Proverbs 21:4, in the New American Standard, tells us that “Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, is sin.” There has been some discussion about how to translate this verse. The King James Version translates it this way: “An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin.” We can at least see a connection between how these verses are interpreted and simply go on from there. A lamp gives the idea of a person shining it and following its light in whatever s/he does. Proverbs 6:23 says this: “For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light; And reproofs for discipline are the way of life.” The NAS would then tell us that haughty eyes and a proud heart make up what the wicked follow. All that the wicked person does is from what his or her haughty eyes and a proud heart guides the person to do. In that case the plowing of a person would be from the “light” of haughty eyes and a proud heart.
Since the proud heart follows the “wisdom” and desires of the proud heart, it is easy to see what the proud heart follows and does in all it does. All that the proud heart does is based on the proud heart. All that the proud heart thinks flows from that proud heart which is also guided by haughty eyes. But we know that “GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD” (James 4:6). It is a sinking feeling when the heart sees its own pride and realizes that God is opposed to it in all it does. The proud soul seeks self and what it thinks of as good for self in all it does. But God stands opposed to that and so the soul lives in utter vanity in what it does. Perhaps the soul gains a lot of wealth, but all of that is not good because God opposes the soul in terms of what it is truly good.
The proud heart and the haughty eyes are what determine the path of the wicked rather than the Word of God. Instead of the Word of God being “a lamp to my feet And a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105), the proud follow their own pride and face this: “You rebuke the arrogant, the cursed, Who wander from Your commandments” (Psalm 119:21). We can then see the battle that goes on with the proud and the arrogant. Their pride is at war with God and His Word. They follow the light of their own proud hearts and what their haughty eyes see and lust for rather than what the commands of God set out in His wisdom. The wicked do indeed plow the fields but it is in accordance to the dictates and desires of the proud heart. This is utterly wicked and we can see how doing even the most mundane things in life the wicked are opposed to God in all that they do.
The Greatest Commandment is to love God with all of the heart, soul, mind, and strength, but the proud love themselves and do all out of love for themselves. The heart of the proud is all about self and in its self-exaltation and puffing up of self it is in direct violation of the Greatest Commandment. The affections of the heart are toward self rather than God. When the affections of the heart are toward self rather than God, it is clear that both the desires and delights of the heart are for self and not God. Whatever desires and delights the heart may have toward God are only toward God in light of some perceived benefit to self. In all that this heart does it follows the desires and delights of the proud heart that is focused on self. When this heart is religious, it is religious for self. When this heart does anything outwardly good, it does that out of its proud heart and does it for self rather than love for God. This proud heart that is religious desires to see itself as good and wants the applause of others for doing what it thinks is good. When a preacher has a proud heart, the preaching is done from pride rather than love for God or the people that the church consists of. When the elders are proud, even if they have a show of humility, all that they do is done from the light of a proud heart rather than the Word of God. All that the leaders and people in the church do if they are not truly humble is done from a proud heart and is wandering from the commandments of God. The very preaching, worship, prayer, and good works of professing churches are done from proud hearts and haughty eyes. This means that all of those things are done in violation of the commands of God.
This should give all a sense of the great need to humble self and seek the Lord for true humility. Pride in the heart means that all that is done in the outward keeping of the commands of God in reality is done in violation of the His commandments. How our souls must ask God to have mercy on us to show us if we are following our proud hearts which blind us to the real state of them. We must ask God to have mercy on us and give us true light that exposes the blinding nature of pride. Our pride does not want to see these things and actually hides the true state of our hearts by making us think our works have merit in them. We can be deceived by our own orthodoxy and faithful church attendance and activity. We can be deceived if we are nice and think we have real love. We can be deceived by our outward morality and our forced inward morality into thinking we have true holiness. Pride is such a vile beast it blinds us to all that is truly good and leads us in the path of what is truly evil.
God Loves... Himself 
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