The Lord detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished. [Proverbs 16:5 (NIV)]
With few exceptions, when we find mention of pride in Scripture, it has a negative connotation. It refers to arrogance, conceit, disrespect, haughtiness, and effrontery. Often called stubborn, insolent, willful, and selfish, prideful people don’t fare well in Scripture. Consider Pharaoh whose pride made him stubbornly defy the power of God; as a result, his entire nation suffered plague after plague, he lost his eldest son, and his entire army was decimated. Lucifer’s insolence and pride got him evicted from heaven. Nebuchadnezzar’s conceitful boasting resulted in the king living as a field animal and eating grass for seven years! When arrogant King Uzziah overstepped boundaries and burned incense in Temple (something only priests could do), the proud king became an outcast leper. Indeed, “pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.” [Proverbs 16:18]
Since Scripture makes it clear that pride is a sin, where does that leave us when we enjoy the satisfied feeling of a job well done or the pleasure of receiving praise? What emotion is appropriate when we have attained a goal or succeeded at a difficult task? What feeling can we share with someone who has achieved something extraordinary? If not pride, what?
I confess to feeling good when I receive a compliment on a devotion I’ve written, a sermon I’ve given, a cookie I baked, or a meal I served. I’m proud of the accomplishments of my children and grands. Is that wrong? Since the Apostle Paul admits to pride and to boasting about the Corinthians and Thessalonians, the Lord, the cross, and his hope, there appears to be a good or acceptable kind of pride.
Good pride has a sense of worth and is earned through effort and hard work; sinful pride over-estimates its worth and is competitive by nature. Rather than doing its best, it just wants to do better than others. Good pride makes a realistic assessment of itself and sees its faults. Sinful pride, however, has an inflated ego blind to its faults; instead of self-esteem, it is more like a low regard for everyone else. Good pride, like the pride Paul had in the Corinthians and Thessalonians, encourages others because it isn’t threatened by their success. Generous, it takes satisfaction in others’ accomplishments. On the other hand, sinful pride discourages and demeans; selfish, it takes satisfaction only in itself. While good pride is humble, quiet, and self-assured, the other arrogantly blusters and brags.
The biggest distinction between good and sinful pride is its relationship to God. Good pride sees the need for God and has confidence in His power but sinful pride has confidence only in self and sees no need for God (or anyone else). Good pride exalts and worships God. It takes no credit for God’s gifts and, if it boasts, like Paul, it boasts only of what God’s grace has accomplished. Sinful pride, however, exalts and worships itself, takes all the credit, and sings only its own praises.
Rather than two different prides, could pride exist on a continuum with acceptable or good pride on one end and sinful pride on the other. After all, there must be a continuum for other sins. At some point, enjoying good food (which is not sinful) can move into over-eating and then onto gluttony (which is a sin). For that matter, at what point does admiration turn into envy, desire into lust, or conversation turn into gossip? Somewhere on those scales, what’s acceptable becomes what’s not.
Let us be cautious of self-reliance and over-confidence, lest our acceptable (and humble) sense of pride imperceptibly slides down the line toward conceit, arrogance, haughtiness, and self-glorification. We must never forget that anything we’ve managed to accomplish was possible only because God encouraged, empowered, equipped, and sustained us.
If you have anything to be proud of, remember what it is and that it is not your own, but has been given or lent to you by God, who especially hates pride. [Richard Baxter]
In the ruins of Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, a scrap of parchment known as P.Oxy. 1786 was discovered in 1918. Only 11-inches long and 2-inches wide, it consists of four lines of text along with musical notations on the back of a grain contract. Found in an ancient garbage dump, it was just one of 500,000 parchments dating from the 1st century BC to the 7th AD. Along with grocery lists, official records, and business contracts, the rubbish heap yielded a play by Sophocles, poetry by Sappho, portions of the Old Testament, fragments of both Matthew’s and Mark’s gospels, and an arrest warrant for a Christian.
Heather Kaufman’s novel Up From Dust is historical fiction. Based on what Scripture tells us about Martha of Bethany, her sister Mary, and their brother Lazarus, it gives the reader a fictionalized version of their backstories. Kaufman’s extensive research for the novel allowed her to paint a vivid and accurate picture of 1st century life in Judea. Even though the story is a figment of her imagination, it reminded me that the people who spent time with the Lord while He walked on earth were real (and flawed) people like us—each with their own personal history. Ordinary people with parents, friends and, for some, spouses and children, they had jobs, responsibilities, secrets, regrets, and weaknesses. Like us, they were people who worried, disagreed, cried, laughed, loved, rejoiced, and mourned. The only thing that made them different from their neighbors was their love for a man called Jesus!
Earlier this week, I wrote about my nephew Johnny’s baptism in my mother’s hospital room. Because she was at death’s door, my brother took emergency leave and he and I served as the baby’s sponsors in Baptism (or Godparents).
Thousands of years ago, God told Noah to build a boat the height of a four-story house, the length of one-and-a-half football fields, and with the storage capacity of about 450 semi-trailers. Without benefit of Home Depot or power tools, he managed to do it. What would happen if God gave Noah those same instructions today?
Devotions of the Heart 