Making Sense of Pride & Humility
Make It Make Sense Series Part 3
How was sin introduced into the cosmos?
Most of us would say, the garden. The fruit. Adam and Eve. But Reverend Justin Henderson asked us to think further back. Before Genesis, before the garden, before the serpent ever spoke to Eve, sin entered the universe in one place: the heart of an angel.
Ezekiel 28 describes a being of extraordinary beauty, wisdom, and position, an anointed guardian cherub, present in the garden of GOD, blameless from the day of his creation. And then: "wickedness was found in you."
What was the wickedness? "Your heart is proud and you have said, 'I am a god.'"
The first sin wasn't theft. It wasn't murder. It wasn't adultery. It was pride.
And if our entire relationship with sin started with pride, maybe it's time we stopped treating it like it's not a big deal.
Pride Is More Serious Than We Think
We create false hierarchies of sin. We put murder at the top and pride somewhere near the bottom. We're dismissive of it, the same way people in an AA meeting might dismiss someone who says they're addicted to marijuana. It doesn't feel as serious.
But Proverbs 6:16-17 lists the things GOD detests. Right at the top of that list? Arrogant eyes.
Not murder. Not sexual immorality. Pride is first.
And James 4:6 tells us that "GOD resists the proud." That word "resists" in the Greek is actually a military term, the picture of an army getting into formation to oppose the enemy. That's what GOD does when He encounters pride. He lines up against it. He opposes it. He can't use us when we're walking in it because pride makes us, in a very real sense, His enemy.
Pride is also a gateway sin. Look at almost any other sin and trace it back far enough, you'll find pride at the root. It leads to violence, to deception, to isolation, to broken fellowship. It's never content to exist alone.
Pride Is More Subtle Than We Realize
Here's what makes pride uniquely dangerous: it's the most subtle of all sins.
If someone commits murder, they know they've committed murder. If someone steals, they know they've stolen. But you can be walking in pride without any awareness that it's happening.
Paul understood this better than most. He had received extraordinary revelations from GOD, caught up to heaven, hearing things unlawful to repeat. And GOD knew: the human condition is so prone to pride that a person can't carry that level of revelation without it becoming a problem.
So GOD gave him a thorn. Not because Paul asked for it. He prayed against it three times. But GOD said no, because without the thorn, Paul would have become ineffective. The thing Paul was praying away was the very thing keeping him humble enough to be used.
Think about that when you consider the difficulties in your own life that haven't gone away despite your prayers.
And here's the part that should stay with us: humility is not a finish line. It's not something you accomplish once and move on from. As Reverend Henderson said, working on pride is like hygiene. I don't care how good a bath you took last night. If you want someone to sit by you tomorrow, you've got to do it again with the same zeal.
Pride Makes Fellowship Impossible
The prodigal son story is one of the most well-known in all of Scripture. But there's a detail in the older brother's response that we often miss.
When he hears the celebration for his returning brother, he refuses to go inside. He stands outside, angry, and tells his father: "This son of yours..."
Not "my brother." This son of yours.
Pride doesn't allow you to see other believers as brothers and sisters, because you're too busy comparing their experience to yours. Comparing what you think GOD should have done for you to what He did for them. Keeping score. Listing everything you've sacrificed.
And here's the indictment underneath his protest: if you're arguing that someone else doesn't deserve GOD's grace, you're implying that you do deserve it. But grace by definition is something none of us deserve. To protest grace extended to someone else is to reveal that you haven't fully received the grace extended to you.
Pride is always at odds with grace. Always.
The Weapon Against Pride Is Intercession
Luke 22:31-32 | Philippians 2:5-8
Peter declared he was ready to go with Jesus to prison and to death. He couldn't stay awake to pray for an hour. He denied knowing Jesus three times. He thought he was at the finish line, even though He wasn't even licensed to drive.
This is what pride does. It blinds us to where we actually are spiritually. It creates a gap between where we think we are and where we really are, and we can't see the gap.
And Jesus's response wasn't to argue with Peter or embarrass him. He said: "I've prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you turn back, strengthen your brothers."
Intercession. That's the weapon. Sometimes the person walking in pride isn't going to hear anything from anyone, regardless of your influence or proximity. But nobody can stop you from praying for them.
And for ourselves, the antidote to pride is the mind of Christ. Philippians 2:5-8 calls us to "adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, who did not consider equality with GOD as something to be exploited, but humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death."
Jesus knew exactly who He was. And that knowledge produced humility, not arrogance. That's the model. That's the call.