Chapter 55

Humility is the opposite of pride. You cannot have humility where pride exists, and subsequently it is one of the most hated sins in the sight of God. We find a message in Proverbs 16:5 which says “Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord; assuredly he will not be unpunished.” (NASB) We also find another passage in Proverbs 26:12 which says “Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.” (NASB)

The question to ask yourself is not, “Do I have pride?” but, rather, “Where is my pride?” and “How much of it do I have?” and “What can I do to resist my pride?” At the center of our sinful nature is the inclination to think too highly of ourselves at the expense of loving others. The great preacher Charles Swindoll once said, “The world’s smallest package is a man wrapped up in himself.” Since it is obvious we are to avoid pride, let us consider a brief explanation of what it is.

There are six different Hebrew words used for pride, and all of them convey the following: lifting up, highness, magnification, rebelliousness, or presumptuousness of self. In Greek, the words for pride occur in two categories, one of which is “straining or stretching one’s neck” (as if to hold one’s head up high because of what he has accomplished or made) or “to magnify, or be haughty.” The other category in Greek conveys “blindness,” or the concept of being “enveloped in smoke.” Basically all throughout the Scriptures in both the Hebrew and Greek languages, we find that prideful people are portrayed as simply having too high a view of themselves. We learn that while we can be self-important and high up in the clouds in our own thinking, we are actually blind.

Here is the plain truth: In our sinful nature, we are blinded to our pride, blinded to God’s truth, and consequently blinded to reality. Pride is often indiscreet and very subtle, and is easily undiscerned by most people. It is more commonly cherished than spoken against, and it can take many clever forms. The various words in the Bible used to describe the character attributes of pride are the following: vainglory, boasting, conceit, loftiness, arrogance, haughtiness, presumption, being puffed up, high mindedness, scoffing, and self-seeking.

In the Bible, we never find the message “you’re thinking too lowly of yourself,” or “you should consider yourself more important than others.” In fact, quite the opposite is true. The fascinating insight about God’s plan for humanity is this: We are given many Biblical illustrations of how pride appears, and Scripture tells us to stop focusing on ourselves and what we want –and if we do, God will meet our needs. This requires walking by faith, not by sight. And since this very thing goes against our nature, we discover it as one more piece of evidence of God’s design.