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RIDE AND HUMILITY (1)A Meditation on Proverbs 6:16, 8:13, 11:2, 16:18
A few years ago MTV ran a program—you’re going to find this hard to believe—about the “Theology of Sin.” The special revolved around the “Seven Deadly Sins.” In case you don’t know the so-called Seven Deadly Sins, compiled by medieval church leaders, are greed, lust, anger, envy, gluttony, sloth and pride. As you might expect, MTV portrayed these sins as anything but deadly. In fact, by the time the program was over, it seems, from what I gleaned about the show off the internet, that the Seven Deadly Sins are really the Seven Desirable Sins.
In this program sound bites were provided by different celebrities, rockers, rappers and the ubiquitous mall rat, who voiced their opinion about these sins. For example, Queen Latifah, a rap singer, said, “Pride is a sin? I wasn’t aware of that!” Actress Kirstie Alley took it a step further, “I don’t think pride is a sin, and I think some idiot made that up.” A rocker from Aerosmith said, “Lust is what I live for; it’s what I got into the band for—little girls in the front row.” Rapper Ice-T said, “Pride is mandatory. That is one of the problems of the inner city, kids don’t have enough pride. I got into a gang because of pride” (If Ice-T’s logic escapes you, you’re not alone).
Kurt Loader, the narrator, said at the beginning of the show that “we are dealing with compulsions.” He went on to say, “The seven deadly sins are not evil acts, but rather universal human compulsions that can be troubling and highly enjoyable.” The special ended by saying, “The real danger of sin is anything that does damage to your ego.” “And no sin,” according to MTV, “is as evil as the killjoy attitude of those who think sin is an absolute standard that offends a holy God.” So there is MTV’s conclusion about sin: The worst evil in all the world is that of Christianity.
The warning of Isaiah 5:20 is apropos: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for dark-ness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” The antithesis that exists between the teaching of Scripture and that of our pop culture, especially concerning pride, couldn’t be starker. James 4:6, quoting Proverbs 3:34 from the Septuagint, says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
Speaking of pride, C. S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity, “Well, now we have come to the centre. According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: Pride leads to every other vice: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil.” Think about Lewis’ last comment: It was due to pride that the Day Star fell and became the devil. Isaiah 14:12-15 describes his fall. Notice the infamous five “I will” statements: “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God; I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit.” The devil’s condemnation was a result of his pride. Here’s one application for the church today: An elder “must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil” (1 Tim. 3:6).
“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Pro. 16:18). Consider King Nebuchadnezzar: He was walking on the roof of the royal palace in Babylon, and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory for my majesty?” (Dan. 4:30). “While the words were still in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, ‘O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you…And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox…until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom ever he will’” (vv. 31-32). After seven years, Nebuchadnezzar repented and acknowledged that “those who walk in pride he is able to humble” (vs. 37). Also, we read about King Herod: “On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. And the people were shouting, ‘The voice of a god, and not of a man!’ Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last” (Acts 12:21-23). The Bible concurs with the medieval fathers that pride is indeed a deadly sin.
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RIDE AND HUMILITY (2)A Meditation on Proverbs 6:16, 8:13, 11:2, 16:18
Do you want a sobering thought? Pride is a sin that we share with the devil, and we struggle with it a lot more than we realize. Also, pride is a fountainhead sin, because as C. S. Lewis has said, it leads to every other vice. It leads to impatience at a restaurant: “I deserve better service.” It leads to rebellion in children: “My parents should let me do what I want.” It causes parents to be angry with their children: “You’re embarrassing me.” It can result in depression, because you didn’t make the team, or the grade, or you didn’t get the promotion. This depression manifests itself in a black tie pity-party that was provoked by pride. These are just a few examples out of hundreds that we could have mentioned.
Think especially of how pride destroys relationships. King Saul could not have asked for a braver or more loyal or more dedicated or more gifted servant than David. David never let the King down. He always spoke respectfully to and of Saul. So why was Saul so hostile toward David? Why did he try to kill him on more than one occasion? The answer is found in 1 Samuel 18:7-9. After David achieved great victories for Saul, “the women sang to one another as they celebrated, ‘Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands.’ And Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him. He said, ‘They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands (read: only thousands), and what more can he have but the kingdom?’ And Saul eyed David from that day on.” Contrast David and Saul with David and Jonathan, Saul’s son. David and Jonathan were basically best friends. Since Jonathan was Saul’s oldest son he was the rightful heir to the throne, yet he knew God was going to give it to David, and yet we don’t detect even a hint of jealousy on his part. It never had a negative impact upon their relationship, due to Jonathan’s humility and love for David. I can’t help but wonder how many relationships in our churches are hindered by pride?
C. S. Lewis helps us understand why pride has such an adverse effect upon relationships. He wrote, “Now what you want to get clear is that Pride is essentially competitive—is competitive by its very nature—while the other vices are competitive only, so to speak, by accident. Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. If every one else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone” (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, p. 110).
Here’s another facet that makes pride a difficult issue to address: It can make you do the right things, but with the wrong motives. Disciplining children may be the right thing to do, but not because unruly children will make you look bad as a parent. You discipline your children because God commands you to do so, for the benefit of your children. Kids are discerning; they know whether you’re disciplining them out of pride or humble love.
Since we can’t see a person’s heart and infallibly ascertain what motivates them to do what they do, we need to exercise caution when we judge their spiritual condition. In the first century most of the Jews revered the Pharisees as the most spiritual people they knew. They regularly went to synagogue for services. They tithed even on their tiny spices. They prayed long and public prayers. They gave to the poor, which they announced with trumpets. They did all this, and much more, why? Pride, they loved the approval and admiration of men. To quote Lewis again, “Luckily, we have a test. Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are good—above all, that we are better than someone else—I think we may be sure that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the devil. The real test of being in the presence of God is that you either forget about yourself altogether or see yourself as a small dirty object. It is better to forget about yourself altogether” (Ibid, p. 112).
To balance the previous point, note that there are things that will be seen as arrogant that aren’t, such as having strong convictions. G. K. Chesterton stated it well, “What we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place. Modesty has moved from the organ of ambition. Modesty has settled upon the organ of conviction; where it was never meant to be. A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed.”
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