A Propensity to Moral Failure 5

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Pride directly opposes God, usurping his rightful place, we have rightly understood pride as the root and essence of all human sin.

  • 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.
  • The essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride.

Pride is the radical opposite of the first principle of a godly life, namely, the “fear” of or “awesome respect” for God.

  • Proverbs 8:13 The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverse mouth I hate.
  • The book of Proverbs, read daily. Antidote for pride.

Depicted as “haughty eyes,” pride is at the top of the list of things that God hates.

  • Proverbs 6:16–17 16 These six things the LORD hates, Yes, seven are an abomination to Him: 17 A proud look, A lying tongue, Hands that shed innocent blood,

Blessed

According to Jesus, humility is the first characteristic of the “blessed” person.

  • Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
  • Matthew 5:5 Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth.

Humility=“poor in spirit”

  • 2 Peter 1:10 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble;
  • Psalm 37:23–2423 The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. 24 Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand.
  • Holds them by the hand vs (temple) diligent to make your call and election sure

The consequence of pride in sin is further evident in God’s promise to eradicate pride through his salvation:

  • Zephaniah 3:11–12 11 In that day you shall not be shamed for any of your deeds In which you transgress against Me; For then I will take away from your midst Those who rejoice in your pride, And you shall no longer be haughty In My holy mountain. 12 I will leave in your midst A meek and humble people, And they shall trust in the name of the LORD.

The blessing of salvation is ultimately the removal of human pride.

Refusal to honor God

For as Paul asserts in Romans 1, the root of the sin and misery of humanity lies in the refusal to honor God as God, putting in his place the glory of the creature.

  • Romans 1:21–22 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,
  • The proud heart, living in antagonism to God, is also in opposition to itself.

Pride brings the shattering or disintegration of the person as we read in Proverbs:

  • Proverbs 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.
  • The proud person still bears something of the image of God that calls him to love and righteousness.
  • But his arrogant heart urges to him to please self first and thus fights against the good that he still knows, tearing apart the wholeness or peace (shalom) of true life.

Scripture rightly calls the proud heart a “foolish” or “senseless” heart (Romans 1:21).

  • The image of us as center of the world is fantasy, foolish.
  • Senseless in its sheer detachment from reality, it is even a form of madness.
  • It’s like pulling the plug on your own resuscitator.

Your worst enemy

The proud individual actually becomes an enemy of everyone.

The self is hateful and has two characteristics:

  • It is unjust in itself, in that it makes itself the center of everything;
  • it is a nuisance to others, in that it wants to assert itself over them, for each self is the enemy, and would like to be tyrant to all the others.

The numerous interpersonal problems of the prideful god-playing heart are often summed up in Scripture as “strife and envy”.

  • Romans 13:13 Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy.
  • 1 Corinthians 3:3 for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?

Not mere men!

We are told not to “become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another”.

  • Galatians 5:26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
  • But pride causes us to disobey this command.

In the areas of our strength, pride urges us to challenge others in order to display our superiority in power, knowledge, morality, or even religiosity.

When we feel inadequate, pride moves us to avoid competition and stand quietly on the sidelines simmering with envy.

  • Proverbs 7:26 For she has cast down many wounded, And all who were slain by her were strong men.

Pride can lead us to seek the destruction of the other person or to withdraw from people altogether.

  • Both are done for the sake of preserving our self-image.
  • Self-pity is another form of pride.

The distress that the proud heart brings upon itself is also noted in psychology thus:

  • Most neuroses are, from the point of view of religion, mixed with the sin of pride.

Lonely Heart

Living above and against other people, the proud heart is a lonely heart.

It is also a frenzied, tired heart, attempting to live as God instead of living by God’s wisdom and power as he designed for us to do.

In the end, the proud heart with its undue exaltation is actually debased.

As Augustine of Hippo explained, “By craving to be more, man becomes less; and by aspiring to be self-sufficing, he fell away from Him who truly suffices him.”

This is the truth of Jesus’ words that “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled”:

  • Luke 18:14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

The Good News according to the new covenant made by Jesus Christ is this:

  • Acts 13:38–39 38 Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; 39 and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.
  • Acts 13:38-39 I want you to know, my very dear friends, that it is on account of this resurrected Jesus that the forgiveness of your sins can be promised. He accomplishes, in those who believe, everything that the Law of Moses could never make good on. But everyone who believes in this raised-up Jesus is declared good and right and whole before God.
  • Weekly prayer.
  • Luke 5:1-4 NKJV [1] So it was, as the multitude pressed about Him to hear the word of God, that He stood by the Lake of Gennesaret, [2] and saw two boats standing by the lake; but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets. [3] Then He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little from the land. And He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat.

[4] When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”

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