What we often Overlook

I started off my bible lesson by saying, "There are many things that we would think of as evil in this world. If you were to think about which evil bothers you the most, which would it be? What sin do you think of as the worst possible sin?"

Some shy youth began rattling off things like murder, rape, trafficking, pedophilia, and human sacrifices.

"Now that we have a clear idea of what we think of as the worst possible sins..." I held my breath for emphasis, "Which sin do you think God hates the most?"

The answers ranged from lying, to murder, to unbelief.

"The sin that God repeatedly says He hates the most is PRIDE." Curious silence reverberated across the room. "Why would God hate pride so much? Pride has a definition of being self-focused, selfish, self-centered, self-serving, or self-obsessed. Pride is the breeding ground for every other kind of immorality. Lust begins with pride, being driven by your pleasure. Addiction begins with pride, only thinking of what you want when you want it. Gluttony begins with pride, thinking of satisfying your appetite. Anxiety can even begin with pride, obsessing over your fears, your worries; only thinking about how everything could go wrong for you. Pride is the sin that gives way to every other kind of sin."

"What if I came in tonight and confessed to you all that I've been struggling with lust lately and that it has gotten to the point that I'm beginning to check you guys out?" Awkward side eyes shifted between the audience. "You would probably become uncomfortable and I probably wouldn't be allowed back in this facility. Even if you don't believe in God or the bible, that's how seriously we take that sin. But if I confessed to you that I've been struggling with pride, we just shrug our shoulders and think, 'yeah, who doesn't?' Yet, this is the thing that God specifically says He hates."

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It was interesting to me how many of these young people had never even known that pride is a sin. Our culture has made pride a good word, a positive word. When we first began discussing the topic, some thought we were talking about pride, as in the movement, which we had to clarify was not the case. Even those who were raised in church-attending households didn't know that pride is something God hates (Proverbs 6:16-19, Proverbs 8:13, Proverbs 16:5, James 4:6-8.)

In Matthew 3:17 when Jesus was baptized, God said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Typically, when we tell someone we are proud of them, we mean that we are pleased with them. However, God doesn't use the word proud, but pleased. I don't want to argue over semantics, but it's noteworthy to me that God never uses the word to describe His perfect affection towards His perfect Son.

I recently asked myself the question: What is the opposite of Love?

Hate?

Apathy?

Indifference?

The famous love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13, in verses 4-7 reads, "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast; it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, and it keeps no records of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres" (NIV).

The opposite of love is pride.

It is pride that leads me to be impatient, self-seeking; to envy, to boast.

It is pride that can drive my anger and keep records.

And love is not just love.

We are told what Love is.

God is love (1 John 4:8).

And God hates pride.

Love hates pride.

There is no love in pride.

I cannot be self-seeking AND love my husband.

I cannot keep track of every time my family fails AND love my family.

I cannot rejoice when I see even my enemy fall AND love my enemy (which we are supposed to do).

I cannot speak whispers of someone behind their back AND love them.

I cannot be envious of what my neighbor has (possessions, talents, or features) AND love my neighbor.

If love always hopes and always trusts, then I cannot allow my mind to assume the worst about my friend AND love my friend.

And if love does not boast, I cannot say I am a self-made woman AND love God (Romans 11:36, 1 Corinthians 4:7).

I used to think that a proud person was the one who evaporated the essence of, "Look at me and how amazing I am." Instead, I have come to learn that it is just as prideful to say, "Look at me and how traumatized I am, how many problems I have, how dumb, how pitiful, how ugly, how bitter, how angry, how ill, how stubborn, etc." Pride is not pride just because it is exclusively positive. Pride is still pride even if it's negative. I can believe that I am superior or inferior and still be proud. I believe it was C.S. Lewis who said that, "Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less." Pride is thinking of ourselves more often than we should.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—  even death on a cross!

- Philippians 2:3-8 (NIV)

Nothing that we do, assume, think, or say should emerge from a place of personal benefit or advantage. We are to have the same mindset as Jesus. His mindset was that we were just as valuable, just as esteemed, as Himself. He considered the interest of the sinner above the interest of the divine. He was God, but we never see Him beating His chest and saying, "Don't you know who I am? You'll regret what you've done to me. I left heaven for this? I never should have come here." We don't see Him complaining about how exhausted He was after the thousands of people He ministered to. He doesn't treat Judas any different than the other disciples, knowing full well that he will betray Him someday. He met with Nicodemus in the dark of night, not chastising him for being too cowardly to speak openly with Him. His rebukes or corrections of the Pharisees were public, never secretly slanderous.

Another translation of Philippians 2 says that He, "made Himself of no reputation," (NKJV). From the day He was born, He threw off any notion of being reputable in the eyes of man. For any onlooker at the time, Jesus would have been the illigitimate, bastard child born out of wedlock and amidst much scandal. How else are babies made? But He made himself of no reputation. He was known as a 'friend of sinners'. He dined with prostitutes and tax-collecting extortioners. The company He kept made critics whisper. But He made Himself of no reputation. Even while performing signs, miracles, healings and deliverances, the religious elite defamed Him publically saying, "You must be a demon. You must work for the Prince of demons. How else could you do such things?" But He made Himself of no reputation. While He hung, bleeding out on a cross, the mocking crowds sneered, "If you really are the Son of God, save yourself." And He could have. He could have called down a legion of angels, flattened them all and been totally justified in doing so. What else? A weak man would have. We all hate suffering and if given the opportunity to stop it for ourselves, we would usually take it. But Jesus, He had the ability and He would have had the right to stop it, and He never did. He made Himself of no reputation.

Pride convinces us that we have a reputation to maintain.

Pride concerns us with the perceptions of others.

Pride tricks us into believing that our 'image' matters.

The truth is that we were made in the image of God.

We are to be His image. We do not have an image of our own. To even believe that I have an image to keep is prideful. I was made by Him, for Him, through Him, and to be like Him and with Him.

Nothing about me is about me!

It is all about Him.

I will admit, there are times I have read the Bible and have disagreed with God.

In Numbers 20, God tells Moses to speak to a rock and water would come out to refresh the thirsty Israelites in the wilderness. Moses calls the people rebels, they had been complaining for a while after, but he hits the rock instead of speaking to it. God tells Moses that his disobedience will cost him his own entrance into the promised land.

Now, I read this kind of story and I confess that I do not think it's fair.

I think Moses still should have been allowed in.

I think God might have been a little harsh.

But I'm not God.

How often in our pride do we come to the scriptures, and rather than submitting to His word, we argue?

Obviously, I cannot be wrong.

God must be wrong.

It cannot mean what it literally says.

What God must mean is this __.

God says we are to honor our parents, but we say that they were mean and we will just treat them the way they treated us.

God says we are to forgive, but we create stipulations that we won't forgive until they change or apologize or pay penance for a while first.

God says that sex is for marriage, but we say that as long as it's consensual, as long as you love each other, as long as you get married eventually then it's okay.

God says not to lie, but we say it's just a joke, or a small white lie, or maybe not a lie per se, but just not the whole truth, so it's fine.

God says do not murder, but we say it's just a fetus, a parasite, and so it's not really murder.

The ultimate arrogance, the pinnacle of pride, is adding to or taking away from God's word.

And we blindly do this so often.

We can throw ourselves upon the rock, or be crushed by it (Matthew 21:44).

We can humble ourselves or be humbled (1 Peter 5:6, Matthew 23:12).

One thing we cannot be is the same.

We will either become more like Jesus or less like Him.

The difference is measured by our discipline and His grace.

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