JAMES 4:16 – But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.”
THEME OF THE DAY: OUR PRONENESS TO PRIDE. Today’s scripture is a description of the sin not contained in the verse. Arrogance, boasting, and evil are words associated with the mother of all sins – pride. And when it comes to pride? It is like Joseph’s coat of many colors. It is made up of many different things. Here is some of pride’s “tapestry” – thinking highly of oneself, boasting of superiority over others, bragging about spiritual gifts and talents, consumed with self, unteachable spirit, not open to reason, defensive when confronted, loving oneself more than others, and perhaps the most glaring and deceiving aspect of pride is thinking it is not a personal issue when it is a controlling sin in one’s life.
So, how do we do battle against this elusive and powerful sin? The first thing is to get a proper understanding of how God sees it. If we get that, we are on our way to learn how to keep in check in our hearts. And how does God look at the sin of pride. King Solomon tells us with force and clarity – There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty (prideful) eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers (Proverbs 6:16-19).
The Lord sees a haughty or prideful look as something He hates and calls an abomination. Think of the presence of pride in our lives. Are we seeing and reacting to it as the Lord? If not, a couple of things are happening in our hearts. First, we don’t see how heinous and horrific the sin of pride is. Remember, the devil became the devil due to pride, and the number one reason why people don’t come to Christ is because of pride. Another thing happening in our hearts if we don’t see pride as God does is we are not growing as a Christian. We are spiritually stagnated, lukewarm, and indifferent to things of the Lord. And here is the worst part. . . we are blinded to our pride. Such a condition we are prone to allow in our lives!
As we close this nugget on pride, ponder these wise words from the 17th century Puritan Pastor, Richard Sibbes, “Let us take notice, I say, of our proneness to this sin of pride; for the best are prone to it. Consider it an extremely hateful sin, a sin of sins, that God most hates. It was this sin which made him thrust the evil angels out of heaven, who shall never come there again. Yea, it is a sin that God cures with other sins, so far he hates it; as Paul, being subject to be proud through the abundance of revelations, was cured of it by a prick in the flesh: being exercised with some dangerous, noisome, and strange cure. Indeed, it is profitable for some men to fall, that so by their humiliation for infirmities, they may be cured of this great sacrilegious sin. And why it is called a sacrilegious sin? Because it robs God of his glory. For God has said, ‘My glory I will not give to another’ (Isa. 42:8)
PRAYER: “Father, forgive for all the too many times I am deceived by the sin of pride.”
QUOTE: “Pride is like Joseph’s coat of many colors. It is made up of many manifestations.”
In the affection of Christ Jesus,
Pastor Jim