1. 1 Peter 5:5 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

What does the word “proud” mean?

1 Peter 5:5 (ESV)

5 Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

The term Peter uses appears in the Old Testament to render such Hebrew terms as scornful, haughty, insolent. Persons with this mindset think of themselves as self-sufficient and hence not needing God—and indeed big enough to go toe-to-toe with God. It’s the attitude Pharaoh displayed (Exodus 5:2). In the plagues that followed the Lord scorned the scornful (as the Hebrew of Proverbs 3:34 has it) and destroyed Pharaoh’s pride.