Is Pride a Sin According to the Scripture
Is pride a sin according to the scripture, we have gotten everything we have from God. As long as you acknowledge that you couldn’t have done it without Him, it’s okay to feel proud of what you’ve accomplished.
Pride precedes disaster, and a haughty mind precedes a fall, according to Proverbs 16:18. The sin of pride is addressed in numerous other biblical warnings.
But why is pride discouraged so strongly? Why is a sin of pride? Is being happy with what you have accomplished always wrong?
Understanding just what God despises in pride is crucial (Proverbs 8:13).
Several years ago, when my first book was published, I had the pleasure to meet Beth Moore and have her sign it. I held my priceless book while waiting in line, beaming with joy.
The cover had a lovely glossy green, and it had the scent of newly printed pages. I felt utterly ecstatic about following my calling. The fact that I could call myself an author made me even more proud.
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When it was my turn to meet Beth, I gave her a copy of my book and we struck up a conversation. She then ordered her assistant to hold the line as she turned to face me, as if I desperately needed a wake-up, come-to-Jesus moment.
She drew me away and grasped my shoulders on both sides. Heather, keep seeking Jesus far more than your calling, she urged, making sure I was gazing her straight in the eye.
She continued by saying that spending time with Christ was far more significant than whatever I did for Christ or any position I held.
Because if I didn’t take care, it would lead to my failure. She even provided specific instances from her own life. She cared enough to keep my pride in check, and I left that day feeling confident and humble.
Being proud of all my hard work was nothing to be ashamed about. Similar to how there is nothing wrong with taking pride in your family, home, or career advancement.
In a sense, we are even expected to be proud of our achievements. The Bible exhorts us to exert ourselves so that we will be happy with the outcomes. “The conscientious man values his belongings,” it adds (Proverbs 12:27).
Pride: What Is It?
The Bible does not always describe pride as a bad trait. It may have a positive meaning associated with self-esteem, self-worth, and self-confidence. When addressing the Corinthian believers, the apostle Paul expressed a healthy feeling of pride:
“I have the utmost faith in you, and I’m really proud of you. In spite of all our problems, you have immensely inspired me and made me happy (2 Corinthians 7:4, NLT).
When pride is overly self-centered and self-elevating, it turns into sin. The Bible most frequently refers to this form of pride. The biblical sin of pride refers to a high or exalted attitude the opposite of the virtue of humility, which is the ideal stance humans ought to have with God.
Pride was referred to as “an all-pervading vice” by Charles H. Spurgeon. “Pride is so natural to fallen man that it grows up in his heart like weeds in a well-watered garden,” he remarked, adding that it is bad in all its manifestations.
You may think you have killed this fox by hunting it down, but lo! Your very exultation is pride. The proudest people are those who believe they have nothing. It appears hard to eradicate pride because it is a sin with a thousand lives.
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The Bible uses words like “insolence,” “presumptuousness,” “arrogance,” “conceit,” “high-mindedness,” “haughtiness,” and “egotism” as synonyms for pride.
Hebrew terms with height connotations are frequently used to convey the idea of pride. Greek has an intriguing term for someone who is “puffed up” or inflated with pride. The haughty individual is merely filled with air, not with substance:
- He must not have recently converted, because he would grow arrogant and incur the devil’s damnation (1 Timothy 3:6, ESV; see also 1 Corinthians 5:2; 8:1; 13:4; Colossians 2:18).
How Come Pride Is a Sin?
Because pride claims to possess brilliance and glory that are uniquely God’s, pride is seen as a serious sin and rebellion against God. The risk of pride is that most individuals are unconscious of their pridefulness: “You have been fooled by your own proud” (Obadiah 3, NLT).
“Pride leads to dishonor, but with humility comes insight,” is a very misleading proverb (Proverbs 11:2, NLT). It makes room for disputes and fights (Proverbs 13:10). One’s speech is negatively impacted by pride (Malachi 3:13; Proverbs 6:17).
People who are proud do not believe they need to beg God for forgiveness since they are unable to acknowledge or even acknowledge their sinful condition. As a result, pride also has an impact on a person’s perspective on other people and frequently leads to their viewing others as less deserving or capable.
Prideful people treat others with scorn and cruelty: “Mockers are arrogant and haughty; they act with limitless arrogance” (Proverbs 21:24, NLT). The root of prejudice is pride.
The greatest danger of pride is that it draws our focus off of God Almighty and instead on ourselves. Ultimately, pride results in spiritual blindness and death.
But even this kind of arrogance can be dangerous if we wind up taking credit for what we’ve accomplished rather than acknowledging God’s assistance. Because it results in all other sins, pride is the most deadly of all faults. Pride is irrational, vindictive, and venomous. It begins by saying, “I don’t want God to be God. I desire to be God.
Refusing to acknowledge God’s absolute control over everything is a sign of sinful pride. In order to give God the glory for your accomplishments, you must understand that you are powerless to do anything without Him (John 15:5). This is what is meant by “good pride.”
Alternatively said, everything that removes God from your heart is fatal. Anything that causes us to stand on the throne of our emotions is unquestionably problematic.
The first time Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, she was motivated by the sin of pride. We read in Genesis.
The serpent then assured the woman, “You won’t perish for sure. God understands that when you consume it, your eyes will be opened, and you will possess divine knowledge of right and evil.
The woman therefore grabbed some of the fruit off the tree and consumed it after realizing that it was a desirable tree to make one wise, as well as being good for food and attractive to the eye. Additionally, she handed it to her husband who was present and he ate it (Genesis 3:4-6).
What do you believe the serpent to be in reality? Satan, the enemy, was behind it. In actuality, he was also destroyed by pride. The very “seal of perfection, full of intelligence and perfect in beauty,” Lucifer, an anointed cherub of God, was changed by pride into Satan, the devil, the father of lies, and the one for whom Hell itself was created. (Matthew 25:41; John 8:44; Isaiah 14:12–15)
Satan wanted all of the glory even though God had created him and given him all of the strength and beauty he possessed. When he decided not to worship God in response to the gifts he received, he transformed into God’s enemy.
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He preferred to have all of God’s authority, splendor, and the throne. Instead of choosing to embrace his mirror of God, he believed that he was superior to God.
The Pharisees provide a prime illustration of pride in the Book of Matthew. They believed in themselves (Matthew 6:1-2). You are like whitewashed tombs, Jesus warns them, which look beautiful from the outside but are actually filled with the remains of dead people and other impurities (Matthew 23:27).
They wanted to perform and use external elements to wow others.
Each of us is here on earth primarily to fulfill our responsibility to reflect God in all that we say and do. It is our intention to reflect Christ in all that we do. However, pride has the effect of preparing you for a very arrogant fall.
This is nicely summarized in 1 Corinthians 4:7: What do you own that you were not given? And if you did get it, why do you act like you didn’t when you brag about it? According to St. Mariam Baouardy, pride is as follows:
The proud individual expands and grows larger, much like a grain of wheat dropped into water. That grain dries out and burns when it is exposed to fire. The humble spirit is like a grain of wheat that has been dropped into the ground: it sinks, hides, vanishes, and dies, but it will rise again in paradise.
We have gotten everything we have from God. As a result, we shouldn’t present ourselves as independent achievers.
As long as you acknowledge and accept that you couldn’t have done it without him, it’s okay to feel proud of what you’ve accomplished.
We should strive to live each day for Christ.
According to the Bible, “God resists the haughty but offers grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5).
What Causes Pride?
The idea that they could be like God was a temptation that Adam and Eve succumbed to. Since then, people have always had a hard time putting their lives and their circumstances in the capable hands of God, our Creator and Father.
Three ways in which our wicked nature shows itself are self-reliance, self-centeredness, and self-condemnation. People began to believe that Jesus was who He claimed to be as a result of witnesses to His miracles, but “Jesus did not confide himself to them, for he knew all men. He was aware of what made a man, thus he did not require the evidence of man (John 2:24-25).
According to Pastor Roger Barrier, “there is a huge difference between being ‘proud’ of someone else and feeling ‘pride’ in oneself, and it’s a spiritual difference worth examining.”
Various forms of Pride in the Bible
All day long, we boast in God, and we will sing your praises forever (Psalm 44:11).
The Bible distinguishes between two sorts of pride: righteous and unrighteous.
The first grows as we recognize God’s attributes and dependable behavior in our lives. Numerous Psalms thank God for His faithfulness, protection, supply, and answer to prayer (Psalm 34:1–7). He is still there when all else fails and vanishes. “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,” writes Galatians 6:14.
Paul boasted of having a pure, Christ-led conscience and gave Christ the glory for his integrity. We can take pride in what God has implanted and activated in His time and in accordance with His will via us, through Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit. As you cling fast to the word of life, Philippians 2:16 states.
On the Day of Christ, I’ll be able to brag that I didn’t run or work in vain. Genuine, godly pride is unrelated to who we are. (Romans 15:17).
Sinful arrogance pretends to be God. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. This is stated in Genesis 3:5. The greatest lie of the devil is that we have the capacity to impartially assess what is right and wrong in ourselves and in others.
Pride diverts our attention from neighborly love to rivalry and comparison. When we allow sinful pride to rule, we fail to remember that God gave everyone of us the same gifts, purposes, and opinions, and that He thus respects us equally. We begin to attribute our successes to ourselves.
“For who makes you distinct from anyone else?” asks 1Corinthians 4:7. What do you own that you weren’t given?
And if you did get it, why do you act like you didn’t when you brag about it?
Our sinful pride tempts us to depend on ourselves rather than on God.
Pride in the Bible
The Bible lists pride as one of the most obvious sins. Paul calls the unrighteous who shall face God’s vengeance “backstabbers, enemies of God, arrogant, pompous, and boastful” in Romans 1:30. They create fresh ways to sin.
Some of the most arrogant characters in the Bible include the Pharisees and other Jewish authorities, who are known for treating those who were beneath them badly and speaking down to them. Jesus remarked on them:
And they love to sit at the top table at feasts and in the seats of honor in the synagogues. They enjoy being addressed as “Rabbi” and receiving courteous greetings as they move through the marketplaces. However, self-exalters will be humbled, while self-exalters will be glorified (Matthew 23:6–12, NLT).
King Uzziah’s demise was brought on by pride; he ventured to burn incense on the incense altar and received leprosy as retribution from God (2 Chronicles 26:16).
Hezekiah got arrogant of heart after the Lord cured him. God’s wrath was directed not only at him but also at all of Judah and Jerusalem as a result of his vanity (2 Chronicles 32:25-26).
King Herod’s arrogance in embracing the public’s worship and his refusal to acknowledge God’s magnificence led to judgment. God gave him a disease, and he eventually died after being consumed by worms (Acts 12:21–23).
The Lord addressed the Prince of Tyre, saying, “In your great conceit you pretend, ‘I am a deity! In the midst of the water, I sit on a throne of divinity. Despite your boasts to the contrary, you are merely a man and not a god (Ezekiel 28:2, NLT). According to many Bible scholars, this text refers to Satan’s first fall, which is also recounted in Isaiah 14:12–15:
Morning star, son of the dawn, how you have descended from heaven! You who once brought down the nations have been hurled to the ground! You declared in your heart, “I will soar to the skies; I will set my throne above the heavens; I will be seated on the summit of assembly, on the highest points of Mount Zaphon.
I’m going to soar over the peaks of the sky and become like the Most High. However, you are lowered into the pit’s depths into the land of the dead. “Pride goes before ruin, a haughty heart before a fall,” King Solomon remarked (Proverbs 16:18, NIV).
In the Bible, nations as well as people were destroyed by pride. Israel lost sight of God in its arrogance. In the end, the pride of the Israelites and the Judahites separated them from the promised land of Canaan (Isaiah 3:16; Ezekiel 16:50; Hosea 13:6; Zephaniah 3:11). According to James 4:6, God opposes the arrogant but extends grace to the lowly.
One of the sins that will be pervasive in people in the end times is pride:
“For people will love just themselves and their money. They’ll be arrogant and haughty, mocking God, disrespectful of their parents, and unappreciative.
Nothing will be sacrosanct to them. They will have no self-control, be unloving, and unforgiving. They will also smear others. They’ll be vicious and despise virtue. They will betray their friends, act rashly, are arrogant, and prefer pleasure to God (2 Timothy 3:2–4, NLT).
According to the Bible, one of the seven things that God detests is pride:
The LORD detests seven things, six of which are abhorrent to him:
(1) Arrogant eyes
(2) Tongue that lies
(3) Hands that killed innocent people
(4) A heart that concocts evil plans
(5) A person who incites conflict in the community, false witnesses who spew lies, and has feet that are fast to rush towards evil (Proverbs 6:16–19, NIV).
Pride is rejected by those who love God and godliness.
Evil will be hated by everyone who fear the LORD. I detest conceit and haughtiness, as well as corruption and deviant speech (Proverbs 8:13, NLT).
I won’t put up with those who defame their neighbors. I won’t put up with arrogance and pride. (NLT Psalm 101:5).
The Bible cautions readers to assess their pridefulness honestly:
“Because of the honor and power God has granted me, I’d like to issue the following warning to each of you: Don’t believe you’re better than you actually are. Be sincere in your self-evaluation and gauge it against the faith that God has granted us (Romans 12:3, NLT).
Scripture to Help Us Control Our Pride
When it comes to pride, we would be wise to examine our attitudes. God resists the arrogant, but extends great grace to the lowly. When we accept the fact that nothing in a Christian’s life should be about them, humility naturally follows.
The focus is solely on Jesus Christ. Here are four suggestions to help you let go of pride:
(1) Yet he extends more mercy. God opposes the haughty, but grants grace to the humble, it says (James 4:6).
(2) Arrogance and pride are precursors to destruction and failure, respectively. It is preferable to have a humble spirit with the humble than to share the spoils with the arrogant (Proverbs 16:18-19).
(3) Because whoever exalts themselves will be humbled, and whoever exalts themselves will be exalted (Luke 14:11).
(4) You should all dress in humility toward one another because, according to the Bible, “God resists the haughty but offers grace to the humble.”
Therefore, humble yourselves under the powerful hand of God, throwing all your anxiety on Him because He cares about you, so that He may exalt you at the proper time (1 Peter 5:5-7).