The Insanity of Pride

Pride. It’s ugly and detestable any way you cut it. And somehow pride has become a ‘good’ thing to people, even God’s people. According to the Bible, if we have pride, we do NOT have the love of God dwelling in us (I Jn. 2:15,16). And according to the Bible there is one thing certain regarding pride, and that is that it always precedes bad things: “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall” (Prov. 16:18). Just a couple more scriptural notes should confirm the point that is being made here: “He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their heart” (Lk. 1:51). And again, “But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble” (Jas. 4:6). Pride can slip in on someone in so many ways. There’s many forms of personal pride, whether intellect, money, beauty, talent, strength, size, position, youth, toughness, education, etc. Then there’s the expansion of pride from the personal level to things like family, nationality, school, team; and even gender, color, and other such nonsense. And of course, last but not least by any means, there is religious pride. But no matter how wide an expansion pride may take, it always comes back to the personal level, because in the end pride is always about ‘me,’ and about who or what ‘me’ is invested into. Oh yeah, let’s not forget that pride is very competitive in every way. It wants to be first, it wants to be best, and it wants to be recognized. And of course it always DESERVES to be so. So just exactly what is this wicked device that we call pride? It is the insanely conceived notion that one has anything, or IS anything, or can do or has done anything in and of one’s own self. The apostle Paul addressed it as such to the congregation in Corinth: “For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?” (I Cor. 4:7). The truth is that nobody has, or is, or can do anything except by the allowance and capacity that God gives them; and everyone should be constantly giving thanks to God for all things and in all things, as serves to good sense and reason. And there simply is no such thing as ‘deserving’ anything because all things that exist, exist by and through the goodness of God. Pride in fact is the blindest of all sins, and it is the polar opposite of the godly virtues of true thankfulness and humility.

I’ve heard many say things like someone is “proud to be a child of God.” Sounds real nice to the unlearned ear, but the truth is it is erroneous to think that way: “In that day shalt thou not be ashamed for all thy doings, wherein thou hast transgressed against me: for then I will take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride, and thou shalt no more be haughty because of my holy mountain” (Zeph. 3:11). It is a much better idea to be humble, thankful, and God-fearing about being a child of God (Isa. 66:1,2; Psm. 2:11; Rom. 11:20,21; Philip. 2:12). Go ahead, read the references that I don’t have time or space to just copy and paste. This is really is truth. Everyone who is “accounted worthy to obtain that [glory] world,” will have had all pride burned out of them by their humble compliance with the holy Spirit of God (Lk. 20:35; Rom. 6:6). The devil’s fall came by means of pride, and so it is no wonder that pride is his favorite tool with which he deceives man: “Thus saith the Lord God; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty… Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness” (Ezek. 28:12,17). You see, he decided that he was something in and of himself, and in so doing he left humility and the fear of God. Jesus made it very clear that his example should be heeded with godly fear: “And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven” (Lk. 10:17-20). In conclusion I will just allow another scriptural passage to nail this truth down really firm for us: “But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence” (I Cor. 1:27-29). Amen.