Intro

I’ve been noticing lately how society seems to be growing more opinionated, and less tolerant of the views of others.  It seems to me that pride is at the root of this behavior, so I thought I would make this week’s post about pride vs. humility.

Scripture and Commentary

We’ll start out with what the Bible has to say about pride.  For the sake of simplicity, I have grouped the Scriptures into 4 groupings.  We’ll call them the 4 perils of pride.

1. Peril #1: Pride crowds out God in our lives

Psalm 10:4-6

4 In his pride the wicked man does not seek him;  in all his thoughts there is no room for God.
5 His ways are always prosperous;  your laws are rejected by[b] him;  he sneers at all his enemies.  6 He says to himself, “Nothing will ever shake me.”  He swears, “No one will ever do me harm.”

Pride is essentially mentally congratulating oneself, bestowing on ourselves the glory and thankfulness that should rightfully belong to God.  By cheating the Lord of the praise for His blessings we set ourselves up for Peril #2.

2. Peril #2: Pride goeth before destruction

Proverbs 16:18-19

18 Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.  19 Better to be lowly in spirit along with the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud.

Proverbs 11:2

2 When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.

Job 33:14-18

¹4 For God does speak—now one way, now another— though no one perceives it.  15 In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they slumber in their beds, 16 he may speak in their ears and terrify them with warnings, 17 to turn them from wrongdoing and keep them from pride, 18 to preserve them from the pit, their lives from perishing by the sword.

God will deal with the pride in our lives, as He must.  This may come about via a warning, as described in the passage from Job.  Or if we are hard-hearted (or big-headed) it may come about a painful and humiliating setback.  This is for our own benefit, to save us from Peril #3.

Peril #3: Pride leads us into sinning against God

Ezekiel 28:17

17 Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom
because of your splendor. So, I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings.

1 John 2:15-17

15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

Proverbs 8:13

13 To fear the Lord is to hate evil:  I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.

Ezekiel tells us that Lucifer’s fall was precipitated by pride, even though he was blameless in all his ways beforehand.  How much more will we be led into sin by pride with our mortal and sinful natures!  John tells us that pride ranks along with lust and material greed in causing us to turn from the things of God.  And Proverbs 8 reiterates that pride and arrogance indicate a lack of respect for the Lord.

Peril #4: Pride causes us to sin against one another

Proverbs 13:10

10 Where there is strife, there is pride, but wisdom is found in those who take advice.

Proverbs 14:3

3 A fool’s mouth lashes out with pride, but the lips of the wise protect them.

Ecclesiastes 7:8-9

8 The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride.
9 Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools.

How often do we let our pride do the talking for us, and how much better off we would be if we didn’t!  Recall from past posts that the Lord instructs us to avoid strife and contention with our fellow man, and to reflect His love.  We can only do this when we are not speaking from a place of pride.

Now we know about the perils of pride, so we can turn our attention to the benefits of humility.  I’ll call these the 3 honors of humility.

Honor #1: God protects the humble

Zephaniah 2:3

3 Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, you who do what he commands.
Seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the Lord’s anger.

2 Samuel 22:28

You save the humble, but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them low.

 God has promised His protection for those that are humble before Him, in thankfulness giving Him the glory rather than boasting in their own strength.

Honor #2: Humility helps us to follow the Great Commandment to love others, reflecting the image of God as He intends, and being a unified example of Christ

 Colossians 3:12-14

12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

 Philippians 2:1-7

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. 5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

Sometimes we need to step back and reflect on how much our Lord gave up when He came to earth to provide for our salvation, as to recall also how He humbled Himself while here, even washing the feet of the disciples.  Perhaps He is calling us in our daily lives to look for our own “foot-washing” opportunities.  On the bright side, the remaining honor shows that God has a pretty good bonus plan for the humble.

Honor #3: God has promised rewards to the humble

Proverbs 22:4

4 Humility is the fear of the Lord; its wages are riches and honor and life.

Proverbs 3:34

He mocks proud mockers but shows favor to the humble and oppressed.

Matthew 5:5

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

My hope is that this post will encourage us to reflect on areas where pride may be interfering with our witness for the Lord.  I pray that in our conversations, our internet posts, our work and community interactions that the Holy Spirit provides us with the guidance and conviction we need to live humbly in unity with one another.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts, please share.

Be blessed.

K