One of the things we humans must constantly fight is pride.
The late Jim Reeves had a hit country song, Pride Goes Before a Fall,
some forty years ago. In it he asks, “Ain’t it funny how pride goes
before a fall?”
About the same time, pop singer Vic Dana had a song called Proud,
in which the guy couldn’t admit he was wrong. Because of his pride he
drove his girlfriend away and lamented, “Now I’m just a proud and lonely
guy.”
Jim Reeves’ line is actually found in Proverbs 16:18:
Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
Pride feels good. It makes us think we’re something special, that we’re
really something to behold. And a proud person is tempted to think he can
rest on his laurels. With that attitude, he doesn’t feel the need to keep
moving forward but, rather, he can sit back and loll in lethargy, smug in
what he has accomplished.
The best growth, though, is obtained by those who are “hungry” and
zealous. Smugly resting on our laurels won’t shape that
progress--spiritual or otherwise.
Pride is one of the sins that will prevail in the last days, according to
2 Timothy 3:
1But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:
2For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money,
boasters, proud, blasphemers.
Proverbs 11:2 contrasts pride with its antonym: “When pride comes, then
comes dishonor, but with the humble is wisdom” (New American Standard
Bible). Wisdom will help keep us from dishonor, and the humble have it.
And these sentiments are echoed in Proverbs 18:12:
Before destruction the heart of a man is haughty, and before honor is
humility.
Proverbs 29:23 says, “A man’s pride will bring him low, but a humble
spirit will obtain honor” (NASB). Indeed, “God is opposed to the proud,
but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6).
Pride was the problem of the rich farmer in Luke 12:15-21, and God made
him pay for it--with his life! The farmer became proud of his
accomplishments and rested on his laurels (verse 19)--but God wants His
people to bear fruit, spiritually (verse 21), and keep producing
(Mark 4:20; Luke 8:4-21; John 15:16).
This parable is about covetousness or greed, but it is also about a man
who became satisfied with the fruit of his own endeavor and didn’t see the
need to keep producing and be “rich” in his relation to God.
In John 15:1-6 we find that to abide in Christ means to bear fruit--and if
one is not producing fruit, he is not truly abiding in Him (verse 5)--and
the withered branches are cast into the fire and burned. Tooting one’s
own horn with a false sense of pride, then, could mean that “there will be
hell to pay.”
We cannot keep producing if we are lulled into lethargy through
pride. “You have not chosen Me but I have chosen you--I have appointed
you, I have planted you--that you might bear fruit and keep on bearing;
that your fruit may be lasting (that it may remain, abide)” (John 15:16,
Amplified Bible).
To further illustrate the danger of pride, let’s take another “life and
death” example--this time relative to the word “believe,” as found in Acts
16:31. Here is what the Introduction to the Amplified Bible says:
Let us take the sentence, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt
be saved” (Acts 16:31). What does the word “believe” mean? It is
extremely important, for multitudes are pinning their hope of heaven upon
it. Yet that word long since ceased to convey, if it ever did, the sense
of the original.
Webster’s long definition of “believe” includes such synonymous
expressions as, “to place credence, apart from personal knowledge; to
expect or hope; to be more or less firmly persuaded of the truth of
anything, to think or suppose.”
In this sense, most people believe in Christ--that He lived; that He was a
perfect man Who sincerely believed Himself to be the Son of God, and that
He died on the cross hoping to save sinners. But this is by no means the
meaning of the Greek word.
The Greek word is “pisteuo.” and means, “To adhere to, cleave to;
to trust, to have faith in; to rely on”--which summed up in, “Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved,” means an absolute personal
reliance upon the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.
This personal reliance upon the Lord would translate into absolute
obedience to Him (Mt. 7:21, Luke 6:46, John 14:15 and 15:10, Gal. 6:2),
and this would dramatically demonstrate much more than merely “believing
on” or “accepting” the fact that He exists and died for us.
But we could ask some questions here: If one suffers from cocky pride and
feels self-assured of his own sufficiency--will he really be inclined to
adhere to, cleave to, trust and rely on Him with that “absolute personal
reliance upon the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior”? Or would he not, rather,
be inclined to gloat over his own accomplishments and believe he doesn’t
really need our Lord?
If that pride took the place of God and knocked Him out of the equation,
would not that be something akin to idolatry--anything that takes the
place of God or diminishes His lordship and authority over our lives?
In verse15 of Luke 12 our Lord warned against greed or covetousness, and
covetousness is actually idolatry (Col. 3:5). The greedy or covetous
person longs for things that should not be his and, in fact, puts material
possessions or other things ahead of God--or in place of Him.
The proud person, too, smugly thinks he does not need God. He thinks his
accomplishments can take God’s place. No wonder God so hates pride. It
leaves Him out of the picture. As such, pride, too, becomes a form of
idolatry.
Here is what the Life Application Study Bible says about Jeremiah
48:29-30:
Moab was condemned for its pride. God cannot tolerate pride because pride
is taking personal credit for what God has done or looking down on
others. God does not condemn our taking satisfaction in what we do
(Ecclesiastes 3:22), but he stands against overestimates of our own
importance. Romans 12:3 teaches us to have an honest estimate of
ourselves.
On Jeremiah 49:16, the Life Application Study Bible says this:
Pride destroys individuals as well as nations. It makes us think we can
take care of ourselves without God’s help. Even serving God and others
can lead us into pride. Take inventory of your life and service for God;
ask God to point out and remove any pride you may be harboring.
And on Jeremiah 50:31-32, the Life Application Study Bible says:
Pride (arrogance) was Babylon’s characteristic sin. Pride comes from
feeling self-sufficient or believing that we don’t need God. Proud
nations or persons, however, will eventually fail because they refuse to
recognize God as the ultimate power…………….. Getting rid of pride is not
easy, but we can admit that it often rules us and ask God to forgive us
and help us overcome it. The best antidote to pride is to focus our
attention on the greatness and goodness of God.
Even Job was guilty of this kind of foolish pride--but he also repented in
dust and ashes for this haughty attitude, admitting he was vile and
insignificant, and once more set his focus on God’s greatness (Job
40:1-4 and 42:1-6). For better understanding, here is Job 42:1-6 from the
Amplified Bible:
Then Job said to the Lord, “I know that You can do all things and
that no thought or purpose of Yours can be restrained or thwarted.
[You said to me] ‘Who is this that darkens and obscures counsel [by words]
without knowledge?’ Therefore [I now see] I have [rashly] uttered what I
did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
“[I had virtually said to You what You have said to me:] ‘Hear, I beseech
You, and I will speak; I will demand of You, and You declare to me.’ I
had heard of You [only] by the hearing of the ear; but now my [spiritual]
eye sees You. Therefore I loathe [my words] and abhor myself, and repent
in dust and ashes.”
Job came to his senses and repented when his blunder was pointed out to
him. We must do likewise as we strive to eliminate stubborn, foolish
pride from our lives and make God our primary concern.
We have seen that humility (as opposed to foolish pride) precedes the
acquisition of true honor, and the humble have wisdom (Prov. 11:2 and
18:12). And we know that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of
wisdom” (Ps. 111:10, Prov. 9:10). With this wisdom guiding us, then--and
God, too--we will not think more highly of ourselves than we ought.
Also in connection with obtaining this wisdom, the Amplified Bible has
this to say in Proverbs 15:33:
The reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord brings instruction in Wisdom,
and humility comes before honor.
Those are words to live by.
