Pride

Commentary

This kind of pride is the taking of great pleasure in oneself. Manifesting into a worship of self and sin. It’s a pride that makes one believe that they know better than God, that there is no heart for Jesus or love for righteousness.

Anyone can struggle with pride. But today, pride is being made front and center by a group of people who celebrate themselves and their sexual sins every chance that they get, even devoting an entire month to it. They have forced sinful pride into the limelight of our culture, from sports to children’s entertainment. They view pride as a way of displaying and recognizing dignity, but they do not understand dignity or the sin nature of mankind.

When a person who keeps rejecting Jesus is given over by God to the desires of their heart, they become proud of their disobedience. The lies of the enemy have taken root in their heart, and he or she celebrates not only their aberrant ways but also indoctrinates the youth into such evils.

Pride has no place in the heart of a believer, nor does the affirmation or acceptance of it belong either. While they shout about their pride, let us share our pride in Jesus by living a Christ-centered life and sharing the Gospel with everyone we can.

Commentary

Asaph wrote in this Psalm that he almost fell into envying the wicked, prideful people around him. He was intrigued because to him it seems as if they never suffer and never deal with hardships. He says that they wear their pride as a necklace around their necks, displaying it for all to see.

It might seem as if it pays to be disobedient to the Lord and do evil, that God is overlooking it. But it’s simply the result of God giving them over to the desires of their hearts. As believers in Christ, we never want to envy the proud; they are truly miserable people who lack any meaningful relationship with Christ. We should be praying for them.

It’s going to be easier in this world to walk according to the culture and flesh than in obedience to Christ. For us who love Jesus, life is and will continue to become more difficult as we walk against the ways of this world. But know that those who are proud of their disobedience are receiving their reward now, and what awaits them is eternal torment if they do not shed their pride and humble themselves before Jesus.

Though life may be difficult for you and me, we can rest knowing that difficulty now will make way for eternal rest in the Lord.

Commentary

Jesus explains that pride comes from the heart. A proud person doesn’t need to just be someone lost in sexual sin. A person can have a pride that is bound in any number of things: wealth, status, religion, and the like.

The religious Jews of Jesus’ day were very proud, standing on their own religious works and status. Religious pride is the elevating of oneself because of their own religious deeds. It’s just as dangerous, if not more so than having a pride based on other sins.

The Bible teaches that there is nothing any person can do that is truly good. All good comes from Christ working through a born-again believer. Pride in anything except the Lord is dangerous and blinding. Pride will keep you just an arm’s length away from a real relationship with your Creator. Be certain that you’re not just religious and proud, but have a true personal relationship with Jesus.

Commentary

Pride has no place in the Kingdom of Heaven, and God will bring down all pride in the end. Satan’s pride is what began this time of evil, and it will be when God destroys the proud, including Satan, that evil will be no more.

It’s heartbreaking to witness so many people blinded by their own pride. They could be one breath away from death, and many have no clue that Hell awaits them in eternity.

We live in a time where sharing the Gospel is even more urgent. As Jesus stated, the end will be like the days of Noah and Lot. We’re so close to mirroring those times of great evil. When you see adults proudly demonstrating their depravity among children in the streets of formerly Christian majority countries, then we see just how close we are to mirroring those days of Lot and the abomination that was going on in Sodom.

Commentary

Nothing replaces Christ Jesus. Though you and I might struggle with prideful thoughts from time to time, if we have given our hearts fully over to Christ, then sinful pride cannot overtake us to the point of condemnation any longer.

While this world celebrates its sin and love for perversion, blindly and arrogantly walking in their pride, there will come a day when God says enough. Like the flood of Noah’s day, God’s wrath will sweep untold numbers of people into Hell because they didn’t want the only Savior who could keep them from there, Jesus.

If you know unsaved people around you (and you very likely do), or people who claim to know Jesus but are proud of their sinful lifestyles, pray for them, show them Christ’s love, and make sure they hear the real and true Gospel of Christ before it’s too late.