Pride

by Mike James

Proverbs 16:18 says, "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall." Is that not the truth? The Bible is full of examples of how pride led to ruin. I'd like to address some of that here and provide this as a reminder for all of us to check our pride meter. If we are not checking ourselves on a consistent basis we may fall into these negative mindsets like pride.

Pride can be defined as a sense of satisfaction in one's own achievements. It can also be defined as the consciousness of one's own dignity. Neither definition sounds too bad, but there are other definitions. How about this one?: "a high or inordinate opinion of one's own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority." Now we are beginning to see what Proverbs 16 is talking about. Let's look at some biblical examples.

Lucifer’s pride made him want to be like the Most High.

One of the earliest examples of pride found in the Bible may be addressed in Isaiah 14:13-14. Here we read about Lucifer wanting to be like the Most High—to usurp God's position. We know that because of this, Lucifer, or Satan, lost his position in God's kingdom. So first there was pride and then came a fall (Luke 10:18).

In Genesis 11:4, we read the story about the tower of Babel. Notice the people building this tower wanted to make a name for themselves. The implication here is a prideful mindset. Once again, the pride came, and then the people were brought low by God, confusing their language, and they could no longer do what they wanted to do.

Or what about the example of King Herod in Acts 12? In verse 2, Herod has James, the brother of John, killed by the sword. He also puts Peter in prison at the same time. Neither James nor Peter was worthy of this treatment. In verses 21-22, we see Herod making an oration to the people and the people likening him to a god. Immediately after this Herod is killed by an angel of God because he did not give God the glory.

I recently witnessed a couple of news stories where a crowd of people invaded a 7-11 store and began to ransack it and steal items. The people doing this took no thought for the owner of the store or the law. They thought so highly of themselves that they probably didn't even recognize the error of their ways.

In another incident, a police chase was shown live on the local news station. The driver being pursued had robbed a high-end sunglass kiosk at a mall. While fleeing the scene, the driver exceeded the speed limit and even reached speeds of over 100 mph. The driver bumped other vehicles, clipped the mirrors off other cars, and put the lives of pedestrians in danger. Why? Because this person was thinking only of himself.

The thought of stealing from someone and putting other people in danger involves the sin of pride. Thinking too highly of yourself will lead to your downfall.

This is completely in opposition to what Christ taught us by His example. He, being God, thought nothing of Himself but so much for us. So much so that He divested Himself of His eternal Godhead and became a man (Philippians 2:6-8). He gave up everything to save people who behaved in prideful selfish ways. Yes, that's right; He died for the carnal people who raided the 7-11 store and the sunglass shop. He not only gave up His God nature for a time, but He allowed prideful men to belittle Him, beat him, spit upon Him, and execute Him.

When I watched those recent incidents on the news, I was angry at those people. I thought about the need for punishment of those people. I actually had some mental pictures in my mind of knocking them to the ground if I had the opportunity. And then I realized that very thought was also prideful. That very thought was also me putting myself above those people and wanting to mete out justice. We need to follow our laws in administering justice in our society.

The final administration of justice belongs to God. The one who told His Father to forgive them because they didn't know what they were doing (Luke 23:34) is the only example for us to follow. We all have a little bit of pride and arrogance residing within us. Rather than letting it out we need to follow the example of our Lord and Savior. Turn on your pride detector and check yourself; you might be surprised by what you find.

Source: "What Will Happen Before Apocalypse? Part 1," by Arno Froese, Midnight Call, August 2022.