The Pride Problem
Read Time: 7 mins
“The people gave him a great ovation, shouting, “It’s the voice of a god, not of a man!” Instantly, an angel of the Lord struck Herod with a sickness, because he accepted the people’s worship instead of giving the glory to God. So he was consumed with worms and died.”
Acts of the Apostles 12:22-23 NLT
We sometimes view the laws of God from the lens of creation and not the Creator. We see the laws of God as legal laws and not natural laws. Man, as a creation, can create legal laws based on dogma and subjective beliefs that are enforced by fear and power. These laws are like that of a speed limit. It’s decided based on our own knowledge and desires. God, as Creator, however, creates natural laws. These laws are better represented by the laws of math or physics. They can't be argued or changed. They just are.
The wages of sin aren’t death simply because God arbitrarily decided that. God is warning us because as the progenitor and source of life, separation from Him would surely result in death. God doesn’t randomly tell us to sabbath or rest for no reason. He is revealing a truth about our reality. This is our Creator telling His creation that they are not designed to function under the stress that comes from relying on themselves day in and day out. They need to rest. We are told to cast every care on Him because we were not built with the capacity to carry our burdens efficiently. Not every command is situational, some are scientific. God is like a craftsman giving instruction on how to care for and protect His creation from corrosion and structural damage. God is revealing the governing physics of this world we find ourselves in. When God tells us that pride comes before a fall, He is teaching us a foundational principle of this world.
Pride often acts as the gravity that pulls you from high places. It's a door that leads to disconnection. This is a principle that God is warning us about. This is what caught the devil and led to his destruction, and God is warning us to stay away from it. Pride is something we have to watch out for. We were not designed to receive worship. We were not designed to carry the weight of glory. It’s like acid that eats away at our structural integrity.
I want to warn you and myself. The good news is that you are blessed. God has given you gifts and talents that are undeniable. God has used you in phenomenal ways and partnered with you by making His power available to you. He will continue to use you to be a conduit of His power. But there’s a backside to this blessing. Pride will kill you. Pride will lead you to forget that you will fall if you let go of the only thing that is holding you up. The more God uses you, the more opportunity you have to forget it was Him and not you. And the higher God takes you, the harder a fall from pride seems to be.
This is why it is so important to put the attention back on Jesus. The thing about humans is that we are designed to worship. Our default position is worship, and many times instead of turning our attention to God, we turn our attention to His creation. Often times idolatry isn’t us worshipping bad things, it's us placing good things in a position reserved for God. We worship the relationship He gave instead of the God who sustains it. We worship the door He opened instead of God who arranged it. We worship the gifting He gave instead of the gift giver. Sound familiar? I want it to take it a step further.
Because we are meant to be drawn to God, sometimes people will be drawn to the God in you and misattribute the actual source. One of my mentors said something that tripped me up. People who are craving God will be enamored and attracted to God flashing through you. The issue is that if they don’t know God to be the source, they will worship you as the source. Remember that you are the middle man and tell others when they get tripped up.
The frugal cheapskate in me hates middlemen. I grew up in a house where we would almost never order delivery. It doesn’t make sense. Why would I have you charge me more to bring me something when I could go get it myself for free? Whether it’s Door Dash or Uber Eats, Grub Hub, or Insta Cart, middlemen may seem convenient but I’ve noticed that they typically charge you more for a lesser product. I must confess that I’ve spent a lot of time working at restaurants and if you order something online, I’m not packing the new food for you. I'm giving that to the in-person customers. I’m going to pack you what I'm trying to get rid of. Also, the to-go boxes are smaller portions than the dine-in plates. If I'm working Insta Cart, I’m not flipping the watermelons over to find you a good one. I'm not doing the extra work of finding the produce no one touched. I’m not going to price check or pay attention to details more than what's necessary to make the transaction. The issue with middlemen is they are never as good as just going to the source yourself. Pridefully taking glory for yourself as a middleman doesn't just lead to destruction for you, it typically leads to a bad product for others.
Pride is spiritual plagiarism. Plagiarism is the act of taking someone else’s work and presenting it as your own. It comes from the Latin word for “kidnapper.” It’s like stealing the child that someone else created and passing it off as your own. Now, some of you like to play it safe. You know plagiarism is one of the biggest scholastic sins and you don’t want to be anywhere close to it. That’s how I was. I remember writing a research paper in high school and being afraid because I wasn’t sure I knew how to cite my sources. So I decided not to use any. I was just going to just say whatever I wanted to say so that I wouldn’t have to give anyone else credit. I couldn’t mess up if I didn’t try, right? But my teacher told me something that stuck. In order to move forward I had to write a good paper, but I wasn't capable of producing a good paper on my own. I wasn't qualified or knowledgeable enough to complete a research paper on my own strength. Everything I said needed to be proven by a source greater than me. I was between a rock and a hard place. I couldn’t write on my own. What I produced on my own would not be good enough. I needed the power of someone else, but I wasn't allowed to use it without giving credit to others. It was necessary for me to lean on the work of others more qualified than I. This is the same with God. You need God to function but must cite your source. Plagiarism is academic dishonesty. Pride is spiritual dishonesty.
Plagiarism is the assumption that what you produce originated from you and spiritual pride is the same thing. You may not be writing a research paper, but need to produce something in order to move forward. And that production is only possible through the power and provision of God. Don’t pass your gifts off as your own. Don’t pass your success off as your own. It was produced by someone outside of you.
This is why this situation with Harod had to go the way it did. Pride wouldn’t just lead the crowd astray, it would lead to Harod’s demise. Now it may seem that God is an emotionally volatile and trigger-happy tyrant here. And I get you. But could it be that this is actually an act of grace? Isaiah 57:1 says that God allows people to die so that they will be spared from evil to come. Could it be that God had to stop this situation because He saw the trajectory? Could it be that this is a Tower of Babel situation where God saw ahead and knew that pride would lead to destruction they hadn’t even thought of? I don't know about you, but I don't want to get to a point where God has to put a stop to me because of how much damage I'm about to cause.
This is why we must have a realistic worldview. Yes. you are amazing. God has blessed you. But everything good in you is because of the God in you. Never forget that. I think it's interesting that the bible says Harod’s body was eaten by worms because it reminds me of how we should view ourselves. David in Psalm 22 says “I am but a worm.” You’re not as hot as you think you are. God loves you in your brokenness. He loves you enough to choose the weakest parts of this world to use in the greatest ways. It’s not because you earned or deserve it. You are nothing without Him. We have to have a healthy mindset here. Don't go to the extreme of insecurity, but also don't go to the extreme of arrogance. You are nothing without God, but with God you are invincible. With God, you are the head and not the tail, above and not beneath. You are called to be a lender and not a borrower. You are joint heirs with Christ. That means you are adopted into royalty and everything that comes with it. The power that raised Jesus from the dead is in you. Jesus said you have power in His name and would do greater miracles than He, but remember it is powered by Him, not you. Don’t plagiarise. Point people to the source every chance you get.
Philippians 2 shows us the strategy of Jesus. Paul says, “Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:3-11 NLT
This is the attitude Christ had. The way up is down. The way to honor is through humility. This is the principle that governs this world and the devil is trying to create a counterfeit to stop us from achieving what he forfeited. The devil tried to honor himself and was thrown out of heaven. Jesus tried to honor others and was given a name above all names. Pride comes before a fall. Humility is what leads to honor.
“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.”
James 4:10 NLT
“In the same way, you who are younger must accept the authority of the elders. And all of you, dress yourselves in humility as you relate to one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor.”
1 Peter 5:5-6 NLT
“For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Luke 14:11 NLT
“The greatest among you must be a servant. But those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Matthew 23:11-12 NLT
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