The Sin of Pride is More Dangerous Than We Think
Happy Monday guys! I hope you had an amazing weekend. I read something recently about sleep. I’ve had difficulties sleeping for quite a number of months. It happens periodically. I wake up with headaches, and sometimes feel as if I went to the farm while others slept.
Because of that, on most days when I struggle, once it gets to afternoon time, I begin to feel sleepy. Anyway, the article on sleep said that if you don’t sleep well at night, you are only building your sleep debt. And if we know anything about being indebted to something, it’s the fact that we have to pay back (well, depending on your creditor).
I had to pay my body back for all the sleep it had been deprived of last week. I slept like a baby on Saturday night for the first time in days. And that after-church-Sunday-afternoon-nap, gave all that it was supposed to give. I remember my cousin giving me gist about something, and she had to pause every now and again asking, “Evi, are you sleeping? Wake up now, the sweet part of the gist will soon reach oh!” It was hilarious!
Please, if you have any other tips for better sleeping at night, let me know. I’ve stopped leaving the TV on, and I try to get away from my devices, and even workout at night just so I can sleep. Okay, enough of all that, let’s get into today’s topic - Pride.
When it comes to the issue of pride, many of us don’t think much of it as a sin. There are a number of verses which speaks about pride and humility in the Bible that it ought to grasp our attention. Proverbs 16:18 says: “pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” James 4:6 says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” The word “opposes” is such a strong one, it means to actively resist a person or system. So, for those of you who always love to shout “village people!” when you are going through something unpleasant; it might just be your pride working against you.
Oftentimes when we think about this topic, it’s from the standpoint of someone who has a lot of money and a “you can’t sit with us mentality.” Eh, you sef on the receiving end of that, humble yourself and go to where you will be accepted, because no one owes us anything. While that mentality or character flaw can be problematic, the pride issue (I believe) can run even deeper.
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So, there I was the other day, watching a short documentary where a pastor from a popular church came up. In that video, a clip of another video was shared which captured him using vulgar language on a podcast where he discussed some topic that had to do with the Bible.
The pastor said, “…where is the verse that said you should treat your slave as your brother? Right under the “bleeping” verse which just said slaves are meant to obey their masters. So this is how “bleeping” lazy we are now, that’s just BS.” In all honesty, I don’t even know what he was referring to. However, my jaw dropped, while the person he was doing the podcast with laughed hysterically.
After he received some backlash (rightfully so) he released a video saying that “I reserve the right when I am talking about something I am passionate about to use strong language. In my mind it makes sense that I should use strong language to go with those emotions.”
Then he went on to say he is very intentional about his language and how no one has heard him curse on the pulpit in his 27 year preaching career. He concluded with how the Holy Spirit has never convicted him of it. And as such people should stop sending him scriptures like Ephesians 4:29, (“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”) which they think is talking about profanity.
Where have we gone wrong as Christians?
This whole scenario took me back to a sermon which was preached in my church a few weeks ago about sacredness. In today’s world, the message out there about Christianity is that God is so in love with us, or that God is crazy about us (because of what Christ did on the cross) which then leads people to think that they can now misbehave and get away with it. As such, they don’t hold sacred things, sacred anymore.
Things like the word of God, marriage, and human life, are often disparaged because people believe they can do anything with their newfound freedom in Christ. We are all under grace, they say. Look at what this scripture says in Galatians 5:13-14: “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.””
1 Corinthians 6:12 Says, “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything.” And Hebrews 13:4 says about marriage, “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.”
So, when we hate our neighbor, we when speak down on marriage, saying things like: “it’s just a piece of paper, or when we support deviant variations of marriage such as same-sex unions, or when we fornicate or become adulterous in marriage, what we are ultimately saying is - God, these which you created and have called us to highly esteem, are meaningless.
God’s word is holy because God is holy. God upholds his word to the uttermost because with it he created that which we see and the things we don’t see. Hebrews 11:3 says, “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God…” And by it, he will judge the living and the dead. God’s word should be held in the highest esteem because Jesus is the word of God (and the word became flesh and dwelt among us - John 1-14). Which makes me wonder how that “pastor” could desecrate God’s word in that manner? In such a demeaning manner?
His use of vulgar language and lack of regard of God’s word, however, wasn’t even the biggest issue. Rather, his refusal to accept correction which was meant to drive him to repentance in Christ, is the bigger problem. This is what pride does to you.
Jesus warns against pride
Jesus contrasted two kinds of people in the book of Luke 18, where he talked about a tax collector and a Pharisee. They both went into the temple to pray, and the Pharisee began his prayer by thanking God. What’s wrong with that? Some might ask, don’t worry, I’ll show you.
He said, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even this tax collector.” He went on to read God his CV, about how he did “everything” right. While the tax collector couldn’t even look up when he cried out to God, because he was that ashamed of his sin. Christ ended with this (referring to the tax collector):
“I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:14). What fascinated me all the more was how the parable began in verse 9: “He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt.”
This “pastor” in question placed himself beyond reproach. Because, he rejected those who attempted to correct him through scriptures, saying that God himself hasn’t told him what he is doing is wrong.
Drawing again from another parable in the Bible, the parable of the rich man and Lazarus found in Luke 18 - where the rich man pleaded with Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his brothers, stating that his brothers will be more inclined to listen to a dead man.
“But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’””
God is not going to come down from heaven or send someone from there to tell you what you are doing is wrong. We have scriptures, and we have believers who can be trusted. It is why we need to be a part of a church community (I speak more on this in this article: Why Belonging to a Church Community Matters) where we are serving each other in humility and can confess our sins and be corrected.
The Holy Spirit must have convicted this “pastor” of the use of foul language, however, once you harden your heart, the truth becomes a distant memory. Remember, God will never endorse things that are not within the boundaries of his word. If you never hear God’s audible voice in your lifetime, know that you can count on his written word. In fact, the written word is the surest way you can know that you have heard him speak.
What will cause many people’s downfall isn’t the “sin” itself that they commit, but the lack of humility to go to the creator and ask forgiveness, or the pride which often blinds them from seeing their sin. For example, the sin of homosexuality, while it is an abomination before God, because it disrupts the natural order of things which was designed to happen through procreation, wouldn’t cause the homosexual’s downfall.
Rather, because this lifestyle is often celebrated in parts of the world with so much pride (pride month), with the partakers (even those who are not homosexuals) basking in it, and identifying with it, is what will be their demise if they don’t turn to Christ. Watching the video of this “pastor” and similar videos makes me want to dust my mic and start shooting videos again to address such topics because this is insane.
We all (can) fall into this trap when we begin to view ourselves as the final authority or as those who God speaks directly to. So, when we don’t hear “my son (or daughter) this thing you are doing is wrong,” we believe we are in the right. My brothers and sisters, please do not allow the enemy deceive you in this manner.
God has given us his word, and has surrounded us with people who can rightfully explain his word when we lack understanding. 1 Corinthians 8:2 says about the I too know demographic: “If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know what he ought to know.”
Pride will keep you in a place of - I know it all, so, I don’t need to be corrected or pruned. Humility will keep you in a place where you constantly desire to grow in the knowledge of Christ. God’s word will never be obsolete. It’s alive, and there is always something new we can learn.
For instance, one of my favorite scriptures is found in Hebrews 13:5-6. I’ve stood on it in seasons of great discontentment and lack. It wasn’t until recently when I read it, that my eyes where opened to see the preceding verse (4) which says, “Let marriage be held in honor among all…”
That verse blew my mind. Not for me to begin idolizing marriage, or to be plagued with the overwhelming feeling of - I need to get married like yesterday, but it was for me, and for us, not to speak ill of it, and more importantly not to do things to defile it - such as fornication, adultery, and even putting a husband against his wife (and vice versa.) We will never get to a place where we will know it all. Thus, we need to remain humble.
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