In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis writes, “Pride is a spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense.”
This is quite the opposite of cultures view of pride. From Nike’s slogan, “Just Do It,” to an entire month being dedicated to pride, our identity is now defined by our inner feelings as opposed to our identity in relation to God. In our society, the lack of self-confidence is viewed as a greater problem than being prideful.
At its core, pride is the worship of self. Man was created to worship God and enjoy Him forever. But when we worship self and our desires, we displace God’s rightful seat on the throne of our hearts and we place His crown on our head. When this vertical relationship with God is fractured, then our horizontal relationship with others is also crushed. Many Christian thinkers throughout history have considered pride to be the root of all sin because pride is the essential element in all sin. This is why, as Lewis said, pride is a spiritual cancer.
Proverbs teaches us that pride goes before destruction (Prov. 16:8). Pride led Satan to desire to be like God and be cast out of heaven. The desire to be “like God” is how Satan tempted our first parents in the garden bringing sin into the world. Pride has led to the fall of many mighty men like Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, Uzziah, and many others. In each of these examples, self was worshipped and there were devastating consequences.
In 1 John 2:16-17, John says “For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” The “pride of life” is one of the greatest temptations that we face today. How can we possibly overcome it?
Depend on God’s grace
Putting pride to death is a lifelong work of the most difficult kind. In James’ epistle, he teaches us what “pure religion” is – it is a faith that works. In chapter 4, James focuses in on humility. For James, one of the marks of pure religion is having humility: before God, before others, and about the future.
One of the most striking sections of this chapter is found in verses 6 – 10. James says:
But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
This is a model of what true repentance looks like. This is what marks the beginning of our Christian faith. We humble ourselves before God. This is a picture of what it looks like to “deny self” (Mark. 8:34). We mourn and weep over our sins. We turn from them in repentance and turn to Christ in faith.
But notice the first word of verse 6: “He gives more grace.” Only the grace of God can grant us this type of repentance and faith. Only the grace of God can open our eyes to see the foolishness of pride and our desperate need for Christ. If we are to ever put pride to death, then it begins in the prayer closet asking God for his grace to help us deny self. It is the prayer of John the Baptist, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).
Learning From Failures
Just as humility marks the beginning of our Christian life, humility must also remain in our pursuit of godliness. Augustine once said that “humility is the first, second, and third part of godliness.” What do we have that was not first given to us?
There are times, even for Christians, that God permits our pride to swell and then knocks us off of our high horse to remind us that we depend on Him for all things. Some of the greatest lessons that I have learned about pride have come on the other side of falling flat on my face. When this happens, we must humble ourselves before God, confess our sin to Him, and thank Him for his grace in reminding us of who we are and how much we depend on Him. Better for God to correct His children now, then allow them to travel the path of eternal destruction.
Learning From Christ’s Example
When Adam allowed pride to overcome him in the garden, it brought sins curse into this world. While the first Adam failed, Christ the second Adam overcame the temptation of pride when he was brought into the wilderness.
In Matthew 4, Satan brought Jesus to a very high mountain showing him the kingdoms of the world. Satan told Jesus that if he would worship him, he could have all the kingdoms of the world. This is a temptation of pride. Jesus’ response was, “Be gone Satan! For it is written, “You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve” (Matt. 4:11).
Christ resists Satan by quoting Scripture (Deut. 6:13) and remembering that God alone is to be the only object of our worship. This shows us the value of committing Scripture to memory for use during our greatest times of temptation. In Ephesians 6, the sword of the Spirit (the Word of God) and “all prayer” are the offensive weapons that we have been given for this fight against spiritual warfare. We must make use of the means that God has provided for us in this fight.
Though pride will be a lifelong battle, blessed is the one who perseveres to the end. Those who humble themselves before God will be exalted.
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