Pride

PRIDE

“God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” (1 Peter 5:5)

God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). The love of God is beyond our understanding. He loves the lost and even sent His Son Jesus to provide salvation for all who believe (John 3:16). It is His love for man, His compassion for the human race, that prompts God to hate sin with such a vengeance. He gave Heaven’s finest that we might have the best; and He loathes with a holy abhorrence anything that would hinder us from being reconciled to Him(Billy Graham). God hates certain things; He hates things that bring His children pain. There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community (Proverbs 6:16-19).

God hates a proud look. Remember how Nebuchadnezzar had to eat grass like an ox because he spoke with a haughty tongue? Wherever God sees pride lifting itself on high, He resolves to level it in the dust. He draws his bow, he fits his arrow to the string, and pride is the target that he shoots at. The more pride enters into the Christian’s heart the less grace will enter there, and the more opposition from God will come there; for pride is never so hateful to God as when he sees it in his own people. (Charles Spurgeon)

God’s loathing of pride is unalterable, for “Everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord” (Prov.16:5). The Bible says, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). It says, “those who walk in pride He is able to put down” (Daniel 4:37). “Behold, I am against you, O most haughty one!” (Jeremiah 50:31). God resists the proud, but gives grace unto the humble (James 4:6).

Pride was man’s first sin and it will be his last. In the first sin that man ever committed, there was certainly a large mixture of pride, for he imagined that he knew better than his Maker–and even dreamed that his Maker feared that man might grow too great! This sin of pride is often forgotten; and many persons do not even think it is a sin at all. Here is a man who says that he is absolutely perfect. Does he know what the sin of pride really is? Hunt among the highest and loftiest in the world, and you shall find it there; and then go and search among the poorest and the most miserable, and you shall find it there. Pride is a strange creature; it never objects to its lodgings. It will live comfortably enough in a palace, and it will live equally at its ease in a hovel.

Pride was the first sin to destroy the calm of eternity. It was pride that cast Lucifer from heaven and it was pride that cost our first parents their place in Paradise. Pride is the first sin to enter a man’s heart and the last to leave. No sin is more offensive to God than the sin of pride. Pride has been referred to as the “complete anti-God state of mind.” It militates against God’s authority, God’s law, and God’s rule. This is why the Bible equates rebellion with witchcraft (1 Sam.15:23). Pride assaults God’s throne and asserts its independence in an attempt to dislodge God as the Sovereign of the universe.

Pride, the first-born son of hell, unclean and vile, is a ringleader and captain among iniquities, daring and God-defying sin. It has nothing lovely in it. Pride exalts it head, and seeks to honor itself; but it is of all things most despised. Pride wins no crown; men never honor it, not even the menial slaves of earth; for all men look down on the proud man, and think him less than themselves.

It is easy enough for a man to become proud of his possessions. Another man, with no possessions, is proud of his bodily strength; he is very strong, let anybody wrestle with him, and he shall see the spirit of Samson in him. He is proud of his strength of muscle and sinew and bone. Another man is proud of his talent. If he has not acquired any wealth by it, yet he ought to have done so. If the world has not yet recognized him as a genius, he has recognized himself most distinctly. He is a very first-class man in his own line of things; you can’t imagine listening to how he boasts of what he has learned! We have known others boast of their character too.