God's Warning About Pride

 

God has nothing positive to say about pride. All throughout His written and revealed Word, the Holy Spirit inspires the prophets, evangelists, and apostles to warn God's people against pride.

In America – and the really the world – pride has become a part of the nation’s fabric. We are told to take pride in our school: school pride – insert “mascot” followed by “pride” to get “Panther Pride,” “Tiger Pride,” etc. We are told to take pride in our children: “I am proud of my child’s grades.” We are told to take pride in each person’s skin color: “Asian Pride,” “Black Pride,” “White Pride,” etc. And all the more lately, the big business and many governments are promoting “Pride Month” to celebrate the sin of sexual immorality, in particular homosexuality and transgenderism, promoted by the gay agenda.

As the culture around us promotes “Pride” everywhere. God warns us against pride. Below are just a handful of times, for more open your Bible:

§ The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil.
Pride and arrogance and the way of evil
  and perverted speech I hate. (Proverbs 8:13)

§ When pride comes, then comes disgrace,
  but with the humble is wisdom. (Proverbs 11:2)

§ Pride goes before destruction,
  and a haughty spirit before a fall. (Proverbs 16:18)

§ [Jesus] called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (Mark 7:14-23)

§ This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. ² A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; ³ not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; ⁴ one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence ⁵ (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?); ⁶ not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. ⁷ Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. (1 Timothy 3:1-7, NKJV)

§ For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. (1 John 2:16)

In C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity, Lewis devotes an entire chapter to pride. Rightly, Lewis calls pride “the great sin.” He writes, “Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.”

Pride is, in fact, against God. Pride began when Satan thought he was equal to the triune God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). It was through pride that Satan first convinced Adam and Eve to turn against God in the Garden. The sin of pride is what initially separated Adam and Eve from God. Pride is evil and all it does is separate people from each other, and ultimately pride separates us from God.

Throughout Book Three, Chapter Eight of Mere Christianity, Lewis lays out that pride is the great sin and that all sin stems from pride:

§ “It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest.”

§ “Nearly all those evils in the world which people put down to greed or selfishness are really fare more the result of Pride.”

§ “Pride is competitive by its very nature: that is why it goes on and on.”

§ “The Christians are right: it is Pride which as been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began. Other vices may sometimes bring people together: you may find good fellowship and jokes and friendliness among drunken people or unchaste people. But pride always means enmity – it is enmity. And not only enmity between man and man, but enmity to God.”

§ “As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.”

§ "How is it that people who are quite obviously eaten up with Pride can say that they believe in God and appear to themselves very religious? I am afraid it means they are worshipping an imagery God.”

§ “For Pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense.”

Pride promotes that attitude that “I am better than you” and “I know more than you.” Pride is enmity. Among the sin of transgenderism, this is clearly seen as those who undergo genital mutilation and sex change who claim that they know themselves better than God created them. In reality, God creates everyone perfectly and in His image. God makes no mistakes. Again, the issue is pride: “I know myself better than anyone else, including God.” The Psalmist proclaims God’s miracle of creating humanity in His image with no mistakes:

For you formed my inward parts;
   you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
   my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
   intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
   the days that were formed for me,
   when as yet there were none of them (Psalm 139:13-16).

As the word “pride” has so infected the English language, Lewis offers us some substitutes to this great sinful word. Instead of saying “pride,” say “I am pleased.” For, “the child who is patted on the back for doing a lesson well, the woman whose beauty is praised by her lover, the saved soul to whom Christ says, ‘Well done,’ are pleased and ought to be.”

As Christians, we should not be falling into Satan’s trap in promoting the sinful word known as “pride.” Sadly, many Christians have fallen into Satan’s scheme as many “Christian” denominations are actively promoting “pride” in so many ways. As Lewis notes, when it comes to admiration, Christians are to take pleasure in those times, but we should not become full of pride, or promote pride.

Lewis concludes his chapter on “the great sin” as he writes: “If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realise that one is proud. And a biggest step, too. At least, nothing whatever can be done before it. If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed.”

As the common phrase says, “Whoever controls the language, controls the culture.” This is completely true. Today, Satan has his grips on the culture. It is time for Christians to be Christians and actually follow Jesus. We are all guilty. We are all poor, filthy, sinful beings. We all deserve temporal and eternal punishment for our sins. But even when in our sinful state, God the Father sent His only begotten Son Jesus Christ to bear our sin and be our Savior as Christ willingly suffered and died for our sins. And Christ did not remain dead in the tomb, for He rose for us and our justification.

Since Christ has died and rose for all of creation, for everyone in Christ, we are a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). Since we are in Christ, we are to be dead to sin and alive to God as slaves of righteousness.

The Apostle Paul writes:

    “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

   “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. …

   “What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

   “When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:1-5, 15-23).

So, let us all be Christ’s light in this dark world. We are not alone. As Christians, we have the Truth, for Christ is “the Way, and the Truth, and the life” (John 14:6). Yes, we have a long way to go. But remember, Satan is judged, and we know our salvation is certain in Christ Jesus. Let us all – in our various vocations – tell of Christ’s saving work in order to save some of them in enlarging God’s Kingdom.