Monday, December 12, 2011

God's Hatred of Pride

Proverbs 16:18

The Bible makes it very clear that God hates human pride. James 4:6 states very clearly, "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." The same message gets stated in the Scriptures no less than three times (see also Proverbs 3:34 and 1 Peter 5:5).

Elsewhere, the Bible lists pride among four things that the Lord hates: pride gets lumped together with arrogance, the evil way, and the perverse mouth (Proverbs 8:13). In yet another passage, pride finds a place among seven things that are an abomination to God: "a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethern (Proverbs 6:17-19). God puts pride in the same category with murder!

Why does God hate human pride so much? Because it is the one sin that keeps us from allowing God to use us for His purposes. When we commit ourselves to doing things our way, we are in no position to do things God's way. Pride renders us useless in the kingdom of God. We fall prey to pride when we forget that God dos not exist for us, but we  exist for Him.  The Lord refuses to share His glory with anyone. When we seek to take His glory for ourselves - saying, in effect, "Look at what I have accomplished! Look at me! Look at who I am!" - we deny that everything we accomplish comes about because God enables and empowers us to accomplish it. Any good in us is by His design and redemption. Anything noteworthy that we become, we become because He wills it. We have no goodness apart from God's goodness imparted to us.

Most people know some version of Proverbs 16:18: "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." While not all destructions are caused by pride, pride always "ends in destruction - and usually, we lose the very thing thing we feel most proud about having achieved, earned, owned or accomplished.

~Charles Stanley~

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