If God would open the eyes of our soul and let us see what the works of pride have wrought in the earth during the history of man, we would also see our own hearts in a new way. We might begin to see how our own pride has brought a lot of destruction into the lives of others and our own, though to see pride in its ugliness is to see it as it is against God. All the things that we have blamed on others we might see our own self and pride as enough blame to bring us to our knees. We would begin to understand that we have used others as a way to serve self. We would see that we have used all things in the service of self. We would see that we have used religion in the service of self. We would see that we have used God in the service of self. Our hearts would be amazed to see how wicked our hearts are in their pride. We would then begin to beg God to tear pride from our hearts and grant us humility. Humility is not just something that we can add on to make us better people, it is to be emptied of pride and self and then to be filled with the life of Christ. When Christ is present self and pride must be gone, yet where self and pride are Christ will be absent. The quotes below are from a recent but unnamed book that I am using as a background in an effort to show how the world has infiltrated the professing Church. These are ways for pride to take on the appearance of humility and yet still live and control the soul.
“[1] In this study, you’ll be learning about the character trait of humility…[2]You’ll learn that God rewards humility. [3] You’ll study about an angel and some people who allowed pride to enter into their hearts, and you’ll see what happened to them because of it….[4] You’ll also study about the punishment for pride…[5] To humble yourself means to make yourself low. How do you make yourself low? You make yourself low by not thinking more highly of yourself than you think of others. You make yourself low by putting others first-above yourself…[5] Humble people are selfless people….[6] Humble people admit that they have faults and weaknesses. [7] Humble Christian people admit that they are nothing without God. They admit that apart from God, they can do nothing.”
In quotes [5] – [7] above it has some appearance of Philippians 2:3-8:
“Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
Indeed humble people are selfless people, but then again if it self trying to appear selfless it is still nothing more than the pride of self in the presence of God. It is true that humble people admit that they have faults and weaknesses, but truly humble people do more than just admit it. Even the most wicked men in the world will admit that they have faults and weaknesses. It is no measure of spirituality or humility for people to simply admit that they have weaknesses. Humble people also admit that they are nothing without God and admit that apart from God they can do nothing. But this is also what a lot of wicked people admit as well. Madonna used to pray (perhaps still does) that God would bless her and help her as she performed. I have heard of a bank robber who would pray that his robberies would be successful. They were admitting that apart from God they could do nothing.
The real issue is not just admitting it, but actually living it. Jesus did tell us very clearly that apart from Him we could do nothing (John 15:4-5). This teaching is in the story of the vine and the branches. There is no spiritual fruit worked in and through our souls that does not come from Christ. No human being can do anything spiritual unless it is given to him or her from Christ. The spiritual life is not in studying the Bible enough, praying enough, and then doing some good things, it is in being dead to self and having the life of Christ in the soul who then works His fruit in and through us by the Spirit. Spiritual pride is able to do virtually anything the Bible commands in terms of the externals. But it can never die to self so that all that would be done through it would come from Christ in true love. When Christ went to the cross He went there out of perfect love to the Father or it would not have been perfect obedience. For that Christ to live in us, we must die to self and pride. For us to die to self and pride means that we must give up trying to kill self and pride and simply look to grace alone to empty us of ourselves.
God Loves... Himself 
Leave a comment