Walking with the Wise #32: GOD Hates Haughty Eyes

“There are six things that the LORD hates,

seven that are an abomination to Him:

haughty eyes… "
—Proverbs 6:16-17

How much do you think of yourself? I mean, do you think that you are better than others? Do you think that others are less than you are? Do you find yourself comparing everyone you meet and where they stack up to you, or you to them? God knows our tendency to compare ourselves with others, and He hates it. He hates whenever we have to put others down in order to make ourselves look better. In the book of Proverbs, Solomon gives a representative list of things that God hates and one of the things that He hates is haughty eyes. “Haughty” literally means “high,” and the idea is that someone has exalted himself so highly that he looks down on others. At its root, haughty eyes is nothing more than pride, and pride is the sin that is at the root of all others.

Every single one of us has at one time or another looked down on another. And it could be for several reasons: education, accomplishments, family background, looks, fashion sense, interests, nationality, language, religion, or obedience. Pride is one of the most subtle and easy of sins to hide because it can be masked as self-confidence, piety, righteousness, and even godliness. However, God knows our heart and His Word speaks to the attitudes and thoughts of the mind, bringing conviction of sin as the Spirit appropriates the Word to the conscience. And there are only two possible responses to the Spirit’s appropriation of the Word—confession of sin and repentance or disregard of conviction, which results in condemnation.

The cure for haughty eyes is to look to the example of Christ and abandon any thought of being better than others. If anyone could say that they were better than us, it would be Jesus Christ. He is God’s Son, perfect in every way, who left the splendor of heaven because of His love for fallen humanity. Paul summed up the humility of Christ when he wrote,

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross”—Philippians 2:5-8.

We must dispense with thoughts of being better than others, for we are nothing save living dirt. We did not cause ourselves to be born into the families which claim us, nor did we give ourselves the abilities to think, act, love, and feel. All of these are gifts from our Creator God, who in His goodness, caused us to be born, exist, and live. Whatever we have is not from ourselves, but are gifts from our benevolent Creator. Our responsibility is simply to be good stewards of all that He has entrusted to our care, making every effort to use all that we have to bring Him glory.

My prayer is that God may make us ever mindful of our temporal state in the face of the eternal God. I pray that we might be able to see the reality of our rebellion and the results it caused. However, I also pray that in light of our rebellion we might be able to behold the reality of Christ’s redemption and all that His atoning death on the cross accomplished. May we praise our Lord and Savior for His love and humility and may we continually stand in awe of our Creator God who loved us so much He would assume the flesh of His creation, dying in our stead, enabling us to have the life He lives, in order that we might spend eternity in His presence. Amen.