Pride
We all have at various times have been dominated by pride. No matter how much we try we get into that someway. What is pride?
The Webster English Dictionary defines “pride” as: Inordinate self-esteem; an unreasonable conceit of one’s own superiority in talents, beauty, wealth, accomplishments, rank or elevation in office, which manifests itself in lofty airs, distance, reserve, and often in contempt of others.
Hence pride is something about ‘self’. It’s something about ‘selfishness’ and ‘self-centeredness. Let’s see what the scripture says about pride. “These six things doth the LORD hate: yes, seven are an abomination to him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood. A heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that are swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and him that soweth discord among brethren.” (Prov 6.16-19) What is the 1st thing in question here? “A proud look.” It is a proud look that the LORD hates primarily. “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loveth the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.” Pride is not from the Father, it’s not His nature to be proud. Hence He hates pride. James 4.6 says “God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble.” The Greek word ‘antitassomai’ carries an idea of enmity with it. God loves us but there is something in us that He doesn’t likes. What is that? Pride! God doesn’t likes to see pride in us. If anyone is proud he sets himself against God. He naturally becomes an enemy of God. His life and actions become resistant and displeasing to Him. Most importantly when you are proud you lose out God’s grace on your life which He would love to give all the humble because ‘He gives grace to the humble.’
Again it is worth noting that ‘pride’ is different than ‘self-esteem’. We have self-esteem – meaning a good opinion of one. One of the commandments is that “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” (Matt 22.39) Implicit in this verse is that we have to love one. Paul says in Ephesians 5.29 “no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it.” Jesus said “ye are of more value than many sparrows.” Matt 10.31
All these verses points to this – we have to love and esteem our selves. That is nothing wrong in this. Pride comes when we start to over evaluate ourselves. For example: someone praises you for a good job done. You have to feel good about yourself and thank the person. (If you don’t do that it is ingratitude. In that you are denying the persons favor towards you) In that you do not do anything wrong since you are happy with the praise you have. But if you start think about something in you that makes you special then and you should have the same praise each and every time then you enter into pride zone. You think that you are the only one who could do that. If at other time someone else is praised for the same job you would get angry because you have not received the same. That is over evaluation of you. You always want yourself to be 1st. That is pride! Pride says that you should always be ‘no 1’ each and every time. We will see that in many ways.
No. 1 in Wisdom!
Genesis 3.1-6
“Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made: and he said to the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said to the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know, that in the day ye eat of it, then your eyes shall be opened: and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise; she took of its fruit, and ate, and gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.”
Two points emerges from this story. First - what was Eve’s temptation consists of? It was pride through lust for wisdom. To become like God! It was pride that brought in sin and rebellion against God. Pride is one of the constituent of ‘the original sin’. It made her think that she can make her own decisions and doesn’t need the counsel that Lord has given her. She leaned onto her own understanding because she thought that she knew better. That was because pride had entered her. And what was the result? The great ‘Fall of Man’! Proverbs 16:18 says “Pride goeth before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.” Mankind has fallen apart from God because of pride. It is both a physical and spiritual destruction. Nothing in history has been worse than that! Even now pride can ruin your life if it is kept unchecked. Second – the enemy can allow growing in knowledge of the Lord while keeping you unaware that you are being elevated because of your pride. Eve tried to become wise at the cost of lowering God. That cannot happen! A man who always looks upward is ought to fall being unaware that there may be ditch on the way!
No. 1 in Power!
Genesis 4:1-12
“ And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bore Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. And she again bore his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering to the LORD. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect to Abel, and to his offering: But to Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the LORD said to Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And to thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him. And the LORD said to Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper? And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth to me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand; When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield to thee its strength: A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.”
There are some people who always want to dominate. They always want to look down upon others. They are seldom submissive and will never accept their defeat. This story makes it clear that pride doesn’t wants you to face defeat. You will think that you are invincible. You cannot fail. No one can overtake you. Pride will prompt you to keep a check that you are always dominating. This happens in family, work and church.
Power is good if used for the good of others. Proverbs 3:27 “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, When it is in the power of thy hand to do it.” But power can be abused for your own end also. The lust of power is what invokes pride in you. You cannot see yourself fail. You cannot accept your own mistake. The same happened with Cain. He wanted to be no. 1 and when he failed to do so he was jealous of Abel and killed him. This is first murder in history of mankind. It was because of pride. The pride that entered through Adam and Eve was now bearing fruits in the lives of Cain. We see an even more explicit display of pride a few chapters ahead in Genesis 11.1-8 “And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, come, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, come, let us build us a city, and a tower, whose top may reach to heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we should be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men were building. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Come, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.”
No 1 in Preference!
Matthew 20:1-16
“For the kingdom of heaven is like to a man that is a householder, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the market-place, And said to them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatever is right, I will give you. And they departed. Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith to them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? They say to him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith to them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatever is right, that shall ye receive. So when evening was come, the lord of the vineyard saith to his steward, Call the laborers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last to the first. And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first came, they supposed that they should receive more; and they likewise received every man a penny. And when they had received it, they murmured against the master of the house. Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal to us, who have borne the burden and heat of the day. But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst thou not agree with me for a penny? Take that which is thine, and depart: I will give to this last, even as to thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with my own? is thy eye evil because I am good? So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many are called, but few chosen.”
There are some people who think that they are better than others because they can do things well. Because of their knowledge, wisdom and skills they often want that others favor them. They cannot see someone else praised or preferred over you. This happened with the workers who toiled the whole day. They were jealous other workers who worked late yet were counted worthy of full day’s labor. You see pride doesn’t want others to excel. But Paul says in Philippians 2:3 “Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.”
Encountering Pride!
We will always find pride in us and in others throughout since we are sinful by nature. However we have to learn to encounter pride. As we have seen pride will always keep you away from God’s grace. Proverbs 29:23 says “A man’s pride shall bring him low; But he that is of a lowly spirit shall obtain honor.” We have to remember that as long as we are in pride we cannot grow in grace of God. We have also seen that entrance of pride is very subtle as in the case of Eve where enemy can allow you to grow in knowledge while keeping you away from grace thus violating the Peter’s statement “Grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord.” Hence it requires on our part how we handle pride in ourselves and others when we realize that. However realization should not be so late that by then we have made enough damage to us and others.
First – whenever we see that we are about behave in pride or others are doing so we have to think of the work of our Lord and Savior Jesus. He is the example and epitome of humility. We can only encounter pride with humility. Pride cannot be handled with pride. If we try to do that the result would be chaos and war. Proverbs 15:1 says “A soft answer turneth away wrath; But a grievous word stirreth up anger.” James 4:1 says “Whence come wars and whence come fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your pleasures that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and covet, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war; ye have not, because ye ask not.” Whenever you see pride you have to show humility. The same we have to do when we see it in others. It is only by humility that you can overcome pride. Our Lord did it in the same way. See what Paul says in Philippians 2:3 “Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” We were proud in our sin and rebellious against God. What would have happened if God also took the same way? We would not have received salvation for our souls chosen for eternal life. It’s only because God humbled himself to point of death on the cross so that we can be saved. It was God who took the initiative from His side to save us. If you have to show humility you have to take initiative. You will find scores of people with pride but you will have to take the initiative to patch up rather than react in a vituperative way.
Second – we have to cultivate love – the godly ‘agape’ love. The love that doesn’t finds reason for loving. The love that is unconditional. We all know the love is a fruit of the Spirit; so is humility. Hence we have to cultivate love through humility. In the classic chapter of love Paul underscores several characteristics of godly love. Co 13:4-8 “Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil; rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Love never faileth.”
Lets see what does these mean –
Suffers long – is patient; Kind – show oneself useful to other; Envieth not – doesnot have burning rejection or hatred; Vaunteth not – does not extol oneself; Puffed up not – does not swell in pride; Behave not unseemly – doesn’t behave rudely; Seeketh not its own – unselfish; Provoketh not – not short temper or get irritated; Thinketh no evil – from kakos – thinking bad and destructive about other or rejoicing in same.
Let’s pray that God gives us an understanding and humble heart in handling pride in us and when we see in others.
