule isn't a personality type. It's a tool — and like every tool in the hands of a man of God, its holiness is determined by what it's aimed at.
Aim it at the proud. Aim it at the false. Aim it at every system that keeps people in bondage while wearing the name of God.
The church doesn't need more diplomats. It needs more men who know when God is done being polite.