Pride

Pride brings a person low, 

   but the lowly in spirit gain honour.

Proverbs 29:23 (TNIV)

Just a short reflection this morning on something I’ve been learning.

Every Christian who has spent a considerable amount of time in the church has heard the Biblical axiom that pride goes before the fall – it’s one of those Biblical statements that has even entrenched itself in secular colloquialism.  We understand pride as a synonym for boasting and arrogance and we understand from Jesus’ repeated rebukes of the Pharisees in the Gospels that the Christian ethic is to be one of humility and Paul, in Romans 12, reminds us that we ought to have a sober evaluation of ourselves not thinking that we are greater than we are – we understand pride in that way but I think that there is another pitfall that we sometimes overlook with regard to this sin.

What sort of sin would you call it when you are beaten down by unmet expectations of praise? When you are depressed by a lack of acknowledgement? When you feel pushed to the side and forgotten despite the fact that you think you have done something worth remembering? We might not identify it as such – or even identify the sinfulness of our attitudes in these instances at all – but this too is the problem of pride rearing its ugly head in our lives.

We think that a prideful person is full of themselves and consequently full of self confidence as well – but in many cases it’s the most insecure people out there that are struggling with pride. It’s not that they are boastful but that they crave the attention of others; it’s not that they are arrogant so much as they want desperately to be looked up to and admired. Their need for recognition and approval is crippling and even with a pseudo-humble persona (it’s not uncommon to see people like this be overly self-critical with the unspoken hope that someone will correct the ridiculousness of their claim and praise them) pride brings them low.

We see the destructive effects of this type of pride in the story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. Remember that it was dishonesty that brought them into judgment and death (the lied about the value of the property they had sold and misrepresented their generosity in giving proceeds to the church) but it was pride that motivated their deception. Right at the end of Acts 4 before we hear their story we get a simple statement about Barnabas:

Joseph, whom the apostles nicknamed Barnabas (that is, “one who encourages”), was a Levite from Cyprus. He owned a field, sold it, brought the money, and placed it in the care and under the authority of the apostles.

Acts 4:36-37 (CEB)

Ananias and Sapphira wanted to be acknowledged and revered the way Barnabas had been – they longed to be valued and admired and they were willing to go to dangerously sinful lengths to fulfil that craving for attention and recognition. This too is a form of pride and it’s a form that I’ve been recognising in myself lately.

It’s not a very Christian or pastoral thing to admit to but there are times when I want the glory, there are times when I want the recognition and I want the admiration – but rather than receiving that which I crave so much I am humbled, and forgotten and ignored. It is at times like these that I have a choice to make – do I allow pride to breed bitterness and disappointment that could lead me down a path of destruction (like Ananias and Sapphira) or do I accept the loving providence of a God loves me too much to feed my pride and learn from His gentle rebuke? That is the encouragement I’m hearing from our proverb – Pride brings a person low – not in the sense of destruction that we normally associate with pride (true but not quite the point of this particular proverb) – but rather in the sense that the unsatiated longing to be important by our own merit, talent or achievement is a sure path to an unfulfilled life unless we accept the Lord’s gentle correction and become lowly in spirit.

When we let go of our pride and instead live for God to receive the glory and the recognition and the admiration then in our humility we gain true honour. May God continue to humble me and teach me to seek His glory rather than my own, and may God show us all the blessings of letting go of our pride – even when it is hidden under the surface.

...everyone, clothe yourselves with humility toward each other. God stands against the proud, but he gives favour to the humble.

1 Peter 5:5b (CEB)