Pride

As the prophet Isaiah surveyed the way things were in his day among the people of God, he was gravely concerned. He called on the people to continue to walk in God’s ways (Isaiah 2:5), but alas his warnings seemed to fall on deaf ears.

There were plenty of reasons for Isaiah’s fears for the people. It seems they had turned from God’s ways to all sorts of false comforts and even occult practices (Isaiah 2:6). Not only that, but they had put their trust in their finances and the false gods they had set up in God’s place (Isaiah 2:7-8). But the deep-rooted problem behind all this was one that mankind had faced from the days of Adam and Eve: pride!

Pride is the universal human disease to which none of us are immune. As one bible commentator observes: ‘It has a thousand subtle and devious ways of manifesting itself and is ugliest of all when it dons religious garb.’

In fact, if we jump forward to the days of Jesus, it was the religious elite who came in for some of Jesus’ sternest warnings. Indeed, we read, that it was to some, who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, that Jesus addressed a very direct parable in Luke 18:9ff. At the end of this parable, Jesus said something similar to Isaiah’s warning: ‘For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted’ (Luke 18:14).

Throughout the Bible we consistently find that pride can eventually have only one outcome. It’s a confrontation with God, in which the proud will finally be undone. This is because human wickedness in all its rank variety is a manifestation of one basic evil: trust in ourselves rather than trust in God; pride!

Reading all this makes me increasingly aware that the best antidote to pride is its opposite: humility. We read in Philippians 2:8 that Jesus humbled Himself. If ever there was one who had every right to be proud, and who really was always in the right, it was Jesus. Yet in Jesus there is never any sense of pride; but always humility, kindness and grace. The reality is that we can, and do get things wrong, whoever we may be. So, let’s look increasingly to the example of Jesus and pursue genuine humility.