Have you ever wondered why it is that pride seems to be characterized as one of the worst sins? I mean, aren’t all sins equally horrendous in the eyes of a holy God? Murder is tremendously awful. Theft can have catastrophic repercussions. Adultery tears apart marriages and families.
So, really, what’s a little pride when compared to these things, right? Except, biblically speaking, God hates pride. And as some theologians have pointed out, “There is no sin that is more frequently, more emphatically, and more eloquently condemned in Scripture.”
“The Christians are right,” said author C.S. Lewis, “it is pride which has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began.” After all, he went on to say, “Through pride the devil became the devil. Pride leads to every vice, it’s the complete anti-God state of mind.”
It’s no wonder pride is often referred to as “the mother of all sins,” for it’s this sin that seeks to put man on a pedestal and God in the dirt. Pride in all its hideousness says, “I don’t need God.” Pride destroys and deceives. It creates enmity with man and enmity with God.
Proverbs 11:2a declares, “When pride comes, then comes disgrace.” Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” 1 John 2:16 makes clear “the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life” are not from the Father, and the Psalmist portrays that for those who wear pride as their necklace, “violence covers them as a garment.”
Certainly murder, theft, adultery, and all sins are appalling, for the wages of all sin is death (Romans 6:23). But pride takes its stab directly at the King on the throne in a flimsy attempt to displace Him. What a horrendous — yet almost laughable — idea to consider oneself mightier than the Almighty.
I want to emphasize almost laughable, because the results of being haughty are not enviable by any means. Rather, it’s worth our every effort to flee from the destructive sin called pride.
Like many theologians, pastor A.W. Pink understood the destructive nature of pride — especially as it pertains to love, which is the heart of the two greatest commandments. “Inseparably connected with self-love is pride,” he said, “and the fostering of pride is fatal to the cultivation of brotherly affection.”
It would seem “the majority, if not all, of the petty grievances among Christians, are to be traced back to this evil root. ‘Love suffereth long,’ but pride is terribly impatient. ‘Love envieth not,’ but pride is intensely jealous. ‘Love seeketh not her own,’ but pride ever desires gratification. … ‘Love beareth all things,’ but pride is resentful of the slightest injury. ‘Love endureth all things,’ but pride is offended if a brother fails to greet him on the street.”
To love others as we’re called to love, Pink asserted, “Pride must be mortified.” And perhaps more significantly, to love God, pride must be mortified.
As theologian Jonathan Edwards depicted, “Pride is the worst viper in the heart. … it lies lowest of all in the foundation of the whole building of sin, and is the most secret, deceitful and unsearchable in its ways of working, of any lust whatsoever; it is ready to mix with everything; and nothing is so hateful to God, and contrary to the spirit of the Gospel, or of so dangerous consequence; and there is no one sin that does so much to let the Devil into the hearts of the saints, and expose them to his delusions.”
Perhaps the issue of pride has been well-mapped out by now. And so, the question is this: How, then, do we combat this sin? Pastor J.C. Ryle observed that if “pride is the oldest and most common of sins,” then “humility is the rarest and most beautiful of graces.” Certainly, humility is at the heart of the Christian walk. After all, humility marked the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Consider Philippians 2, where Paul outlined the fact that Jesus “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.” Rather, for our sake, He “emptied Himself.” He took the form of a servant and suffered the most excruciating death imaginable. Elsewhere in Scripture, we see that His entire ministry, as Matthew 20:28 proclaims, is rooted in the fact that “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
All of Christ’s life and death was directly tied to humility, and the heart of the gospel was His heart of humility and complete submission to the Father. Therefore, the Christian is called to live a life worthy of this gospel.
We’re called to be salt and light and witnesses to the truth. In distinguishing false prophets from true believers, Jesus said in Matthew 7 that “you will recognize them by their fruits.” And what are those fruits? According to Galatians 5, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, [and] self-control.” But perhaps you noticed that humility is not included in that list. How can that be? Well, I can only imagine it’s because those fruits are cultivated from the seed of humility.
You see, to be loving is to be humble. To be kind is to be humble. For each fruit of the Spirit to flourish, it must be planted in the soil of humility. Indeed, it’s pride that serves as the weeds that grow and choke life out of what is good. Pride, that deceitful sin, leads only to death.
Some theologians have compared mankind in their sinful humanity before conversion to that of rats. And some, unsurprisingly so, take offense at such a thought. But what these theologians will go on to explain is that a rat, as lowly as it may be, is at least incapable of rebelling against its Creator. A rat, as lowly as it may be, is not capable of being prideful. Unfortunately, the same is not true of us.
Dear Christian, pride has no place in our lives.
When we’re prideful, we spit in the face of the hands that crafted us together in our mother’s womb. When we’re prideful, we go against all we were created to do. Pride seeps into our souls and leads to murder, theft, and adultery. Pride causes us to covet and to mock.
Pride rejects that we’re sinners in need of a Savior. It won’t repent, and it certainly won’t believe, as it refuses to bow the knee to the Creator. All this and more, simply because a prideful heart cares far more about the self than the other, which directly defies the second greatest commandment to love your neighbor as yourself. A prideful heart also cares more about the self than of God, violating the greatest commandment to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.
Pride is ugly, and it’s a plague that puts one on the path to eternal destruction. But thanks be to God that He provided a way to fight against this cancer, this curse. We don’t have to guess how we’re to live, for we know it all comes back to humility. We have the perfect example in Christ. And it’s through Christ and through the Word that God has made it undoubtedly clear: humility, unlike pride, leads to life and life eternal; life abundant; life as perfect and glorious as we know it will be once we reach those pearly gates.
In this earthly life, when it’s marked by humility, we’re often rewarded with blessings, because true humility brings God glory. But what greater reward is there than to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant”?
Scripture makes clear the proud will be humbled, and it won’t be pretty. But Scripture also says the humble will be exalted. Just as Christ was exalted to the right hand of the Father and given authority over all, so will His kingdom be raised up, be it by death or the second coming, to our Father’s house.
Faith in Christ is what makes us a part of His Kingdom, and faith in Christ stems from humility. And as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:30-31, “And because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’”
So, is pride really all that dangerous?
In short, yes. Pride really is all that dangerous. The unchangeable truth is this: Jesus is Lord, Jesus is King, and His reign will have no end. It’s pride that makes a mockery of this truth, and it’s pride that will face the reckoning of denying King Jesus. That, beloved, is a danger not worth flirting with.
This article appeared originally on The Washington Stand.
