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Pride
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.
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