“What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” (! Corinthians 4:7).
It’s strange that we’re so prone to pride. We didn’t create ourselves; we have nothing that we weren’t given. “What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” (! Corinthians 4:7).
Even when we do something for the Lord, we have to be careful of wanting notice and praise. (Pride vs Humbleness)
It’s not wrong to want to please our loved ones or to know whether we’ve done a good job. C. S. Lewis clarified in Mere Christianity: “Pleasure in being praised is not Pride. The child who is patted on the back for doing a lesson well, the woman whose beauty is praised by her lover, the saved soul to whom Christ says, ‘Well done,’ are pleased and ought to be. For here the pleasure lies not in what you are but in the fact that you have pleased someone you wanted (and rightly wanted) to please. The trouble begins when you pass from thinking, ‘I have pleased him; all is well,’ to thinking, ‘What a fine person I must be to have done it.'”
I’m not sure if pride is one of Satan’s temptations because that seems to be his first sin, or because he knows it is one of the things God hates most (Proverbs 8:13).
Or maybe we wrestle with pride because of our flesh, what the Bible calls “the old man,” which is in rebellion to God. “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do” (Galatians 5:17).
Looking up passages about pride and humility are a big help in keeping the right perspective. But recently I heard another avenue of thinking that shed new light.
I had the radio on earlier than usual one morning and caught part of a program called Glad Tidings with J. Allen Blair about pride. He pointed out the insidious nature of pride and the fact that we can’t overcome it without Christ. He shared Philippians 2:5-8:
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
To have His mindset, to humble ourselves like He did, Mr. Blair pointed out several aspects of Jesus’ humility contrasted with areas we usually take pride in:
Pride of birth. When Jesus came back to His hometown, people said, “‘Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?’ And they took offense at him” (Matthew 13:55-57).
Pride of wealth. Jesus said of Himself, “The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Luke 9:58).
Pride of respectability. It was said of Jesus, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46).
Pride of personal appearance. “He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him” (Isaiah 53:2).
Pride of reputation. Jesus was said to be “a friend of tax collectors and sinners” (Matthew 11:19).
Pride of learning. People asked about Jesus, “How has this man become learned, not having been educated?” (John 7:15, NASB).
Pride of superiority. Jesus said, “I am among you as the one who serves’ (Luke 22:27).
Pride of success. Jesus “came to his own, and his own people did not receive him” (John 1:11).
Pride of ability. Jesus said, “I can of mine own self do nothing” (John 5:30).
Pride of self-will. Jesus said, “I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me” (John 5:30).
Pride of intellect. Jesus said, “As the Father taught me, I speak these things” (John 8:28).
Pride of death. Jesus “humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8).
If anyone ever had a right to be proud, it would be Jesus. But Mr. Blair points out that “There is no trace of pride in Him.”
2 Corinthians 3:18 says that as we behold Christ, we’re changed to be like Him.
When we’re tempted to have an inflated view of ourselves and our accomplishments, let’s look at Christ.
He’s the Lord of glory, but He described himself as “gentle and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11:29).
He didn’t demand accolades. He “came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). He served, healed, taught, and put up with unbelief and gossip.
He left the glories of heaven, took on a human body, and came to a world that was opposed to Him. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9).
He gave Himself to die on the cross for our sins and rise again to defeat death. “He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross,” considered one of the most shameful kinds of deaths (Philippians 2:8).
May we have His mind, His humility, His focus on serving others at great cost to Himself.
"Humility is not simply feeling small and useless - like an inferiority complex. It is sensing how great and glorious God is, and seeing myself in that light." ~ Sinclair B. Ferguson
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