Proverbs 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before stumbling. 29:23 A man’s pride will bring him low, But a humble spirit will obtain honor.
The examples in Scripture of people who have been brought down because of their pride are many. If we looked in history, we would find many more as well. If we could see behind what historians are interested in and see the hearts of those involved, history would be littered with wars, politics, criminal behavior, religious activity, and family situations where people were brought down and even to destruction because of pride. We rarely think of the utter destruction that pride causes and of its grim activity in the religious realm. There are many that are moral and are proud of their morality, but their pride in their morality makes them as spiritual prostitutes before God. Their very pride in their chastity is to commit spiritual adultery against God. The same thing is true in many areas of religious activities. Pride renders whatever is done as that which is idolatry because all that comes from pride, regardless of how religious it is or how much outward good it appears to do, is the idolatry of self.
We can go back to the origin of pride who is the devil or Satan. Jonathan Edwards speculated that the reason for the fall of Satan and the angels that followed him was essentially because of the pride of Satan. He believed, along with many in his day, that the Lord had made known to the angels His decrees that they would be ministers of human beings. Not only just human beings who were inferior to the angels by nature, but those human beings would be sinners. The very Lord of the earth would take human flesh to save sinful human beings and would rule over the angels in that human body as well. That was simply more than the devil could take. Those thoughts are built on texts like Ezekiel 28:13-17 which were seen as speaking primarily of Satan:
“You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The ruby, the topaz and the diamond; The beryl, the onyx and the jasper; The lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald; and the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, Was in you. On the day that you were created They were prepared. 14 “You were the anointed cherub who covers, And I places you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked in the midst of the stones of fir. 15 “You were blameless in your ways From the day you were created Until unrighteousness was found in you. 16 “By the abundance of your trade You were internally filled with violence, And you sinned; Therefore I have cast you as profane From the mountain of God. And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the stones of fire. 17 “Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I put you before kings, That they may see you.
Even if one does not see this text speaking of Satan directly, this poison of pride came from somewhere. Satan is the author of pride in the human race as we shall see in later BLOGS. As a human being can do nothing in terms of bearing spiritual fruit apart from Christ, so pride has to have a source from another as well. The Holy Spirit works the fruit of love, joy, peace, and patience in the hearts of true believers (Gal 5:22), but Satan is working in the hearts of his children to express their hate, misery, antagonistic hearts, and impatience toward all but self (Titus 3:3). The human heart is in bondage to either sin or righteousness. The human heart either follows the ways of the world which is set up and governed by the prince of the power of the air who works in the sons of disobedience (Eph 2:1-3) or of Christ. So when Scripture speaks of pride, let us not forget the origin of that awful sin.
Satan was blameless in his ways until something unrighteous (pride) was found in him. His heart was lifted up because of his beauty which is a definition of pride. His wisdom was corrupted by that splendor which is what pride does. If we see history as Scripture sets out for us, we see it all as the outworking of the curse of the fall. There is enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the Serpent. The whole Old Testament revolves around that great battle as it follows the wars and battles as the seed of the Serpent struck against the seed of the woman. This enmity came and still comes because of the source of pride and enmity which is Satan. The children of Satan and of the devil hate God and His children. There has been and always will be (as long as the present earth continues) war between the seeds. While there are wars between the nations, the greatest war is against the children of God. We must never forget the real fight. Pride is ultimately against God in every situation and it is the devil working his poison in and through the hearts of human beings. This is why God hates pride and fights to bring it down. When a human being is proud, that is a true act of war against Him because that is what pride really is. When a human being has pride that is sharing in the nature and activity of the devil and that is truly evil.
God Loves... Himself 
Leave a comment