Walking in Humility
The opposite of humility is pride. And one of the best depictions of pride coming before the fall is in episode 3 of Star Wars. The neat thing about episodes 1-3 is that for a Gen Xer like me, those episodes provide the backstory to the original movies and characters in episodes 4-6, and in particular the backstory to Darth Vader, the greatest villain of all time. These take us back to the childhood of Darth Vader. He is a young boy named Anakin and he is a slave, but he demonstrates a precocious ability to handle many different situations. He is quickly identified as a gifted youth and one with the special ability of the force, and though he is often morally conflicted, he comes under the mentorship of Obi Wan Kenobi.
Anakin is more gifted than his teacher, and as the story develops Anakin’s pride begins to swell. He begins to reject his teacher’s teaching and goes his own way. He defies the Jedi way and marries Padme. Anakin’s faith in the Jedi is later shaken when he is put on the Jedi Council without the rank of master. Another slight that angers him and his pride. Anakin is then lured to the dark side by the Sith Lord who tells him he will be greater than all other Jedis and will use his powers in ways unseen. Anakin gives in because he wants to be all powerful and will stop at nothing to do it.
The hardened Anakin goes on to commit unthinkable atrocities. His swelling pride brings him into a final duel with his teacher Obi Wan. As they chase each other through a lava-filled mining facility, Obi Wan keeps pleading with Anakin to stop, reconsider, and humble himself. In the final scene of the fight, Obi Wan jumps on a rock ledge high above Anakin, and with Anakin below him, he points out he has the strategic advantage, and Anakin lacks a way to attack. But Anakin insists that he is more powerful and is being underestimated once again by his teacher. As he jumps in the air to attack, Obi Wan regretfully, but easily, swings his lightsaber, and Anakin falls helplessly to the ground beside the molten lava, which proceeds to burn and consume him. Obi Wan thinking him dead, leaves him, and it completes one of the greatest portrayals of how pride can ruin a person.
Throughout history we have many lessons warning of the danger of pride. Aesop's fables provide the tortoise and the hare, the cobbler’s dog. There are chick flicks like Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice with the stuck up Mr. Darcy.
C.S. Lewis, who has written much on the topic of pride, says, “It is pride which has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began” (Mere Christianity, Touchstone: New York, 1996, p111).
Pride is the great sin of the Bible. In fact some have said pride is not one sin among many but the root under all sin.
God’s word provides much instruction on pride and the need for humility. If we are going to be wise then we must have an accurate view of ourselves.
We close out our series on Proverbs today. Proverbs repeatedly puts forward two paths to life that we must choose from. The path of wisdom or the path of folly. The path of the righteous or the path of the wicked. Today we look at the path of humility and the path of pride.
Pride is the Prelude to Disgrace
When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.
(Prov. 11:2)
Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor than to divide the spoil with the proud.
(Prov. 16:18–19)
Define Pride
“Sometimes the word pride is used as a feeling that you respect yourself and or respect others or sometimes it is used as a “‘warm hearted feeling’” (Lewis, 113). “I’m proud of you, son” can be a healthy use of the word.
The pride that we are being warned of here is the feeling, belief, or desire that you are or ought to be more important and better than others.
Pride in Proverbs comes from a word that means “to be high and elevated” and or “to raise.”
The word is to describe God in his greatness, but it is also used of people. The word is used to describe the “majesty” or “glory” of God or his works. The term literally carries the idea of height (e.g., Job 38:11). It can mean “majesty” when referring to something that is actually elevated in value, such as God
When used of people, it is often translated as “pride” or “high-mindedness (e.g., Ex. 15:7; Job 40:10; Nah. 2:3). Carries a negative connotation of pride (e.g., Lev 26:19; Job 35:12). It is arrogant and conceited. Things that want to have God’s glory and majesty but simply do not have it. The undue wanting of a high status. Glory of the self.
A synonym for pride is “haughty,” an exalted view of self that is improper and sets one on course to fall.
We often elevate that which is superior. We do this for the Olympic medals. The top three performers stand on a tiered podium. First place is highest, second place, then third place. Human pride craves to be seen as the highest.
What is interesting, and you have to make sure you don’t miss, is that pride is an internal disposition. The practical Book of Proverbs that speaks of how we are to live and act in the world is ultimately a book to shape our hearts, to shape our beliefs. Wisdom comes from within us.
**The life of a tree comes from its roots, so also our life comes out of the overflow of the heart.**
At the core of this is what we think about God and our relation to him.
Pride is problematic because we want to be recognized as being greater than others. We don’t think about loving others or caring for them, but being better than them. And this pride wells up and makes us want to receive the place in life that only God deserves to have.
Only he is eternal, self-sufficient, all-knowing, and all-glorious. We think it is audacious for a third place winner to say they deserve the place of the first place winner. How much more so when we insert ourselves in the place that only God deserves to stand?
Pride is what was at the heart of the first sin. God created people in his image and they were to image and reflect him in what they did. But they wanted to be like God in knowledge and authority. They wanted to reign over themselves. They kicked him off the throne and sat down in his place. This is the heart of every sin. This sin led to the fall. It continues to lead to the fall of many today.
C.S. Lewis calls pride the “ruthless, sleepless, unsmiling concentration upon self.”
We make ourselves God and him our servant. Ignore God. Ignore others. Pride is an attitude of the heart. You can be going through all the motions of religion, but you have pushed him aside. That is a dangerous place to be. We see it in Adam and Eve. Nebuchadnezzer, in the book of Daniel, wouldn’t bow down to the Lord, had to be humbled by being driven mad, and eating grass like a cow.
When you are proud and stiff-arming God, you are destroying yourself.
In the Book of Proverbs we see a complex of words that have semantic distinction and overlap with wisdom: prudence, knowledge, skill, humility. All of these describe wisdom and at times different translations translate those words interchangeably. You see the same thing with the opposite of wisdom: folly, simple one, foolish, arrogant, mocker, proud.
The Proverbs have a strong message that pride leads to destruction. Not just a bad time or bad idea. Think about destruction. A building collapsing and falling in on itself. I picture the World Trade Center and the destruction that happened when those two towers collapsed. Utterly ruined. What can bring that upon a person? Pride. Anakin, the internal desire to be greater than others, to be seen as greater than others. Adam and Eve. Joseph. Haman.
Pride brings enmity. It makes us enemies with others. Proud people, in effort to exalt themselves, are willing to put others down. If they can’t pull themselves up to where they belong they will simply pull others down.
Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.
(Prov. 8:13)
Pride is essentially competitive–is competitive by its very nature–while 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 person. 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. (Lewis p. 110)
I can think of being in different settings where people are trying really hard to impress you and make sure others know how good they are.
Pride tears down others.
Mocker is the name of the proud and arrogant man—of him who acts with excessive pride.
(Prov 21:24, Berean Standard)
Willing to mock others. Pride swells and speaks to destroy others. He does this with his mouth, attitude and actions. The “mocker” is recognized precisely for his obnoxious mouth, and thus the refusal to control the tongue (v. 23), and it springs directly from arrogance (v. 24).
Pride is often driven by poor self-worth and shame. People feel below others and seek to elevate themselves. If you can't be better than others you seek to tear them down and put them below you. Look for the flaws in others as a way to conceal their own.
Scoffers set a city aflame, but the wise turn away wrath.
(Prov. 29:8)
Prideful people produce problems wherever they go. Humble people naturally promote peace. mocker, scoffer, i.e., a person who speaks words of ridicule and derision as a class of persons who act. Foolish scoffers are willing to put others down to the point of turning a city upside down. They are willing to destroy others in order to get their way.
As C.S. Lewis observed, “Pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense.”
Ignore counsel.
Where there is strife, there is pride, but wisdom is
found in those who take advice.
(Prov. 13:10)
Pride leads to strife and contention. He pits people against each other. It creates conflict.
Humble: get advice. Talk through things with people you know and trust. Pride leads us to not pursue others and that is what leads to destruction.
You don’t get advice from people when you are constantly trying to outdo them. You want to show your supremacy. And it is interesting that they don’t get advice and then blame others for their fall.
Blame others, even God.
There is no advice taking. One of the hardest things in ministry is to see people determine a course that is not good, make no effort to get advice, and then be mad at God because it didn’t work out.
When a man’s folly brings his way to ruin,
his heart rages against the LORD.
(Prov. 19:3)
*Folly refuses to see its own folly. Pride refuses to see itself as problematic.* Something went wrong. Well, it obviously wasn’t because of me. In your pride you cannot see how bad your own actions are. You are not able to see the connection. In your mind, it is impossible that the great you could do something stupid. It clearly must have been because of others.
Pride prevents us from acknowledging our human vulnerabilities. This shame-driven pride makes us too uncomfortable to say, “I’m sorry, I was wrong, I made a mistake.” When pride rules, we believe we’re always right.
Mental health struggles come from pride.
Anxiety.
You want things to be a certain way, they have to be that way or it is not good enough for you and everyone will see you.
Depression.
Circumstances in life are not good enough for you. You are low, but you are low because your pride believes you deserve so much more. You came in 10th place and you deserve to have 1st.
Anger.
Not angry at what happened but how it affected you. You have to put others down and show your dominance over them and that you are better than them.
Humility is the Path to Life
The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life.
(Prov. 22:4)
Now for some proud people, this will perk their interest in religion because they will see religion as the way for them to meet their proud desires. They want riches, honor, and life, and assume they can do a little “praise Jesus” in order to get what they want. Proud people use others for their own means and they will do it with God. God looks at the heart.
One of the reasons God brings suffering and adversity is to humble us.
Cain and Abel were both a part of the people of God. One’s pride did not allow him to worship God. Ananias and Saphira were struck down when they lied about their gifts to the church. They wanted to be honored for their piety rather than honor God. God sees through this for what it is. It is pushing him to the side.
God wants his people to serve him from the heart. In truth and integrity. Not just pretending him to be most important while they bow down to other things, but to be truly first in life.
The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold,
and the LORD tests hearts.
(Prov. 17:3)
Humility is a peaceful surrendering to God and his Lordship over us. It doesn’t mean we give up and don’t try to do things well. But it means we rest in him, his providence over us, in his greatness, in his plan.
When we rest in him, who he is, his wisdom for life, we prioritize his ways over our own. We begin to walk as he calls us rather than as we think we should. This sets us on course to do what is right, just and fair, and to receive blessings from him. Part of the blessing is that the colored lens is removed and we begin to see things as they are.
When we are proud we are not teachable. When God humbles us we begin to change. The humble person asks, “God, what are you doing in this,” and remains teachable until he gets an answer. We learn on God’s terms, not ours. Proud people make demands. Humble wait to be instructed.
Humility is the fear of the Lord. We realize we are not greater than God but that we must submit to him and his ways. We submit to his plan over our lives.
When we come to this place we find our insecurity doesn’t have to exhaust us as we constantly try to prove ourselves better than others. We don’t exhaust ourselves in worry and anxiety when things are not going as we hope. We don’t live in bitterness over not being seen for what we think we deserve. We can celebrate with others because we are not trying to outdo them. We are able to live because we are trusting God with what he gives to us. We are able to be the people he calls us to be. We find ourselves with friends because we genuinely care about others and they are drawn toward us because of that.
Where do we go from here?
The first step in acquiring humility is to realize that you are proud. Until you realize this, nothing can be done about it. If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed. (C.S. Lewis)
If someone were to come by and say, “Hey, Keith, here is a stick of deodorant.” You would look at them funny, unless you realized that you stink. If you know you stink or have the potential to then you will apply the deodorant.
When you know you are in trouble, you are in a place of finding help.
Do this then, my son, and deliver yourself;
Since you have come into the hand of your neighbor,
Go, humble yourself, and importune your neighbor.
(Prov. 6:3)
If you are proud then you are to humble yourself. If you are in financial straits and need help, you go and ask for help. There is a clear path. You give up trying to do it on your own. When we realize our spiritual pride, and just how odious our pride is, then we are in a place to potentially receive God’s help. There is a clear path.
God has made a way for the humble to receive help, but it is a way that necessitates pushing aside their pride.
Jesus Christ, being fully and eternally God, emptied himself, and came and was born in a stable and placed in a feeding trough. He lived a humble life in the poor town of a poor family, but he was fully committed to God. He gave up possessions and led a nomadic life teaching God’s word. With no home and no place to stay. He did not associate with the power structures of society, the educational system, or the country clubs, and he was a servant to his disciples. He came, he humbled himself, and he died on the cross for the sins of the world. He offers life to those who humble themselves and submit to him as Lord.
This can be extremely hard for those who believe themselves to have power and ability. We live in Alpharetta, GA. Many well-off and powerful people. Run companies. Live with nice things. It is archaic to think that we are proud and deserving of destruction. But this is exactly what Scripture teaches, and you see it proved true in the lives of other people. People ruined by their pride.
Becoming a Christian is not saying I need a little polishing up or I’m pretty good but just need a little help. It is coming to the point of saying my pride is in jeopardy of ruining me in every way. It runs in all I do and say and think, and I need saving and also cleansing from this sin.
This is when we begin to see clearly. We begin to see our need for grace and what God has done to solve our problem. We begin to see we are more vile than we ever thought, but it also means we are more loved than we could ever imagine. While we are repelled by pride, God came toward us and made a way for us. He offers us forgiveness and also promises to purge the pride from our hearts.
You are loved in Christ and that brings security. You submit to him and his terms. You don’t have to put others down to find significance. You don’t have to feel like everything needs to fit your plan perfectly in order to get where you want to go. You don’t have to be anxious that things will fail or constantly trying to be better than others.
You can have hope and confidence, if you will humble yourself, and submit to his plan. But your pride will say it's not that big of a deal. You are fine without it. Don’t need to get carried away. And you are essentially telling God you are fine without him. Your pride will rage against this. But humbling yourself will bring healing, and a greater healing than you can imagine. But it begins with making a decision. If you want your loans forgiven, go and beg. If you want your sins forgiven and reconciliation with God, you ask, and you ask boldly.
Are you on the path of wisdom? The path to Dahlonega is to get on 400 and head north. It is very clear when you are on it. The path of wisdom and humility is surrendering to Jesus Christ. There is a definite beginning point. If you are not walking with Christ, that is the first step.
And walking with him begins a life of him constantly and surgically repairing your heart and removing pride. Repentance of pride and faith in him is a way of life. Confessing your pride to others. Asking for forgiveness. It is becoming human and whole, and it leads to life, rather than destruction.
Discussion Questions
- What is pride and why is it so dangerous? In what ways do you see pride at work in your life?
- What is humility and what does it lead to?
- How does one begin to walk on the path of humility and wisdom? How does one continue on it?
