Pride
What is the greatest sin? Sexual immorality, murder or greed? Sin in and of itself has its roots in pride. It is pride that caused the devil to rebel. It was pride that caused Eve to accept the forbidden fruit in the garden. It is this idea that we don’t need God, we can follow our own passions and desires without consequence. In Romans chapter one verse twenty five, Paul lays out for us the manifestation of pride.
Romans 1.25 - “who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”
Pride creates a framework in a person’s mind where they are at the top. Their thoughts, feelings and desires are the most important thing in their life. Pride will catch you up in pagan worship just as in the days of old, except instead of a golden calf or carved image, the god you worship is you.
It is this very sin that is at the core of the current decay of our culture today both inside and outside of the church. First let’s deal with those outside of the church.
Abortion, homosexuality, transgenderism and the corrupt greed that has takin over society has brought with it horrors upon horrors. Although there are so many different things that are wrong about these sins, at the root of them all we find pride.
At its core, abortion is the act of playing God. By institutionalizing abortion in our society, we humans are deciding who gets to live and who must die. We are assuming the role of God by controlling who gets to live and who does not. Pride has blinded an entire culture and has convinced us that not only is this evil okay, but it is our right and duty. We must predict the quality of life an individual might have and intervene as a god would, in order to “protect” the child and mother from what might be.
God forgive us for assuming we know better than The Everlasting God. Forgive us for our pride and our audacity to think we know and can do better than You.
Transgenderism and homosexuality as well find their roots in pride. It is no coincidence they coin the term “Pride” as their slogan. Yes, both with abortion and the LGBT movement there are multiple evils to condemn but none more terrible than pride. To shake your fist at God by declaring He made some kind of mistake when creating you is the definition of what we are discussing today.
Although what we are seeing today is horrifying, it is not new. We see in fact a very similar “shaking of our fists at God” moment in the earliest of scriptures. Genesis chapter eleven is a story that transitions two other stories in the Bible. Chapter ten concludes the story of Noah and the flood while Genesis twelve begins the account of Abram and The Lords promise to him. Chapter eleven seems almost out of place but when read in its proper context give tremendous insight into how God feels about this issue of pride.
We will not go over the entire chapter here but I encourage you to go study it yourselves. Let’s look at verse four of genesis chapter eleven.
Genesis 11.4 - And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”
So often I hear people asking why were the people in this story wrong in wanting to build a city and tower? Let us consider the context of where this story takes place. This story occurs some years after the flood and implies that Noah and his family were able to build back the population of the earth somewhat. Doubtlessly this story of how God flooded the Earth had been passed down both as a warning and promise of His covenant. And at some point shifted from a sign of God’s mercy to a challenge to defy His will.
The sin in this story is that the people at that time pridefully challenged God by saying “let us build a tower to the heavens, that way if God tries to wipe the earth with a flood again we will be ready to defy Him.” (My own paraphrasing) They took His sign of mercy, the rainbow, and denied it by providing for themselves a solution to the flood.
In the same way, the LGBT community has adopted that same symbol (the symbol of God’s mercy and grace) and used it to defy Him by perverting what God has created, the institution of marriage and sex.
We don’t have just an abortion problem or gender crisis in America. We have a pride issue. We must repent and submit to His authority over our sexuality and our lives. We cannot continue in this prideful rebellion and expect not to reap the wrath of God just as they did in Genesis.
Now for the church. We would be ignorant to believe that this same spirit of pride has not infiltrated the church. From the good intention of trying to build the church we have created a consumer mentality that has made it all about the congregants. Because of this, pastors have tied their own hands behind their back by not being able to address difficult topics or correct their people without the fear of them leaving and going to the church down the street. We have lost spiritual authority from the pulpit and have settled for cheap entertainment and self help sermons.
Although this sounds like a rebuke it is not. It is a call to the church to return to true discipleship. It is a call of freedom to leaders to stop bending a knee to cultural pressures and to declare boldly the word and the ways of God, bringing those who wish to follow closer to Him. Letting go the fear of people being offended and leaving, and holding onto the fear of the Lord, to whom we all will one day give an account.
We must shake off this terrible pride in the church that tells us this thing is about us, it is not. It is all about Him! When we gather, our focus must be on worshiping and glorifying Him. When we lead people, the Gospel must be the driving motivation not their feeling or opinions. I am not saying to be mean to people, but I am saying not to forgo correction and discipleship because of people’s opposing feelings and views. The word of God is the ultimate authority and needs to be elevated as such again in the church.
Remembering the words of Paul in romans chapter one verse twenty five, we should soberly invite The Holy Spirit to come into our lives and expose the pride that might be present. Humbly returning to our proper place as the created being and not God. Allowing Him to rule and reign in our lives and on the earth!
Romans 1.25 - “who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”
So here is my final encouragement. Pray against the spirit of pride both in our culture and the church. Speak out against this pride whenever and wherever it rears its ugly head. Honor the Word of God, if you and God’s word have a disagreement, you are wrong and need to change. Return to true discipleship, submitting to your God given church leaders and allow them (by the Spirit of God) to bring you up in the ways of God without becoming offended and bitter. And finally, pray that the Spirit of God will fall and draw all men to repent and to see Him rightly again, as God Almighty.
