Pride

by John Drain, Belfast | Category: Foes Of Our Faith | Jun 1970

Amongst the many things which rise in opposition to God's purpose in the lives of men and women one of the most pernicious is pride. It is a mental inflation which produces an unbalanced and exaggerated feeling of self-esteem, of self-attainment, of self-importance. h lifts its victims above their fellows by a conviction of superiority which in turn brings disdain for others. In its outworkings pride has very serious consequences in its determination of attitudes both to God and to men.

It is very important to observe how God regards pride. We read, "Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD" (Proverbs 16.5). These are strong words and they impress upon us how detestable pride is in the sight of God. God will not tolerate it: "God resisteth the proud" (1 Peter 5.5). He sets Himself against the proud as a military commander will set his forces in array against the enemy. God will fight pride, and solemn and disastrous it is for those against whom God joins battle. Solomon wrote, "The LORD will root up the house of the proud" (Proverbs 15.25). Proud men are often very ambitious persons and their pride yearns for the satisfaction of success. For the proud man the end will justify the means. He will pursue his objective without concern for the suffering or deprivation of others. Often the success seems to be attained but God will sooner or later uproot what has been accomplished by pride.

It is clear from what is revealed concerning the character and activities of Satan that into the mind of this very powerful and influential being came pride. It lifted him up in challenge to and rebellion against the throne of the Almighty. His judgement was swift and severe. The Lord Jesus said, "I beheld Satan fallen as lightning from heaven" (Luke 10.18). Pride was a very strong factor in the scheme of seduction which the devil formulated to bring about the fall of the human race. "Ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil" lifted the heart of Eve above and contrary to the will of God. Soon followed the transgression of Adam and the fall of man. Sin entered human nature and sin leads to pride.

In the Scriptures we read about many persons in whom pride manifested itself. An outstanding case is Nebuchadnezzar. Here was a man to whom was given great authority and extensive possessions. But pride took control. When Daniel was giving a divine censure to Belshazzar he told him, "0 thou king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father the kingdom, and greatness, and glory, and majesty: and because of the greatness that He gave him, all the peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him: whom he would he slew, and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he would he raised up, and whom he would he put down. But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit was hardened that he dealt proudly, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him" (Daniel 5.1820). Authority and influence brought to Nebuchadnezzar not only a feeling of great superiority over all men and women but also a sense of independence which repudiated any accountability to the great God in whose hand his breath was. In an experience unparalleled in sacred history Nebuchadnezzar was reduced to live in the conditions and with the habits of a beast of the field. From the elaborately furnished rooms and terraces of the royal palace he was removed to walk in the fields of the royal domain. What a solemn picture is presented to our minds in the contemplation of the proud monarch of Babylon dwelling and living with the beasts, eating grass as oxen do, and saturated with the dew of heaven "till his hair was grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws" (Daniel 4.33). By a terrible experience Nebuchadnezzar learned that those on earth that walk in pride the King of heaven is able to abase. Our circumstances may not in any way resemble those of King Nebuchadnezzar but the lesson he learned should be a warning. The acquisition of things, of power, of influence may have a disastrous effect. Such things may encourage pride and bring contempt for others. How careful we should be! God is able to abase the proud. And the abasement may be very bitter.

It is instructive to observe in the Scriptures the company in which we find pride. We read, for example, "We have heard of the pride of Moab, that he is very proud; his loftiness, and his pride, and his arrogancy, and the haughtiness of his heart. I know his wrath ... his boastings ... (Jeremiah 48.29,30). Loftiness, arrogancy, haughtiness, wrath, boastings-here is the foul brood to which pride belongs. Solomon said, "The proud and haughty man, scorner is his name, he worketh in the arrogance of pride" (Proverbs 21.24). We can understand why every one that is proud in heart is an abomination unto the LORD. We should dread pride. Those who know the LORD should fear Him, and "the fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, arrogancy, and the evil way, and the forward mouth, do I hate" (Proverbs 8.13).

Pride has other companions. When charging His people with great wickedness the LORD made reference to Sodom. He said, "This was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom; pride, fulness of bread, and prosperous ease was in her and in her daughters" (Ezekiel 16.49). Prosperity, affluence and the physical pleasures which these can bring, if properly received and regarded, may impart godly joy to the recipients. But very often, because of the perversion which sin causes, these things draw away the heart from the Lord. The fear of the Lord goes out. Pride comes in.

The apostle Paul occupied a very remarkable and outstanding place in the fulfilment of divine purpose in the early years of this dispensation. To him came profound revelations of the Lord and of the will of God. When writing to the Corinthians he said, "By reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations - wherefore, that I should not be exalted overmuch, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, that I should not be exalted overmuch" (2 Corinthians" 12.7). Pride often has manifestations which are blatant and crude. Paul shows that there is the subtle danger that the acquisition of knowledge, and such knowledge as he had received from God, could inflate the mind with deadly pride. Those who receive a knowledge of God and of His purposes must watch in case their enjoyment of knowledge should puff up and bring intolerance and superciliousness.

A warning against pride is to be found in an analysis of its results. We note the following statements.

"When pride cometh, then cometh shame" (Proverbs 11.2).

"By pride cometh only contention" (Proverbs 13.10).

"Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall" (Proverbs 16.18).

"A man's pride shall bring him low" (Proverbs 29.23).

Shame, contention, destruction, humiliation-such things come through pride.

In the grievous times of last days "men shall be ... boastful, haughty (2 Timothy 3.2). Power, authority, knowledge, social position, achievement, possessions can all beget pride and bring its consequences. Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ should recognize how heinous and despicable and destructive pride is, and in a world where pride has ascendancy let His disciples manifest the character of their Lord who said,

"I am meek and lowly in heart".

John Drain, Belfast | Jun 1970
Foes Of Our Faith