Love Is Not Proud Series

Ignorance may be bliss, but it is a fools paradise when others are in the know. General

Motors learned this the hard way back in the early 60's when they launched a campaign to

sell their new compact, the Chevy Nova, in Mexico. It was a flop, and the sale figures were

appalling. That is when their investigation discovered that Nova in Spanish means "No go."

History is filled with the blunders of big corporations who act first and think later. Back

in the 1950's the Pepsodent Corporation decided to export their toothpaste to Southeast

Asia. They took their success winning slogan from America with them. "You'll wonder

where the yellow went, when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent." When nearly nobody

was buying their product a vice-president was sent to investigate why. He discovered that the

people in Southeast Asia chewed Betel Nut like Americans chew gum, but Betel Nut is much

more expensive, and it stains the teeth. The stain teeth are a prized symbol of affluence.

There was little demand for a product that promised to eliminate this status symbol. It

would be the equivalent of trying to sell a product that would make gold look like copper.

Man, in his pride, is constantly trying to impose his ideas and values on others without

knowing the others and their needs. Love listens before it speaks. It is patient in striving to

understand the other. It is kind in seeking to meet the needs of the other. Non-love is just

the opposite. It comes to conclusions about the other based, not on the other, but on the self.

I think this is what is good for them, or bad for them. I think this is the way they should go,

and the way they should be. It does not ask what others feel, but operates on how the self

feels, and it seeks to impose those feelings on the other. Not only is this a disaster when

business does it, it is a tragedy when tyrannical governments do it to their people, and it is a

catastrophe when the church does it to people.

When Jesus came into the world He did not come in pride to dominate, and to have His

own needs met. He came in love to serve and meet the needs of others. He knew what those

needs were. People did not need more religious laws, and they did not need more religious

ritual. They did not need condemnation, what they needed was to know that God loved them

in spite of their sin. They needed to know God cared, and that He cared enough to find a

way out of the dilemma of a holy God relating to sinful man. They needed to know that God

had provided a way to forgive sin. They needed to know that God wanted them to have life,

and life abundant. No wonder the common people heard Jesus gladly, and flocked to be

near Him. He gave the sinner a sense of self-worth.

Pride does not do this, but love does. Pride seeks to take from others and not give. Pride

does not care to serve, but to be served. Pride is always self-centered, whereas love is always

others centered. This is why the people flocked to Jesus. They knew He loved them. This is

why they fled from the Pharisees, for they knew they loved only themselves, and they

thanked God that they were not as other men.

A test was given to 676 students at the University of Illinois. They found that the number

one characteristic that both males and females did not like about another student was

conceit. The person who thinks too highly of himself is the only one who turns everyone else

off. A sophomore said to a freshman said, "The trouble with you is that you are to conceited.

I use to be that way too, but now I'm the nicest guy on campus." His progress in overcoming

pride is very questionable.

People are constantly talking about finding themselves, but the Bible keeps telling us that

the self is not something you find. The self is something you create by the choices you make.

If you choose the path of pride, yourself is headed for the pits. If you choose the path of

love, yourself is headed for the peak. Being proud is the refusal to accept the truth that

without love you are nothing. Pride says I am something, and I am somebody on my own,

and independent of God and His love. It is the spirit of defiance that says I need nothing of

the image of God to be of worth.

Being loving goes the opposite way and says I am nothing without love. I am dependent

upon God for my self-worth. I only has worth because God made me in His image and gave