The Shame of Pride

November, 2006

by: Brock Bolde

I don’t know how many of you have ever taken the time to read through and study the Book of Proverbs – but for those of you who haven’t let me encourage you to do so as soon as you can. It is a book that is loaded with all kinds of practical wisdom for both the young and old. It does much to point us down the straight and narrow path while warning us of the dangers of getting off of it. It is a book that every parent should be well versed in so that they might help their children to live wisely in a crooked and perverse world.

It is a study in contrast as we hold the wisdom of Proverbs up against the so-called wisdom of our day; with the wisdom in Proverbs proving itself timeless. Consider if you would the great truth of Proverbs 11:2:

When pride comes, then comes dishonor, But with the humble is wisdom.

As parents, many of us would do well to teach our children this great truth because we are living in a time when pride is high and humility is almost non existent. Many children are growing up with a sense of entitlement whereby they think that they deserve to have something (good looks; money; happiness; friends; new clothes; a toy; whatever it may be) and if they don’t have it then they sin in an effort to get it. Pride is a deadly sin. In fact, I would even be so bold as to say that the majority of a person’s sin can be traced back to pride. Listen to just a few of the many different verses regarding pride and how God feels about it:

Proverbs 16:5

Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD; Assuredly, he will not be unpunished.

Isaiah 2:17

The pride of man will be humbled And the loftiness of men will be abased; And the LORD alone will be exalted in that day,

1 John 2:16

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.

Pride is something that God hates because pride attempts to remove God from His throne; it refuses to acknowledge God as supreme ruler and sovereign. The proud person attempts to glorify himself and not God; he basically seeks to deprive God of something that only He is worthy to receive. Jonathan Edwards called pride “the worst viper that is in the heart” and “the greatest disturber of the soul’s peace and sweet communion with Christ;” he ranked pride as the most difficult sin to get rid of, and “the most hidden, secret and deceitful of all lusts” (Humility, C.J. Mahaney p. 34).

Pride is something that each of us must teach our children to turn away from; replacing it with the god-honoring quality of humility. There is wisdom in humility because it causes us to look at ourselves in a proper light. As parents we must help our children to view themselves in view of the cross of Christ. John Stott writes – “Nothing in history or in the universe cuts us down to size like the cross. All of us have inflated views of ourselves, especially in self-righteousness, until we have visited a place called Calvary. It is there, at the foot of the cross, that we shrink to our true size” (The Message of Galatians, BST p. 179). It is at the cross that we see our sin; that we come face-to-face with the truth that our sin put Christ there. It is at the cross that we see true greatness; Jesus Christ taking the punishment that was rightfully ours.

As we bring our children to the foot of the cross, they will see themselves for who they really are and they will see Jesus for who He really is – the only One who is worthy of their praise and adoration.