God holds you accountable for what you understand about him. As you think, feel, or act differently than you believe he would in your place, you will lose some of your understanding about him.1640 Disobedience causes you to reduce the width of the horizontal bar and the height of your vertical bar.1641 The decay of your understanding about God protects you from the moral responsibility of knowing as much about him as you did before, but removes you from the blessings that would be yours for living more like him,1642 but won’t preserve you from the temporal penalties of having a lesser understanding.1643 Descent down the cross also brings with it an increased difficulty in regaining your prior position, as your ability to recognize, value, and receive more will diminish along with your understanding of God.
The pattern is inverted when the cross theme is applied to the wicked. The wicked have their own understanding of how reality works, and they expect to get gain through following their wicked ways. But just as living righteously leads to growth, living wickedly leads to decay. Consider this description:
14 The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as be of upright conversation.
15 Their sword shall enter into their own heart, and their bows shall be broken. (Psalm 37)
Here, the sword is the vertical component, and the bow is the horizontal. Though the psalm applies literally, the figurative application is much broader and perhaps more important. The moral code of the wicked will lead to the diminution of their power and cause their own harm.