At the “top” of God’s “hate” list is “pride!”

Here they are, all seven of them, “things God hates.” Proverbs 6:16-19, again note number one.

“These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A PROUD LOOK, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.”

The “look” of “a proud look” is actually the Hebrew noun “ayin.” Found 887 times in the Bible, it is translated “eye” 495 times. “Color” 12 times! “Face” 10 times. Even “conceit” 4 times. But over 200 times it is expressed in English as “sight,” thus our word “look” as used in this 16th verse.

Now to the “key” word, “proud.” It is, in Hebrew, a participle. Spelled “rum,” it means something “exalted, lofty, set on high!”

A person who feels himself above everyone else!

An individual who is better than his friends, all of them.

I recently purchased (but have yet to read) a book on Narcissism. What’s that? “Excessive interest in oneself and one’s physical appearance,” says one source. And it’s surely a by-product of pride.

Pride, where “self” reigns and God is ignored … is the height of sin. The “root” of sin, perhaps better said.

Pride, I think, was the first sin ever committed! By Lucifer himself! Read his 5 “I will” statements in Isaiah 14:12-15. The devil was (still is) planning a revolt against God! “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.”

Wow!

Pride, a sin to be avoided, as much as humanly possible.

Proverbs 8:13 says the “The Fear of the Lord is to hate pride.”

Then Proverbs 11:2 adds: “When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom.”

Proverbs 13:10 suggests that a “proud” person will also be an “argumentative” one, “contentious” is the word. “Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom.”

But Proverbs 16:18 might say it best of all. “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.”

And ultimately, Proverbs 29:23 says: “A man’s pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit.”

A proud man, who stays that way, will NEVER submit to asking God to save him!

Thus … he will die in his sins and go to Hell for all eternity.

That’s the greatest danger of pride.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell