23 Oct 2022

No one in this world is free from the problem and vice of pride. We are upset when we see it in the lives of others and we hardly imagine that we ourselves are guilty of this vice – pride and self-conceit. And surprisingly, the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others. The virtue opposite to it, in Christian morals, is ‘humility’.

Notice what the Bible has to say about the virtue of humility:
“Thus says the Lord: ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.” (Isaiah 66:1-2)

In as much as God values humility and a contrite spirit, God hates pride; it was through pride that the devil became the devil. Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind. Pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment or even common sense.
Pride always means enmity – it is not only enmity between man and man, but enmity to God.
As long as we are proud we cannot really know God. A proud person always is looking down on things and people: and as long as one is looking down, one cannot see something that is above oneself.

The easiest way to find out how proud we are is to ask ourselves: “How much do we dislike it when other people snub us, or refuse to take any notice of us, or show off?” It is because we want to be the ‘centre of attraction’ that we become so annoyed at someone else ‘stealing the attraction’ from us.
Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next person. Pride comes in when we notice that we are richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others – the pleasure comes at being above the rest. This can certainly also be seen among Christians: we get pleasure from knowing that we are more knowledgeable in Scripture than others; we ‘beam’ when we think that our church is better than many other churches – after all, we have more members, more bible study groups, more bible-centred preaching, and the list goes on.

Nearly all the evils in the world which people put down to greed or selfishness are really far more the result of pride.
Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are good – above all, that we are better than someone else – we may be sure that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the devil. The real test of being in the presence of God is, that we either forget about ourselves altogether, or see ourselves as small, dirty objects, tainted before the holiness and majesty of God. Ever wonder why it is so difficult to love our neighbour? Is it not that we feel we are better Christians, and they are not deserving of our care and concern? If we concentrate on ourselves and our merits, it would be difficult to be others-centred; it is better to forget about ourselves altogether if we seek to love others. To love and admire anything outside ourselves is to take one step away from utter spiritual ruin; but we shall not be well spiritually if we love and admire anything more than we love and admire God.

It is no wonder that Jesus said:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (John12:24-25). It is very difficult for the proud to deny themselves when they constantly feel that they are above the rest. The kind of transformation Jesus is pushing us towards will change not only the way we treat people but also the way we speak of them.

Pride has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began. It is also the chief cause of enmity in the Christian community and church, not only among the ordinary members but also among those who claim themselves to be Christian leaders. It is so very easy to appear humble outwardly, but inwardly, we harbour self-conceit, and we seek to build our own ‘kingdoms’ and following, and not the kingdom of God. God rejects the proud but gives grace to the humble; it matters how God looks at us and at our hearts – it is not so much how others look at us and it is certainly not how we look up at ourselves – before the judgement seat of God, nothing is hidden – all would be uncovered. It is surely a call to be sober and to ask God for grace to nurture true humility and contriteness before Him.