God Help Us...

The scenario keeps going through my head… over and over again… and every time I get upset at the ludicrously of it. Power, that’s what it boils down to. But the root cause is pride, that insidious sin that creeps in, often without anyone taking notice. It has caused the demise of more people and institutions [religious or otherwise] than all the diseases or disasters in the world since the beginning of time.

None of us are immune to pride. The Bible tells us of otherwise good people who were brought down in one way or another by pride.  One of many examples in the Bible is Peter’s prideful statement that he would never forsake Jesus (Matthew 26:33-35) was found to be false after he denied Him (Matthew 26:69-75).

The Lord has a list in Proverbs 6:16-19, where we are told: “There are six things the Lord hates— no, seven things he detests: … haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent,  a heart that plots evil, feet that race to do wrong,  a false witness who pours out lies, a person who sows discord in a family.”

To have haughty eyes is to have an arrogant demeanor; it’s an overall attitude of one’s heart that causes one to scorn or “look down on” others. The haughty person sets himself above others, and ultimately above God.

The definition for the word “haughty” is: disdainfully proud; snobbish; scornfully arrogant; contemptuous; setting oneself above others.

When we are haughty, we are the center of our universe; everything revolves around us. There is little, if any, concern for what others think and hardly any consideration of the will of God. When we are at the center of our world, it becomes easy to justify our behavior and attitudes.

The prideful [haughty] person excuses their own [wrong] actions and attitudes, on the bases of another person’s [wrong] behavior or attitude.  [Pride] haughtiness, is where all other sins develop.

Pride makes one arrogant, and haughty eyes describe a feeling of pride and looking down upon others (Philippians 2:3, 5-11). When we begin to think of ourselves more highly and with unparalleled importance, we are forgetting the fact that it is Christ living in us and that the old self is now dead (Galatians 2:20).

In Proverbs 21:4 we are told that haughty eyes and a proud heart - are sin. 

Why is pride so sinful? Pride is giving ourselves the credit for something that God has accomplished. Pride is taking the glory that belongs to God alone and keeping it for ourselves. Pride is essentially self-worship.

. . . A proud mind is high in conceit, self-esteem, and carnal aspiring; a humble mind is high indeed in God’s esteem, and in holy aspiring.

. . . Art thou a man of worth in thy own eyes? Art thou delighted when thou hearest of thy esteem with men and much dejected when thou hearest that they slight thee?

. . . Are thy passions kindled if thy word or will be crossed?

. . . Canst thou not serve God in a low place as well as a high? Are thy boastings restrained more by prudence or artifice than humility?

—Richard Baxter (1615-91)