“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18).
From a Biblical perspective, the original sin was committed by an archangel, who at the time of the violation, was called Lucifer (Ezekiel 28:12-17). His heart was lifted up, which is an idiom that means proud. I am going to consider how pride is one of the most detrimental and destructive practices that can wreak havoc and ruin upon those who are proud and refuse to renounce and repent of it. The sin of pride is not just one that the Lord hates in Christians, but it is a sin that He hates in everyone – believer and unbeliever alike. How He dealt with both Nebuchadnezzar and Herod, who were unbelievers, validates this to be the case. There are many synonyms that have a similar meaning to pride, like conceit, high minded, haughty, arrogant, and quite a few others that will help you to understand what it means to be infected with an attitude of pride. There are four basic types of pride that I have discovered in my studies of history that have caused one person or a group to feel a sense of superiority and significance over another. Pride has been a factor in the instigation of many atrocities and evils inflicted upon one group by another who felt and believed that they were superior and justified in their evil deeds. Pride has been a catalyst and instigator that has warped the minds of many throughout history and caused wars, genocides, slavery, famines, and the mass migration of multiple millions from one country to another. Can there be any doubt that pride and the superiority attitude of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi comrades were the chief motivation of World War II and the genocidal and systemic extermination of millions of Jews and others they classified as undesirables? I do not believe that anyone can refute or put forth a true argument that pride and a superiority complex did not play a major role in the slave trade and slavery in America that lasted over 400 years. I am going to present and briefly comment on the four basic types of pride that are common in our country and culture.
Place Pride
Exactly what do I mean by the term “place pride”? This term has to do with a person being proudful with a conceited and exaggerated opinion of themselves due to their position or status in life. It is commonly connected to celebrities and people of notoriety due to being in the spotlight of public attention. Celebrities, like movie stars, athletes, singers, politicians, and it saddens me to say, even some preachers (who should know better) have been struck by the bug of “celebritism” and being famous.
Face Pride
What is meant by the term “face pride”? Face pride is pride that forms in a person’s mind when they are complimented for their appearance of facial features. Both females and males can become guilty of having face pride. I have known people of both genders who have been bitten by the bug of face pride due to being told repeatedly that they were beautiful women or handsome men. Whether you believe it or not, I have had a bout with face pride due to the fact of some females who (perhaps) could not see well at the time and told me that I was a handsome man with dreamy, brown eyes. Being very much human, I had to fight back and resist the spirit of face pride and learn how to be complimented without letting it go to my head and bolster my ego and conceit. The primary reason I included my story in this section is so that everyone who struggles with this type of pride will know how to resist the bug of face pride and get the victory.
Race Pride
The third type of pride that I want to consider and briefly comment on is “race pride”. At this point in reading this article, you can perhaps easily deduce that race pride has to do with pride that stems from one’s ethnicity or racial origin. Before I go any further, I am compelled to say that there is but one race of people on the Earth that traces their origin and ancestry back to two parents, Adam and Eve. We all, therefore, belong to one race – the human race which has various ethnic distinctions and features. Nevertheless, racial pride has plagued humanity from the time immediately after the global flood, through the descendants of Noah’s three sons to this present day. This type of pride that produces a superiority complex in one race over another is at the root of white supremacy, anti-semitism, black militancy, and many other evils that are plaguing the human race.
Grace Pride
The final pride that we will briefly consider is what I have labeled as “grace pride.” This type of pride is the result of Christians who have been conditioned to be proudful about the denominational and church banner that they serve under. Thus, we have termed it as “grace pride”. For certain, there is nothing wrong or intrinsically evil about belonging to a particular group, whether they be Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, African Methodist Episcopalian, Pentecostal Holiness, or a non-denominational church or association as long as it stands on the fundamental tenets of the faith. However, it is antithetical and an offense to God who hates a proud look (Proverbs 6:17) and resisteth the proud (James 4:6) for Christians to embrace and apply this term to themselves in any shape, form, or fashion. Renounce grace pride and be truly thankful for the grace of God that He has given us through His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
