Pride
Pride is one of those things we are all told not to have. However, we all have pride. In order to discuss pride, we must first know what it is. Pride is defined as “Proud or disdainful behavior or treatment; insolence or arrogance of demeanor; haughty bearing and conduct; insolent exultation; disdain.”
Now that we’ve seen the definition of pride, lets look at what the Bible says about pride. According to Proverbs 8:13, God hates pride. According Proverbs 16:18, Pride goes before a fall, and according to Proverbs 29:23, Pride will bring a man low. So, pride is not a good thing, not only does God hate it, it also damages us.
Pride comes in many forms. There is the pride that says “I’m better than everyone else, so look at ME”. That is an obvious example, but there are more subtle forms of pride. Today, we’re looking more at the subtle forms of pride.
One form of subtle pride is that of being humble. Yes, humility can be pride. If you spend all your time being humble, and drawing attention to the fact that you’re humble, and thinking how great it is that you’re humble, you are no longer humble, but prideful. That is just as bad as walking around telling people how great you are. We should be humble humbly, not humble pridefully.
Another form of subtle pride is one that most Christians are guilty of, including myself. It is when you look down on other Christians because they don’t believe or do the same things you do. It’s when you see someone listening to music that you deem unworthy, and then think less of them. It’s when you or I see someone behaving in a way that you consider immature and think yourself better than they. Whether or not what they are doing is right or wrong, it’s still prideful to think yourself better then they. In God’s eyes, we are all equal, we all have sinned, and we all would be destined for hell if it weren’t for Jesus. Therefore, we should not think ourselves better or superior than other people.
