That Which The Lord Hates part 3

(Proverbs 6:16-19) There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

When we see a sin, how do we react? Are we shocked by others? Do we turn from them in disgust? Do we go the next step and attach the sin to the value of that person?

"Haughty eyes" is a term you don't hear every day. It is not a compliment. It is an "old" word in that most people don't use it much. It has been replaced with more pejorative language as our culture has become more and more coarse and debased.

Haughtiness literally means "proud eyes" and it is seeing yourself as more important than you should. It involves either ignoring or seeing one's own sins as not as bad as the sins of others. It is measuring yourself against others and coming out ahead - way ahead. It is putting yourself right up there next to God, or maybe even in God's place.

Haughtiness is also about our spirit. It is a critical eye. It is a condemning eye. It is an eye that God wants to pluck out because it is an eye that does not view the world from His broken heart but from a heart made of stone.

We have no right to be haughty, ever. We have not earned, inherited or had the right bestowed upon us. It is a forgetting of our place before God and our equality with others in our sinfulness.

In fact, Christians should be the least haughty because we know enough of our sinfulness to realize we need a Savior. Haughty people think they are the Savior.

We should be humble with others. We should be gentle with others. We should be patient with others. We should be with others how God would want to be with ourselves.

Unfortuately we don't do that. Christians can often be the black eye of Christ. Gandhi is often attributed as saying he would have become a Christian were it not for Christians.

Whether he said that or not, it is a true testament on those in the body. We can be a haughty bunch, but this shows His grace even more so.

Let's not forget that. Let's respond to His mercy by giving that to others. Even homosexuals, even liberals, even adulterers, even drug addicts, even those who directly wrong us.

Our moment to moment prayer should be for us to share God's mercy...and to pluck out our haughty eyes.

For His Glory,
Tom