No, I Do NOT Celebrate Pride

 

“Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Thus says the Lord: ‘In this manner I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. This evil people, who refuse to hear My words, who follow the dictates of their hearts, and walk after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be just like this sash which is profitable for nothing…’ Hear and give ear: Do not be proud, for the Lord has spoken.” Jeremiah 13:8-10; 13:15 [Deeper Reading: Jeremiah 13:1-27] 

We cannot be humble before the Lord and also have pride in ourselves. The two contradict one another. As we study the Bible, we see time and again the people of God in this power struggle between humility and pride. They humble themselves, submitting fully to God (as we are all called to do). He then blesses them for their faith, humility, and submission. They have years of peace, prosperity, and abundance. They get prideful, forgetting that it all came from God (every piece of treasure, every animal they possessed, every victory they won, etc). They celebrate themselves instead of God. They give in to pride. God removes His presence from them, thereby leading to hard times. They spiral into destruction. At times they even actively seek or worship other gods. Eventually, usually by way of a faith-filled prophet or king (who is obedient to God’s Word), they come back to God, in humility, begging for forgiveness and deliverance. God in His infinite grace and mercy blesses them for their humility and repentance. Times are good for a while…but then, they get prideful again…and the cycle continues over, and over, and over. From Genesis to current times.

As Proverbs says, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” (16:18) Time after time we see this throughout history. The bigger the ego, the harder they eventually fall. [The American Heritage Dictionary includes this in the definitions of ego: “an exaggerated sense of self-importance; conceit.” (Pride & ego are also synonyms of each other according to my thesaurus.)] Pride might seem well & good, for a while. Pride-filled, egotistical people might even be wildly successful for a stretch of time. Yet, unless they have a “come to Jesus” moment, and “get right with God” they do not stay “on top” forever. The world attempts to downplay or hide these great falls, however, the truth is there. Pride and ego do not lead to good - because they don’t lead to God.

Pride is dangerous, for many reasons. First and foremost, it’s a treacherous path that leads us in the opposite direction - away from God. We cannot be prideful and be humble. Trying to be both is a recipe for being a lukewarm Christian (read Revelation 3:14-22 for more on the dangers of a lukewarm faith). Secondly, pride is dangerous because it has been twisted into something the world perceives as good. (Spoiler: it’s not!) We must be cautious to test everything against the holy Word of God so that we will see the truth: pride is anything but good. Finally, pride is dangerous because it can snowball quickly, from a small snippet into a full blown avalanche, before we realize that we have stepped in it. 

Our identity in this world is that we are lowly sinners. There is nothing to be proud of in that title. As Romans 3:23 tells us we have all “sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” There is only one Man who was ever sin-free. Jesus Christ came to show us that it is possible to overcome temptations, with the right weapons (from the Holy Spirit, from God - not of our own strength). He showed us how to live: humbly, servant-minded, faithfully, lovingly, wholly devoted to God. There is not a single passage of the Bible that tells that Jesus walked around celebrating His pride. (Even though He’s the only One who has a right any pride.) If I’m wrong, please tell me - and I’m sorry but you best not quote me from TheMessage ‘Bible” because that translation is a whole other issue. (It can be a useful study tool, it is not IMHO an accurate one stop shop for understanding God’s Word.) We are broken by sin. Broken people don’t need pride - they need Jesus. Jesus overcame sin for us… 

Our identity in Christ is that we are saved from our sins! We have been washed by His blood, redeemed by His death & resurrection, and rescued from eternal hell by the grace of our loving God. As we acknowledge this truth, we must give all glory and honor to God alone. There is no pride in ourselves when we admit that nothing we can do will ever save us. Only grace!!! Grace and pride go together about as well as oil and water. As we humble ourselves before the throne of our King, let us remember that He alone is the source of all goodness. Any good that others see in us is all God working through us. So the only thing we should be proud of is our God! He is truly awesome, and He IS worth all our praise, worship, & celebrations!

What about free will? Did we make a choice to obey God, so that His light, and His glory could shine through us? Sure, we did and we do. But that does not grant us the right to pride. It should, in fact, lead us to praise! Obedience in itself can only happen because we are following the instructions, the guidance, the wisdom of One who is greater than we. “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.” (Ex. 20:2-3) Obeying this commandment means we must be humble. We must proclaim only One true God - the Lord of all. Obedience is humble. Pride is not.

“For all that is in the world - the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life - is not of the Father but is of the world.” (I John 2:16) All of the stumbling blocks, all of the sins that separate us from God are of this world…and they are all little ‘g’ gods in our lives. We all have something we struggle with. A temptation that we fall back into time and time again. This might be jealousy, or lust, it might be little white lies, or ‘harmless’ gossip, it might be gluttony, or it might be pride. If we allow ourselves to celebrate our sin, then we are lifting up that sin to the title of “god” thereby breaking the first and greatest commandment. 

My focus today is on pride, above all the other sins, because society (at least here in the USA) is shouting to celebrate pride month every June. An entire month devoted to making ourselves gods in our own eyes. How incredibly sad that our society celebrates that which grieves our Savior. “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.” (Is. 5:20) The more we study the infallible, inerrant Word of God, the more we see that many people in the world around us are indeed celebrating evil as good, while also condemning good as evil. (See also Romans 1:18-32) I will absolutely not be celebrating pride - or any other sin. I will be humbly repenting to our Heavenly Father, afterwards praising Him for His grace, His love, and His mercy on me: a sinner. I pray you will see that God is calling you to humbly reject pride (and all other sin) as well.

Heavenly Father, we long to give You and You alone all of our praise, all of the glory, and all honor. We acknowledge that we have, at some point or another, fallen to the sin of pride. We ask You to please forgive us. Cleanse our hearts and restore our spirits. Lord we petition You today that You would place Your will in our hearts, that You would lead us to live humble, holy lives that bring You glory, and that You would teach us Your statutes so we will know the difference between evil and good. Let the world look at us and see You. In Jesus name, Amen.