Practices God Hates: Pride, Lying, and Division

Proverbs 6 names the personal practices God hates, and those practices cause defeated living instead of victorious living. Solomon puts a worthless and wicked person before the church: a perverse mouth, winking eyes, signaling feet, pointing fingers, an evil heart, and a life that keeps sowing discord. God warns that calamity can come suddenly, because sin does not stay small and harmless when it is practiced continually.

The highway of the upright calls God’s people to depart from evil, hold on to God’s Word, and say no even when friends are going in the wrong direction. Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit goes before a fall. Lucifer’s fall shows what happens when a creature tries to take God’s place and says, “I will.” God has the last say about every lifted-up heart, every hidden practice, and every person acting like a fool.

Christ’s love gives hope to people who have been wrong, messy, and even enemies of God. Christ reconciles sinners through His blood, preserves them through trouble, and keeps lifting them when the devil means to destroy them. God searches the heart, and the right response is, “Search me, Lord,” because God already knows every secret place. Circumstances that hurt and trouble the flesh can still be God at work, just as God worked through Job’s suffering to prove, strengthen, and preserve His servant.

The fruit of the Spirit stands against the sins Proverbs names. Humility answers pride because Christ, sovereign and supreme, condescended to walk among sinners. Truth answers the lying tongue because Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. God’s truth may sting for a little while, but it heals, transforms, and makes people free, while a lie cannot heal anybody.

A clean heart answers wicked imagination. David’s prayer, “Create in me a clean heart,” shows that sin stains the inner life and that only God can renew a right spirit. Jesus gives an inside makeover that lasts from now into eternity, unlike outward appearances that soon fade. God hates hands that shed innocent blood, hearts that scheme against people, angry spirits that stir up strife, and people who keep talking “he say, she say, they say.” Love, unity, peace, and good works rightly represent the God who searches every heart and rewards according to the fruit of every deed.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Pride always sets up a fall. Pride treats God’s glory as something a person can seize and control. Lucifer’s rebellion shows that self-exaltation is not strength but a refusal to remain under God’s authority. Humility begins when Christ, not the self, receives the glory. [36:36]
• 2. Truth heals what lies cannot heal. A lying tongue may protect an image for a moment, but it cannot transform a heart. Jesus identifies Himself as the truth, and His truth exposes what is wrong in order to make a person free. Truth may sting, but God uses it to heal and deliver. [48:40]
• 3. God works through unwanted circumstances. Trouble is not always proof that God has abandoned His people. Job’s life shows that God can set limits on the enemy while using painful circumstances to strengthen, straighten, and preserve His servant. God knows what His people need, even when they do not like what comes. [42:57]
• 4. The inside needs God’s makeover. Wicked plans begin in a heart that has not been surrendered to God. David’s cry for a clean heart reveals that outward improvement cannot cure inward corruption. Jesus changes people from the inside out, giving them a new spirit that lasts into eternity. [51:12]
• 5. God hates discord among believers. Discord is not merely a personality problem when it is sown through gossip, anger, falsehood, and contention. God calls His people to resist the spirit that keeps confusion alive and to sow love, unity, peace, and good works instead. A church rightly represents Christ when its relationships bear the fruit of His Spirit.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [31:10] - Proverbs 6:12-19 Read
• [32:38] - Personal Practices God Hates
• [33:52] - Solomon, Wisdom, and Wrong Choices
• [34:15] - Departing From Evil
• [35:19] - Pride Before Destruction
• [36:36] - Lucifer’s Pride and Fall
• [39:46] - God Knows Every Secret
• [41:28] - Search Me, Lord
• [42:57] - God at Work in Trouble
• [44:07] - Angry Spirits and Strife
• [45:37] - Sowing Love and Unity
• [48:40] - Truth Against a Lying Tongue
• [50:15] - God Preserves Life
• [51:12] - A Clean Heart and Inner Change
• [58:43] - Good Works and God’s Reward

Bible Reading

Proverbs 6:12-19
“A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech, winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, points with his finger, with perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord; therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly; in a moment he will be broken beyond healing. 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.” [31:10]

Proverbs 16:18
“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” [35:05]

Psalm 51:10
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” [51:40]

Isaiah 14:12-14
“How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’” [36:53]

John 14:6
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” [48:56]

John 8:32
“and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” [48:40]

Jeremiah 17:10
“I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.” [58:50]

Observation questions

1. In Proverbs 6:12-19, what body parts and inner attitudes are connected to the wicked person’s behavior? What does this reveal about how sin works its way from the heart into daily actions? [31:38]
2. Which seven practices does Proverbs say the Lord hates, and which of them especially affect relationships among God’s people?
3. What repeated “I will” statements are found in Isaiah 14:12-14? What do those statements show about Lucifer’s desire?
4. In Psalm 51:10, what two things does David ask God to create or renew in him? [51:30]

Interpretation questions

1. Proverbs 6 connects crooked speech, evil plans, running toward evil, false witness, and sowing discord. Why might God place discord among brothers in the same list as sins such as lying and shedding innocent blood? [45:37]
2. Proverbs 16:18 says pride comes before destruction. How does Lucifer’s fall show that pride is more than simply feeling good about oneself, but is a refusal to give God His rightful place? [36:36]
3. Jesus says that He is the truth and that truth sets people free. In what ways can truth hurt for a moment while still bringing healing and freedom that a lie cannot bring? [48:56]
4. David asks God for a clean heart, while Jeremiah says God searches the heart and rewards people according to the fruit of their deeds. Why must heart change come before lasting changes in speech, relationships, and actions? [51:40]

Application questions

1. Pride can show up quietly through needing the last word, refusing correction, comparing oneself to others, or taking credit that belongs to God. Where might pride be trying to take root in your life, and what would humility look like this week? [35:05]
2. God already knows every secret place in the heart, yet He welcomes His people to pray, “Search me, Lord.” Is there an attitude, habit, relationship, or private thought that you need to bring honestly before God? [41:34]
3. A lying tongue may seem to protect a person for a moment, but it cannot heal or transform anyone. Is there a truth you need to speak with love, a false image you need to stop maintaining, or a confession you need to make? [49:00]
4. God can work through circumstances that His people do not like, just as He worked in Job’s suffering. What difficult circumstance are you facing, and how might you ask God to strengthen, straighten, or preserve you through it rather than simply remove it? [42:57]
5. Discord often grows through anger, gossip, “he say, she say, they say,” and keeping arguments alive. In what setting—home, church, work, or online—are you most tempted to add to confusion? What could it look like to sow peace and unity instead? [46:55]
6. David did not ask for a better outward appearance; he asked for a clean heart and a right spirit. What would an “inside makeover” from Jesus need to touch in your life right now—your motives, imagination, anger, speech, or treatment of others? [52:22]
7. Jeremiah says God looks at the fruit of a person’s deeds. What good fruit would you like God to grow through your life in the coming week, especially in the way you treat people who are difficult to love? [58:50]