We have been raised to feel good about ourselves. We’re told that it’s important to have self-esteem. This is different than just not feeling bad about ourselves. This is the sense that we are important and special just because we exist. Even before we have a chance to do anything particularly noteworthy, we are told, repeatedly, that we are special and deserve to be treated as such. We deserve the things that we want, because we are special.
Having been told these things repeatedly by parents, teachers, psychologists, television commercials, and society in general; we come to take it for granted that we are innately deserving of praise. Our sense of self-importance is enhanced further as we gain more education or are successful in our careers. More money or important titles serve to re-enforce our belief that we are indeed something special.
Of course, everyone can’t be special even if everyone is told that they are. So, we try to further distinguish ourselves, even if its only in our own minds, from those around us. We begin to look down on those who are not as educated or who do not make as much money as we do. We look down on those in professions we deem less important. We feel that, because of our self-imposed stature, our opinions and thoughts are more important than others. We feel that, if we have determined that something is good or bad then, it must be so; after all, we arrived at these conclusions with our superior intellect.
Surprisingly, even without money or titles, we still are quite confident in our ability to arrive at the proper conclusion about virtually anything. We are told that every opinion matters and everyone deserves to be heard. This elevates the importance of our ideas, not matter how valid or invalid they may be. We live in an age where there is no right or wrong, just differences of opinion. In an environment such as this, one does not need status or money to feel that their ideas, their behavior, their beliefs are perfectly valid; and therefore should not be questioned by others.
And yet, even with our pride we still, on occasion, give deference to those with more education or greater positions in our society. We may yield grudgingly at first but then we are quick to adopt the prevailing sentiment of the day; elevating ourselves along with those adhering to these ideas. Once again, we find ourselves on the top of the mountain. Our ego now re-enforced by the support of a large group.
From those the society sees as lowly to those it sees as superior; we are in a unique culture where everyone can experience exceptional pride in one’s self and one’s ideas. In other times in human history, one’s economic or social position in society would impose some level of humility on one’s behavior. But we live in extraordinary times where anyone can be the king of his domain and the lord of his life. We praise ourselves and each other. We bask in collaborative self-worship. We have created idols out of ourselves.
Is it any wonder, then, the reaction we have when we are told that we are sinners.
Our pride has so silenced our conscience that when it is awaken from its slumber it hits us with a mighty jolt. We have successfully used our individual and collective intellect to convince our conscience that it has no idea what its talking about. We have invested many years or work and countless hours of conditioning to put our conscience in this state; we certainly do not appreciate it when we are told things contrary to this conditioning. We appreciate, even less, anyone who would undermine all of our hard work.
Pride is an ingenious weapon. It closes our mind to good. It closes our mind to rebuke and reproach. It allows us to not listen to those things which undermine our self-esteem; things like being told that we are living sinful lives. Pride lets us dismiss out of hand anything that makes us feel uncomfortable. We do not need to listen to the message because the messenger is already without credibility, in our minds, because he is not us.
Why does God hate pride? It is certainly clear that he does. In James 4:6, The Bible says:
…God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
In Malachi 4:1m The Bible says:
”For, behold, the day comes, it burns as a furnace; and all the proud, and all who work wickedness, will be stubble; and the day that comes will burn them up,” says Yahweh of Armies, ”that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.”
When we are prideful we elevate ourselves beyond what we should. We take credit for the things that we have and do. We take credit for our abilities and accomplishments.
In 1 Corinthians 4:7, The Bible says:
For who makes you different? And what do you have that you didn’t receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you have not received it?
The Bible asks us why should we boast about anything. Why should we credit ourselves for anything we have? Why should we act as those we did not receive all things from God?
Jesus said in Matthew 5:45:
…For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.
God provides everything for everyone, whether they believe in him or not. So, who among us can claim to be anything or claim credit for the things we have or have done?
It is pure idolatry. Our pride has made us a god in our own mind. A god capable of determining right and wrong for ourselves. We have put ourselves above the God who will some day judge us. This is a dangerous position to be in.
In Ezekiel 16:49-50, The Bible talks about the sin of Sodom:
Behold, this is the sin of your sister Sodom: pride, fullness of bread, and prosperous ease was in her and in her daughters; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. They were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.
The original sin of Sodom was not sexual immorality but rather the pride that lead them to believe they were above God’s laws and could behave any way they pleased. The pride that came from their wealth and their belief that they could do as they pleased, lead them to their sexual immorality and other sins. This pride lead to self-centeredness and disregard for God and for the poor among them.
This is the other reason that God hates pride. It makes us believe that we can be the final moral authority in our lives. We believe that we can do anything that pleases us because we are special; because we are so important. Our pride allows us to comfortably deceive ourselves by ignoring what God tells us is our actual state; our state of damnable sin and corruption. Pride is a powerful tool of the Devil because it allows us to ignore the salvation of Jesus. It convinces us that we’ve done nothing that would require us to need salvation. In our prideful hearts, salvation is something that sinners need; it isn’t something that we need.
Our pride keeps us from doing the things that we must do in order to be saved: believe that Jesus did something for us that we could not do for ourselves, surrender our lives to God, and submit to his will. Words like ”surrender” and ”submit” are not popular words in a culture of self-esteem and self-importance. We instinctively recoil when hearing them. That is because of our rebellious and sinful nature.
But how can we truly seek the salvation that Jesus provides for us if, in our hearts, we do not see ourselves as guilty? How can we be truly sorry, to the point of asking God to change our behavior, if we believe that we can determine our own idea of right and wrong? How can we ever have the peace that God promises us if we trust in our own abilities more than we trust God?
God knows what’s best for us. He knows what things will make us truly happy. He knows what things will keep us strong in our faith. He knows that chasing after the things of this world, rather than submitting to his laws, will weaken our faith and put our eternity at risk.
Our sins separate us from God, and our pride tells us our sins are alright. Our pride tells us that we are the masters of our own lives and we need not surrender to anyone. Jesus, however, tells us that the meek shall inherit the earth.
When we are able to see that we are sinners, we are able to ask God for forgiveness; we are able to depend on the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. But if we are prideful; if we put our faith in ourselves, then we will feel as though we’ve earned our way to heaven.
The Bible says in Romans 3:10-12:
As it is written, ”There is no one righteous; no, not one. There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks after God. They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is no one who does good, no, not so much as one.”
We all need that salvation that God provides to us through the sacrifice of his Son, Jesus. God is our Father. He wants what is best for us. He wants us to be saved. If we surrender our lives to him by believing in Jesus and asking him to help us keep his commandments; he will give us an eternity with himself in heaven and guide us through this life as well. We have to trust that God knows what is best for us. We have to trust that keeping God’s commandments will produce the best results for us in this life. We must also be humble enough to admit that we cannot save ourselves and desperately need the forgiveness that is provided for us through Jesus. We must not let our pride stand between us and the only way we have to be saved.
