God’s Answer for Pride: Swallow It
--Proverbs 16:18
--James 4:5-10
--Luke 18:9-14
In Shakespeare’s satiric tragedy on the Trojan War Troilus and Cressida the Greek General Agamemnon conjectures:
He that is proud eats up himself;
Pride is his own glass, his own trumpet, his own chronicle. . .
[--Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, Act II, Scene 3, ll. 166-167.]
Pride sounds its own praise, not only in the Agamemnon’s trumpet call, but in the mirror and in the newspaper. Pride destroys its own accomplishments by self praise.
“Pride is such a subtle thing. I usually don’t recognize it in my life. In his classic book Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis has a chapter called, ‘The Greatest Sin in the World.’ With his characteristic insight and clarity, Lewis demonstrates that pride is that ‘greatest sin.’ He writes this incredible chapter that defines the right kind of pride (‘I’m proud of my son.’) and the wrong kind of pride (‘I have to be the best. I have to be number one.’). And after discussing all the subtle nuances and ins and outs of pride, Lewis ends the chapter by stating, ‘If you have read this and you’re convinced that this does not apply to you, then it certainly does apply to you.’ Whoa!”
[--Steve Farrar, Finishing Strong (Questar Publishing, 1995), p. 108.].
Shakespeare and Lewis echo the warning of King Solomon in Proverbs 16:18:
“Pride goes before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
There are two kinds of pride—one that is healthy and good; another that is unhealthy and sinful. Oftentimes positive pride refers to a healthy sense of “self-esteem” or “self-respect.” Negative pride is a spirit of “haughtiness.” Someone has said, “A haughty person signals his pride like a flashing red light at an intersection. He displays how ‘great’ he is by his walk, his talk, and his mannerisms. English clergyman Caleb C. Colton remarked, ‘Pride, like the magnet, constantly points to one object: self. Unlike the magnet, it has no attracting pole, but at all points it repels.’”
[--Bible Illustrator Deluxe for Windows 3.0. Omaha, Nebraska, FindEx, Inc.
“Pride: Warnings Against,” Index: 1722.].
It is this later meaning in which Solomon, Shakespeare, and Lewis
use the term pride, and in this sense pride is the root cause of all sin. Billy Graham reminds us, “The first, and worst, of the seven deadly sins is pride. It may be spiritual, intellectual, material, or social. The most repugnant of these four is spiritual pride. This pride of the spirit was the sin that caused Lucifer, the devil to fall. This is where sin actually began.” [Flint, Cort R. and others, editors, The Quotable Billy Graham. Anderson, NC: Droke House Publishers,
1966.].
Sinful pride is an “excessive love for one’s own self.” It is
“thinking that I am better than I really am.” Pride wants human applause and is frustrated when it does not receive enough praise from others.
The pride which goes before destruction is a spirit of arrogance, a spirit of haughtiness. It is an uncalled for spirit of self-importance. It is a spirit of aloofness, an attitude scornful towards others because I consider them “beneath me in dignity.”
In Romans 1:18-31 Paul explains the spirit of wickedness that has prevailed in the world since Adam and Eve led the human race into sin. In Romans 1:30 he defines the attitude of pride as an “insolent spirit.” An insolent spirit is a boastful spirit; it is an “over-bearing” spirit that mistreats and insults others. The pride that goes before destruction is that “boastful spirit” which makes more of one’s self or his accomplishments than is warranted by the facts.
Both the Old and New Testaments condemn arrogant, haughty pride. Another warning of Solomon is found in Proverbs 16:5:
“All those who are arrogant are an abomination to the LORD;
be assured, they will not go unpunished.”
Pride is an “abomination to the Lord.” God abhors a proud spirit; it
Disgusts Him. An abomination makes a person sick. A proud, haughty, arrogant attitude makes God sick.
Let’s recall our text one more time from Proverbs 16:18:
“Pride goes before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
Hebrew poetry is written in a rhythmic pattern called parallelism.
This means that two lines of poetry repeat a similar thought
in different words. Pride in line one and haughty in line two are similar
terms for the same spirit. The Hebrew word for pride literally means “to
mount up” or “to be puffed up.” In modern day terminology it means “to
have a swelled head.” “Haughty” in Hebrew means “aloofness.” Both lines
give us the same warning: “a swelled head,” “an aloof” spirit leads to one’s destruction, fall, and ruin.
Such pride brought about Satan’s Fall. It was his “swelled
head,” his “puffed up spirit” that led him to rise up in rebellion against God.
There is no better picture of the devil’s swelled head, arrogance, haughtiness, and pride than that of Isaiah 14:13-15:
You said in your heart,
“I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
on the heights of Zaphon;£
14 I will ascend to the tops of the clouds,
I will make myself like the Most High.”
15 But you are brought down to Sheol,
to the depths of the Pit.
A proud, haughty spirit brought Satan’s destruction.
This same spirit of pride is displayed in the prayer of the Pharisee in
Luke 18, and you and I have known people just like him around today.
Remember his arrogance and pride: “Lord, I thank you that I am not
like other people—swindlers, unjust, adulterers, and especially not
like this despised tax-collector. I’m so much better than all these miserable
folks. Lord, I fast twice every week and give You tithes of all that I get.
“Why, God, look how good I am.”
Who received grace in the eyes of the Lord? The tax-
collector came to God in true humility as Jesus tells clearly tells us,
“But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even
look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful
to me, a sinner.’” Then Jesus sums it all up in Luke 18:14, “I tell you, this
man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who
exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be
exalted!”
Three times—Proverbs 3:34; James 4:6; and I Peter 5:5—Scripture
declares:
“God opposes the proud,
but gives grace to the humble.”
God’s cure for pride is a humble, Christlike spirit as Jesus portrays in the story of the Pharisee and the publican. After Peter repeats: “God opposes
The proud, but gives grace to the humble,” he goes on in I Peter 5:6 to command us, “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time.” God is the one who has the authority and the right to exalt us, not we ourselves.
God’s answer to pride is for us to humbly “swallow it” in submission to Him. James too, quotes the text, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble in James 4:6, but he follows that verse with James 4:7,
“Submit yourselves therefore to God.” Submit is a military term, literally meaning to “rank under.” A Colonel submits or ranks under a General; a Major submits or ranks under a Colonel and on it goes. The form used in James 4:6 literally means “obey.” We overcome false pride by obeying God in the same fashion that all other military officers and enlisted personnel obey their General.
As we obey the Holy Spirit in this matter of pride, we do well to follow two commandments and examples of the Apostle Paul. In I Corinthians 1:31 he cautions us: “Let the one who boasts, boast in£ the Lord.” Paul did not ask anyone to do what he himself did not practice and preach by the power of the Holy Spirit as the best possible example. In Galatians 6:14-16 he testifies: “May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which£ the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15For£ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything! 16As for those who will follow this rule—peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.”
The One in whom we should show pride--the One to whom belongs all the glory, praise, and boasting--is our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It’s all about Him, and not about us. As we boast in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, we come and continue to live in His peace and mercy.
Former University of Colorado football coach and founder of Promise Keepers Bill McCartney shares a touching testimony how he learned a valuable lesson in battling this problem of false pride in this book Sold Out: “Recently I spoke at a large arena. The moment I stepped off the stage, I began asking friends and associates how I’d done. There were high fives, back slaps, encouraging compliments to the effect that I’d ‘hit a home run.’ I went back to the hotel quite pleased with myself.
“The next morning, early, I went to my knees. God wasn’t to be found. I asked, ‘Lord, where are You? I rose early to meet with You. I spoke of Your wonder and glory last night. I praised You with all of my heart. I thought You would be pleased. What have I done? Where are You?’
“In that very instant, I sensed God was asking me a direct question: ‘Last night, when you finished your message, why didn’t you ask Me how you did? You came to Me for anointing to speak, but you went to your friends seeking their opinions. Why did you not see Mine first?’
“It broke my heart to hear it. But it was true. I’d spent weeks seeking God’s heart for that message. And it was a home run; the power of the Holy Spirit fell upon that arena—not because of anything I said, but because God showed up. And yet I didn’t seek God’s affirmation first. I sought the approval of men. I confessed my sin and repented. Immediately God’s sweetness returned. It shocked me into seeing that the only One I’ve ever needed to please is God.” [--Leadership, Vol. 20, no. 1.].
The late Dr. Donald Gray Barnhouse, longtime pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia wrote, “Christ sends none away empty but those who are full of themselves.” [--Donald Gray Barnhouse in
Revelation. Leadership, Vol. 1, no. 2.]. Solomon’s wisdom is an eternal truth:
“Pride goes before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
May the blood of Jesus cleanse us all from the spirit of false, haughty, self centered pride. May each one of us always make our prayer that of the Apostle Paul: “May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which£ the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” May this not only be our personal, daily prayer; but by the power of the Holy Spirit may that always be the daily, vital testimony of the lives we live.
