The Ugliness of Pride & Arrogance
Pride is a sin that is at the core of all humanity, you either have a little or a lot. Proud and arrogant behavior has never done anybody any good; and it will surely and ultimately damage the life of the person who maintains this behavior. Of course, the world doesn’t look at pride as a big deal. Even though pride is like a hot, stinky, smell – it’s tolerated – there’s no law against it.
The problem is: this same attitude is in the church (2 Tim 3:1-5) and professing Christians have forgotten that this is a sin and an extreme lack of love. God says that when you say you love someone – you show it by being humble, not proud (1 Cor 13). As followers of Christ, who are called to love everyone. Pride is prohibited.
Pride is defined as:
A sense of one’s own proper dignity or value; self-respect. Pleasure or satisfaction taken in an achievement, possession, or association. Full of self-respect and independence of spirit. Arrogant or disdainful conduct or treatment; haughtiness. An excessively high opinion of oneself; conceit, vanity, ego.
Now, read very carefully:
It’s not a sin to have dignity or feel pleasure or satisfaction for an achievement, possession or who we are associated with. As Christians, we are associated with a God who is all powerful, all knowing and everywhere. Our God is magnificent and awesome and he gives gifts to those who serve him – I take great pleasure and satisfaction in this. We should feel satisfied when God achieves something new in our lives; and we should have high esteem in the fact that God created our bodies and faces with such wonder (Ps 139:14) and beauty. We should feel good about ourselves knowing he loves and thinks of us so worthy that he had his Son be tortured and killed in our place (John 3:16). When I think of these things, I am truly dignified; and God wants us to have a healthy respect for ourselves because of him.
Now, the above reasons I give for my worth, value and self-respect may not be what others tie their worth and value to. Followers of Jesus Christ should get their worth and value from God; and him alone. But unfortunately, some make the mistake of building their worth and value from themselves - what they do in their flesh – their self-esteem. Sometimes we forget that our accomplishments only were made possible through God; and so we mistakenly attribute worth and value from ourselves rather than God. So this is how pride becomes a sin: when our value and worth come from within ourselves or other people, rather than God.
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