Pride

God’s Hatred of Human Pride

Life Principles Study

By Dr. Charles F. Stanley…… page 741 from Life Principles Bible NKJV 2005

The Bible makes it very clear that God hates human pride.

James 4:6
“But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
"God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble."

The same message gets stated in the Scripture no less than three times.

Proverbs 3:34
“He mocks proud mockers
but gives grace to the humble.”

1 Peter 5:5

“Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because,
"God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble."

Elsewhere, the Bible lists pride among four things that the Lord hates: pride gets lumped together with arrogance, the evil way, and the perverse mouth.

Proverbs 8:13

“To fear the LORD is to hate evil;
I hate pride and arrogance,
evil behavior and perverse speech.”

In yet another passage, pride finds a place among seven things that are an abomination to God:

Proverbs 6:17-19

17 “ haughty eyes,
a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that devises wicked schemes,
feet that are quick to rush into evil,
19 a false witness who pours out lies
and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.”

God puts pride in the same category with murder!

Why does God hate human pride so much? Because it is the one sin that keeps us from allowing God to use us for His purposes. When we commit ourselves to doing things our way, we are in no position to do things God’s way.

Pride renders us useless in the kingdom of God. We fall prey to pride when we forget that God does not exist for us, but we exist for Him.

The Lord refuses to share His glory with anyone. When we seek to take His glory for ourselves-saying, in effect, “Look at me!” Look at who I am!”- we deny that everything we accomplish comes about because God enables and empowers us to accomplish it. Any good in us is by His design and redemption. Anything noteworthy that we become, we become because He wills it. We have no goodness apart from God’s goodness imparted to us.

Most people know some version of Proverbs 16:18 “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.” While not all destructions are caused by pride, pride always ends in destruction-and usually, we lose the very thing we feel most proud about having achieved, earned, owned or accomplished.


Brokenness is God’s requirement for maximum usefulness.

Note: If you get a chance pick up one of Dr. Stanley's Bibles, they've been around since 1985 and were reprinted as late as 2005. It's a lovely study Bible. Marcie