It seems like as I go through aspects of love I see things are all connected to each other in some way. The more of them I look at the more I see that you need one to have the other...
Pride: a high or inordinate opinion of one's own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether as cherished in the mind or as displayed in bearing, conduct, etc. a becoming or dignified sense of what is due to oneself or one's position or character; self-respect; self-esteem. Pleasure or satisfaction taken in something done by or belonging to oneself or believed to reflect credit upon oneself.
Boast: Talk with excessive pride and self-satisfaction about one's achievements, possessions, or abilities.
I feel like in our society pride is looked at as a character quality and not something to be avoided. In these standards pride is a wonderful thing to have and we should all be at least a little prideful about us, but is that just mixing pride with true humility? The wisdom of this World is slowly being mixed in with our faith and we do not realize this until it is too late.
"You should have a little pride, it's good for you!"
"You need to be selfish every now and then!"
"If you give somebody something you should expect something back, they owe you one!"
"You cannot just devote your whole life to God, you need some 'me time' in there as well!"
Do any of these sound familiar? I find it sad that most of these sentences come from the people closest to us, the ones we trust to advise us. I remember myself even telling people these things a while back, and I deeply regret it now...
So as a God fearing, Christ followers, and people who listen to the Holy Spirit, what should our view be on these things?
Pride:
"His pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the LORD his God." 2 Chronicles 26:16
"In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God." Psalm 10:4
"When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom." Proverbs 11:2
"Pride only breeds quarrels, but wisdom is found in those who take advice." Proverbs 13:10
"Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall." Proverbs 16:18
"Your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God." Deuteronomy 8:14
"Before his downfall a man’s heart is pride, but humility comes before honor." Proverbs 18:12
Well... Those are just a few verses that show what our view on pride should be. We should have a clear view on how God sees pride, yet we still let a the lies of the world sneak their way in.
Since I mentioned the others I will list a few verses on them as well
Selfishness:
"Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain."Psalm 119:35-37"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves." Philippians 2:2-4
"For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice." James 3:15-17
Give to get something in return:
“If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not treat it like a business deal; charge no interest." Exodus 22:24-26
"Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need." Deuteronomy 15:7-9
"And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back." Luke 6:34-35
Partial devotion:
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." Matthew 6:23-25
"So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—to love the LORD yourGod and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul— Deuteronomy 11:13
So now that the bunny trail is over, back to the subject of love.
Pride is not to be tolerated. I consider prude to be the exaggeration of your own skills and talents to puff yourself up so that, because of your low self-worth, you can feel better about yourself. Pride is the opposite of self-esteem, it is insecurity in disguise. It is the act of elevating yourself higher, and pushing all others lower so that you feel like you are an okay person. Does that sound like Jesus? Does that sound like love? Making others look bad so you look better and trying to make them hate themselves so you look like you like who you are...
A lot of loving others is working on yourself, how can you love others like yourself if you are not even confident in who you are and hate yourself? This is where true humility comes into play. The definition of humility, true, biblical, christlike humility, is knowing exactly who you are. A big "Christian Joke" is the verse in Numbers 12:3
"Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth."
This verse is true humility, not the false one we think of. When we think humble we think of the person who says "Oh, I'm nothing special..." the person who will not take credit for anything. This verse is saying the Moses knew exactly who he was, especially when compared to God. I think that if you spent time speaking face to face with God you would also have a good picture of who you were.
It comes when we realize that we are all sinners, we are all loved equally by God, that we are valued and royal children, but also that apart from God we can do nothing. It is not over or under exaggerating our position in life. Willingness to serve in the lowest position, but being able to be confident in a higher position. If you want to see humility played out read the red print in the Gospels, watch humility in the flesh.
The more time spend with Christ, the more we know who we are and become humble. Another thing is that when people tell me I am being prideful I will usually say something like, "You don't even know the half of it! But I am working and praying to rid myself of it!" I think that we need to realize we have pride, and sin, to get rid of it. The moment you think you are fine, that is when you are in trouble.
Pride is the soil that all sin grows in, pride is in part why Satan in no longer an Angel in Heaven, pride is partly why we fell in the garden, the list goes on and on...
So does it make sense that we need to rid ourself of pride and boasting in order to love others properly? Of course it does!
How do we show humility towards others? We build them up, not ourselves. Do not feel the need to put others below you. You can still have confidence in yourself without talking about it all the time, the quiet confidence-meekness. (We boast alone in our God.) To not be prideful we conduct ourselves in the right way and listen more than we speak, and to build up others rather than tearing them down. As we are less prideful we start to see how other gravitate more towards us, because they feel loved. When you are not prideful you find it a bit easier to love others and see them for who they really are, precious treasures of the Lord.
This is love.... At least a small part of it.
Refining the faith,
C.A.M.
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