In this world, pride is exalted as a virtue. "Be proud of who you are!" is a regular refrain. A message the homosexual community has certainly taken to heart as they celebrate not only their wicked lifestyle, but also their pride. Then you have those groups who rail against homosexuals and hold up banners with signs like "God Hates Fags!". We've all seen them on the news from time to time. Well I would like to inform both groups that in fact, God Hates Pride. Not only the homosexuals' pride, but also the pride of those who despise them. (Calling homosexuals to repentance is not a sin and in fact we need a lot more of that, but despising them and acting all "holier-than-thou" towards them is sin.) Which leads me on to the main verse for Day 4 of Pride Month:
"The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate." (Proverbs 8:13)
Two days ago, we saw the Word of God reveal that wicked people won't seek God because of their pride. However, those who fear the Lord, and who have been born again through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, develop a hatred for evil. And with that comes a hatred of the things God hates, such as pride and arrogance. God hates pride in all its forms. He hates the pride of the homosexuals in their abominable sin, the pride of the false converts who despise homosexuals and other sinners, the pride of the racists who despise people of a different skin colour, the pride of the "woke" who think themselves far superior to those whom they classify as "bigots", the pride of those who think they are saved by their works, the pride of bullies who pick on those they deem weaker than themselves, the pride of the super athlete in his prowess, the pride of the intellectual in his cleverness, and so on and so forth. Whatever the reason people may have for being proud and puffed up, God hates it. Pride leads directly to arrogance in most cases, and as we can see, God hates that too. Following evil ways and speaking with a froward mouth are two things very often rooted in pride. The word froward, incidentally, means things like disobedient, peevish, ungovernable or unyielding. So it is mainly to do with defiance, and as often as not, defiance stems from pride.
While the lost have a great deal of pride (which is a major obstacle to them being saved), born-again Christians are not always immune from pride either. It is one of the characteristics of our old man, in other words our old nature, which we are required to "put off" (think of it as something like changing clothes - in order to say, change into nightwear, first you have to take off your day clothes - likewise, to "put on" the new nature God gives after salvation, you have to "put off" the old nature that still resides in the sinful flesh of each and every one of us). And when we give in to pride, God is not pleased with us.
You may wonder why God hates pride so much. Well, God is completely righteous and holy, but He has no pride within Him. I'll tell you who does have pride though, and a whole lot of it: the Enemy, that old serpent called the Devil and Satan. In his inordinate pride, Satan wants to usurp God. His rebellious agenda is laid out by the prophet Isaiah:
"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit." (Isaiah 14:12)
All those "I will" statements sum up the extent of Satan's pride. Now contrast that with the Lord Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh and God the Son within the Godhead:
"Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls." (Matthew 11:29)
"For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth." (Luke 22:27)
"I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me." (John 5:30)
"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." (Philippians 2:5-8)
See the contrast? Satan, a created angel, is proud and ambitious. But Jesus, who created all things, is HUMBLE. When He lived on earth as a man, He was meek, lowly and served others rather than demanding to be served. Such was our Lord's humility that He even washed His disciples' feet, a job normally reserved for the very lowest servants.
The passage in Philippians tells us that we need to have a mind as Christ did, and that means we need to be humble. We need to crucify our pride that makes us seek our own glory rather than God's. But humility does not come naturally to us due to the sinful bodies we still inhabit, which is why there are numerous commands in the Bible to humble ourselves. In other words, we must choose to be humble. We must consciously lay aside our pride and choose humility. Because if we allow ourselves to indulge in pride, other sins like arrogance and speaking with a froward mouth are sure to follow.
Not once does God ever use the word "proud" in relation to Himself. When Christ came to earth as a man, this is what God the Father said about Him:
"And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." (Matthew 3:17)
Does the Father say, "This is my beloved Son, and I am just so proud of him?" No, He does not! He says "in whom I am well pleased". Being pleased with someone does not equate to being proud of them. A parent might be pleased with a child for doing a daily chore, but probably won't be proud of them because it's just an everyday task that is expected of the child. In fact, quite often when parents are proud of children, it is because the child has done something that reflects well on the parent, or they like to bask in some reflected glory. Also, when Jesus commends those who have served Him well, He does not say, "Well done, I'm really proud of you!" No, instead He will say this: "Well done thou good and faithful servant ... enter thou into the joy of thy Lord" (see for instance Matthew 25:21).
To sum up then, God hates pride because in His righteousness and holiness, He is humble. Satan however is full of pride, and consequently pride characterises fallen man too. The more pride someone has in their heart, the more wicked they are likely to be. Pride is one of the biggest barriers between God and His fallen creation. And the pride is all on our side, not His. Those who are lost need to set aside their pride and repent of their sins towards God, while those who are saved need to eliminate pride from our lives as far as possible. Let us have the mindset that John the Baptist did: "He must increase, but I must decrease." (John 3:30) Let us learn to hate our pride as much as God hates it. Only when we hate our pride can we start to love God and love our neighbour as we ought.
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