SINS WE TOLERATE: Pride

This week we covered a doozy of a topic in "Sins We Tolerate" and that was Pride. It's one that if we're all honest with ourselves we'd recognize we contain tendencies of. If we're looking at the definition of Pride it can be summed up as the following:

1. You look down on someone
2. Treat someone with disrespect due to their status
3. Put yourself above others
4. Always saying I am better
5. Talking of how great you are
6. Bragging about yourself
7. If your mouth is too big for your body

Many of us could fall into more than just one of those categories.
The Bible has plenty to say about Pride, here's just a small portion of what we looked at:

Deuteronomy 8:11-20 (NKJV) pg. 77-78
¹¹ “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, ¹² lest—when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; ¹³ and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; ¹⁴ when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; ¹⁵ who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; ¹⁶ who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end— ¹⁷ then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’ ¹⁸ “And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. ¹⁹ Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. ²⁰ As the nations which the Lord destroys before you, so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God.

1 Samuel 2:3 (NKJV)
³ “Talk no more so very proudly; Let no arrogance come from your mouth, For the Lord is the God of knowledge; And by Him actions are weighed.

Psalm 101:5 (NKJV)
⁵ Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, Him I will destroy; The one who has a haughty look and a proud heart, Him I will not endure.

 

Proverbs 8:12-13 (NKJV)
¹² “I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, And find out knowledge and discretion. ¹³ The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverse mouth I hate.

 

Proverbs 11:2 (NKJV)
² When pride comes, then comes shame; But with the humble is wisdom.

 

Romans 12:3 (NKJV)
³ For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.

 

1 Peter 5:5-7 (NKJV)
⁵ Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” ⁶ Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, ⁷ casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

So, as you can see this issue is addressed in detail throughout the Bible but yet it's still found so prevalently within the Church. The heart of the matter is this:

2 Corinthians 10:17-18 (NKJV)
¹⁷ But “he who glories, let him glory in the Lord.” ¹⁸ For not he who commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends.

If we will boast, we should boast only in the Lord and who He is and what He has done.

 

“Though [pride] is so prevalent among us, it is difficult to recognize because we all practice it to some degree. In fact, we seem to get a perverse enjoyment out of discussing how awful society around us is becoming. When we engage in this kind of thinking or conversation, we are guilty of the pride of moral superiority.” Jerry Bridges, Respectable Sins, pg. 90

That's a good portion of what we looked at, but if you'd like to review more of what we looked at last night, you can do so by clicking Download Here