Let me get that speck of pride for you...

by Pastor David

“There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves.

And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others.

The vice I am talking of is Pride. . . .

. . . In fact, if you want to find out how proud you are the easiest way is to ask yourself, “How much do I dislike it when other people snub me, or refuse to take any notice of me, or shove their oar in, or patronise me, or show off?”

The point is that each person’s pride is in competition with every one else’s pride.

It is because I wanted to be the big noise at the party that I am so annoyed at someone else being the big noise.”

—C.S. Lewis,Mere Christianity (1952), chapter 8.

Pride. It’s deadly, it’s deceptive, and it’s lurking everywhere in our lives. At its core our pride is just as insidious as Satan’s, because like his our pride says we know, do, deserve, and even are better than God. Our pride deceives us into thinking our own wisdom is better than God’s, it convinces us our delight is more important than God’s, and it preaches to us that we are superior to all the people around us. We get proud of our looks, our intellect, our property, our families, our business success, or our houses. We get spiritually proud about how much more holy we are than the poor publican near us, we exalt our doctrinal learning over love, we boast in our own flesh.

Graciously, however, God calls us again and again to abandon our pride and instead clothe ourselves with humility. God opposes the proud. He sets himself in direct opposition to those who are proud, but oh the joyous truth that he gives grace to the humble. If we would humble ourselves before the Lord, He would exalt us.

Such humbling does not come naturally or easily, however, and so as in all things we need the power of the Gospel. In the Gospel, we have both the example and the power of the mind of Christ who made himself nothing and humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death. In Christ’s life we learn that the one who serves will be the greatest. In Christ’s death we learn that we are desperately flawed, broken creatures in need of redemption. So as you battle pride this week, let the Gospel free you from your idolatrous exaltation of yourself and instead show and savor the greatness of our Christ.