Proverbs 6

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You can tell a lot about a person by what gets them “fired up” or “bent out of shape.” For instance, I hate to see my kids picked on or treated unfairly. What parent doesn’t, right? My love for them fuels my anger toward the actions of others that cause them harm. Well, even though God’s essential nature is one of love, this love fuels a holy hatred for things that harm those who have been made in his image (that’s all of us). What are some things that God hates? Proverbs 6:16-19 gives us a list.

Here are six things God hates, 
and one more that he loathes with a passion:
eyes that are arrogant,

a tongue that lies,

hands that murder the innocent,

a heart that hatches evil plots,

feet that race down a wicked track,

a mouth that lies under oath,

a troublemaker in the family. (The Message)

We don’t have space to cover all seven things on the list here, but there are a couple of points that I’d like to bring out. First, either due to prominence or priority, we see that arrogance, represented by a “proud look,” is first on the list. Arrogance is an attitude of the heart that brings others down. As C.S. Lewis pointed out in Mere Christianity, pride is essentially competitive in nature. Arrogant people don’t merely think “I’m great.” Rather, they think: “I’m better than you.” So arrogant eyes are always looking down on others. God hates this. 

Next we have a “tongue that lies.” Dallas Willard once gave a child’s definition of a lie as “an abomination unto God and a very present help in time of trouble.” Most of the time we are tempted to do this to gain control over our circumstances or over other people when things don’t go our way. Simply put, truth is “accuracy of representation,” and God is against those who misrepresent themselves and others. This always leads to people being manipulated, and God hates this. 

God hates pride and deception because they ruin relationships and hurt people. And if God hates them, then we should hate them too. Perhaps we should hate them the most when we see them surface in our own lives. For which one of us has not cast a proud glance or whispered a white lie? Thank God that his love is greater than these sins. But it’s also his love that seeks to transform us into people of humility and truth, people who are more like him. 

What is it that gets you “fired up”? What do you want to see changed in your life?

Yours and His,


Allen Wilson
Student Ministries Pastor