Some people, probably most people, and maybe all people have to
learn how to be humble the hard way, and that is the humpty
dumpty way of having a great fall. This was the case with Max
Eastman. A film was being made on the life of Christ, and he
happened to meet the well known woman photographer working on
that film, who was Alice Baughton. Shortly after this meeting he
received a note asking if he would consent to pose with Walter
Hampden, the man playing the role of Christ, in one of the miracle
scenes. He was so proud of getting such an offer after just a casual
meeting, that he could not help but brag. A thing like that couldn't
just happen, he must have something on the ball. He said to his
mother who was visiting at the time, "See what it is to be a beauty. I
just knock them cold at the first sight." When he returned from the
studio, however, his glow had turned to gloom. "What did you pose
for?" Was the eager question of the family. Meekly he replied, "The
corpse of Lazarus."
Lazarus was certainly not an unimportant role to play, even as a
corpse, but it hardly justified his boast of superior beauty. Had he
not opened his mouth, there could only be merit in getting any part
at all, but he did, and proved the saying true, "An ounce of vanity
spoils a hundred weight of merit." He thought too highly of himself.
He was like the man whose wife said to him as they left the party,
"Has anyone ever told you how marvelous you are?" "No, I don't
believe they have," he said. "Well then," she continued, "Where in
the world did you ever get the idea?"
The idea comes natural, for the one thing most all people have in
common is their loyal love of themselves. E. W. Howe said, "When a
man tries himself, the verdict is usually in his favor."
Subconsciously, if not consciously, all men tend to make themselves
the center of the universe. Each of us is, to a lesser or greater degree,
an I specialist. I read of a printing company that had to postpone the
publication of a Bishop's autobiography because they ran out of
capital I's. Pope wrote in his essay on man-
Ask for what end the heavenly bodies shine,
Earth for whose use, -Pride answers,-Tis for mine;
For me kind nature wakes her genial power,
Suckles each herb, and spreads out every flower;
Seas role to waft me, suns to light me rise;
My foot stool earth, my canopy the skies.
There is a touch of truth even in this self-centeredness, for man
alone was made by God with the capacity to appreciate and enjoy the
order and beauty of His creation, and man was given dominion over
creation. But man fell, like Satan, because of pride, and is now, as
Pascal put it, both the glory and the scum of the universe. He still
has some basis for pride, but so much more for humility and shame.
Abraham Lincoln's favorite hymn by William Knox put it this way-
Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?
Like a swift-flitting meteor, a fast-flying cloud,
A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave,
He passeth from life to his rest in the grave.
Man is in a strange predicament, caught between his own dignity
and depravity; his own worth, and his wickedness. The result is
another great paradox of life. Man's self-love is both an evil and a
good. It is both an essential for a happy life in God's will, and the
main cause for most evil that is out of God's will. Paul in this great
chapter on paradoxes deals with both sides of pride.
In verse 3, he deals with that kind of pride which makes a man
think himself to be something when he is nothing. In verse 4, he
deals with that kind of pride which is an honest recognition of one's
worth before God. The border line between these two is so close, and
so poorly defined, that one can every easily slip over into exhibiting
evil pride when he thinks he is being rightfully humble. This makes
pride a very dangerous area that Satan takes advantage of. Ruskin
said, "In general pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes!" This is
true of sin as well.
The Old Testament says so much about the evil and folly of pride
we cannot even begin to cover it. The New Testament is sufficient to
establish it as one of the worse evils of the human heart. Jesus lists it
as one of the major evils that proceed from the heart in Mark 7:22.
Paul lists it among the dominating depravities of the pagan world in
Rom. 1:30. He also lists it as one of the characteristics of men in the
last days. He writes in II Tim. 3:2, "For men will be lovers of self,
lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to parents,
ungrateful, unholy." Both Peter and James write that,
"God resisteth the proud but gives grace to the humble." Christians
are urged to avoid pride, and all her ugly sisters like conceit,
arrogance, and haughtiness. Paul says in Rom. 12:16, "Live in
harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the
lowly; never be conceited."
Pride among Christian is the greatest cause for lack of harmony,
and in our text Paul says, the brother or sister in Christ who is
proud, and thinks they are something when they are nothing,
deceives themselves. They do not fool anyone else, but they are
themselves blind to the fact that they are the problem, and are being
dupes of the devil to hinder the work of Christ. Paul says, something
can become nothing, or somebody can become nobody. Something
becomes nothing when it fails to fulfill the purpose for which it exists.
For example, you have all had an experience like this. Suppose my
son and I were walking along the road, and he picks up a broken
piece of metal, and asks me what it is. I look at it, and see that it is
from a machine of some kind, and is no longer able to serve the
function for which it was made, like a burned out fuse for example. I
therefore, say to him, "It is nothing, throw it away." Now we both
know it is something, for it exists, or he wouldn't have asked the
question, but by calling it nothing I meant it is worthless in fulfilling
its purpose, and so has no value whatever.
Jesus said, "When salt loses it power to be salty it is good for
nothing." It is still something, but as far as usefulness goes, it is
nothing. Something is nothing when it can no longer function for the
purpose of which it exists. You've all heard of the two boys who
were bragging, and the one son said, "My father is a doctor, I can be
sick for nothing." The other one responded, "Well, my father is a
minister, and I can be good for nothing." Paul is saying, that it is
literally possible for a Christian to be good for nothing. If a
Christian thinks he is too good to help another Christian lift their
burden, he has allowed pride to render him useless in fulfilling the
law of Christ, and so at that point he is nothing. He is still
something, or there would be no point of warning him of his danger,
but he is salt without flavor, and if he does not lose his sinful pride,
he will lose his usefulness as a Christian.
A Christian who cannot enter into the bearing of one another's
burdens because of pride is not able to fulfill a basic purpose in the
Christian life. He is about as valuable as a burned out fuse. Paul is
simply spelling out in a practical way the teaching of I Cor. 13. He
wrote there, that if he had the tongues of angels, and the gift of
prophecy, and great knowledge and wisdom, and faith to remove
mountains, and did not have love, he would be nothing. It is hard to
believe that so much somethings can equal absolutely nothing, but
this is what Paul clearly teaches. Without love a Christian can be
nothing, in the sense that he would be useless for the cause of Christ.
This is why pride is such a great danger to the believer, for it can
render him useless. In Psa. 62:9 David says, "...men of high estate
are a delusion, in the balances they go up; they are altogether lighter
than a breath." Paul goes even further, and says they are not only
lighter than air, they are nothing, but either way, the two testaments
agree, pride can make a man weightless, and unable to exert even an
ounce of weight on the scale for good.
The tragedy is that this is not just a hypothetical possibility, but is
an actual reality. This was the case with the lukewarm majority in
the church of Laodicea. In Rev. 3:17 Jesus says to these Christians
who are neither hot nor cold, "Because thou sayest, I am rich, and
increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest not
that thou are wretched, and miserable, and blind and naked." They
thought they were something when they were nothing. They
deceived themselves into thinking they needed nothing, but in reality,
they needed everything. Paul gives another example of this deception
of pride in I Tim. 6:3-4. "If anyone teaches otherwise and does not
agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the
teaching which accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit,
and knows nothing." Here is a man who thinks he is so wise he can
go beyond the words of Christ. He thinks he knows something, but
Paul says, what he knows is nothing.
Here is the paradox that runs all through the Bible. He who
exalts himself shall be brought low. The Tower of Babel is the great
symbol of human pride. When man seeks to climb to the sky, he ends
groveling in the dirt. When he seeks to go to heaven by
self-exaltation, he lands in hell. When he thinks himself to be
something, he is nothing. This passage is extremely relevant to all of
us. Obedience is vital to our very existence as useful Christians.
Bearing one another's burdens is not just a suggestion, it is a
demand-do it or else. Here is a law in the midst of grace. A
Christian who is not fulfilling the law of Christ is not fulfilling the
purpose for which he exists.
This can be hard, and especially when the burden is the result of sin.
These are the worst, for it is easy to get your hands dirty, and
even your soul, if you are not careful, as Paul warns. Paul knew
some Christians would be hesitant on this matter, and would not
want to risk spotting their lily white hands in pulling a fallen brother
out of the pit. He made his bed, let him lie in it, would be their
attitude. After all says the proud Christian, "I am something. I am a
leader in the church. I have a reputation of respectability in the
community. I can't get involved in helping some fool brother who
has gotten himself in a mess. What will people think of me? They
might think I approve of his sin, or that I help because I am guilty of
the same. I just can't risk the association and spoil my reputation."
This proud man's case is clear, and his concern for his self-image
is natural, but the Christian who wants to be used of God cannot
afford to be natural, for the paradox is, his very caution is his
greatest folly. In saving his reputation with men, he loses the favor of
God. He remain something before men, but he becomes nothing
before God. Paul wants us to see this folly, and never allow pride to
keep us from our duty to bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill
the law of Christ. A Christian who cannot risk his reputation to
rescue another Christian from the grasp of the enemy is as good as a
partner of the enemy, and so of no value in the cause of Christ.
Another paradoxical consequence of this is that when a Christian
becomes nothing because of pride, and is lighter than air, and has no
weight at all in the scale for good, he makes a heavy impact on the
scale for evil. When the love of Christ is absent in a follower of
Christ he becomes a useful tool in the hands of Satan.
Alexander Maclaren said, "Depend upon it, heresy has less power
to arrest the progress of the church than the selfish lives of Christian
professors." Nothing is so heavy, and such a drag on the church, as
lighter than air Christians, whose pride makes them useless for good.
These lighter than air Christians are paradoxically the heaviest
burden the church has to bear. God forbid that we be among these
spiritual naughts by being proud, loveless, and unconcerned about
the burdens of others. Let us also be aware of the subtlety of pride.
It is a two edged sword which cuts both ways. It hides on both sides
of the narrow way, and we can fall into its snare in the very act of
backing away.
For example, what is our attitude to those whom Paul calls
nothing? What of the proud loveless brother? Does he not
immediately become one of the fallen brothers who needs the help of
the spirit-led believer in order to be restored. In other words, this
something which has become nothing can also be restored back to
something, and become useful again in the cause of Christ. His pride
which kept him away from the pit lest he be stained, has plunged him
into even a muckier pit yet, up to his neck. He has fallen lower than
the brother he refused to help, but now he needs a hand, and if we
refuse him because he is unworthy of our help, we are only copying
his folly, and we will fall into the pit ourselves.
It is no advance on the Pharisee who said, "I thank God I am not
as other men, even this Publican," to say, "I thank God I am not as
other men, even this Pharisee." A Sunday School teacher after
teaching the lesson of the proud Pharisee said, "Let's bow now and
thank God we are not like this Pharisee." Pride is subtle, and it can
get you coming or going. It is present everywhere, and at all times.
One Puritan lamented that ridding ourselves of pride is like peeling
an onion, for every skin taken off there is another beneath. The first
step to victory over pride is to be aware that it is a clever foe, and the
battle will never cease while we are in the flesh. Second, we must
overcome evil with good. We must learn how to harness this
inescapable characteristic of human life for good. We need to use
this which can make us nothing before God, to make us something of
which we can be proud, and which God can use for the purpose for
which He made us. He made us to be something, and we cannot let
pride lead us to be nothing.
