A little authority goes a long way with someone who is self-absorbed, self-promoting and self-preserving. If you have ever had to work with a prideful leader you can easily reflect on the damaging results of the lack of humility. If you compare working with a prideful leader to working with a humble leader it is pretty easy to see there is a huge difference! Jesus is the Ultimate Leader and he demonstrates beautiful humility in the way he serves others to draw the best out of them.
Philippians 2:1-9 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him… ESV
Through humility Jesus became the Savior. Through pride Lucifer became the devil. The Bible is very clear. Humility is a characteristic of heaven. Pride is a characteristic of hell.
In the Bible there is nothing ever is spoken well of any kind of pride. C.S. Lewis said, “The utmost evil is Pride. All other sins are mere flea bites in comparison: it was through Pride that Lucifer became the devil. It is Pride which has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began.”
Church fathers throughout the ages have always taught that pride is the root of sin. Agustine, Aquinas, Calvin, Luther and many more clearly communicated pride is the devil’s most effective and destructive tool.
June is pride month and for Christians to celebrate pride on any level or in any way is simply contrary to the word of God. The spirit of the age or the philosophies of this world (all born from the spirit of the antichrist) have been at work throughout the generations attacking God’s ways trying to dismantle God’s truth!
God says in his Word that the rainbow is a symbol of promise. The spirit of the age tries to make it a symbol of pride. The Bible actually speaks of that which symbolizes pride found in Daniel chapter 3.
King Nebuchadnezzar elevates himself to deity raising up a golden statue in his own image requiring everybody to bow down or suffer persecution. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused to bow down to the golden image and suffered great persecution as a result.
Their conviction to refuse to bow to an image promoting an idea that violated truth was not an effort to be unloving or unkind. They simply had a conviction that would not allow them to support something that was not true. This continues in our day in a variety of ways with the demand for Christians to become politically correct. We must never allow anyone to manipulate us into abandoning truth in the name of love. Love without truth is never true love.
Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. ESV
Jim Baker sentenced to 45 years in prison. He was asked, “when did you fall out of love with Jesus.” He said I didn’t. “Through the adultery, the embezzlement, and every mistake I ever made I continued to love Jesus all the way through. The problem was that I stopped fearing God along the way. So many Christians today love Jesus but they don’t fear God and that’s a dangerous place to be….prison wasn’t God’s judgment. It was God’s mercy. He had to save me from myself.”
The fear of the Lord is a humility in our lives that says no matter what the cost, as for me and my house we are going to serve the Lord!
GP2RL: Take some time with the verses from today asking God to teach us all to understand humility and refuse to cooperate with pride.