Pride Goes Before
Destruction
Various Proverbs
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Pride is perhaps the chief of all vices.
There is no sin that you can commit that
does not involve pride.
C. S. Lewis said this about pride: “There is
no fault which makes a man more
unpopular, and no fault which we are more
unconscious of in ourselves. And the more
we have it in ourselves, the more we dislike
it in others.” (Mere Christianity, p.109)
Today we will look at:
 What Pride Is Not
 What Pride Is
 What Pride Will Do to You
 What You Need to Do About Pride
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We must be careful not to confuse pride
with confidence.
Pride can result in overconfidence, but
someone can be confident without being
sinfully proud.
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For example, when Saul questioned whether
David was fit to battle Goliath, David said:
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But David said to Saul, "Your servant used to keep
sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or
a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after
him and struck him and delivered it out of his
mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by
his beard and struck him and killed him. Your
servant has struck down both lions and bears, and
this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of
them, for he has defied the armies of the living God."
And David said, "The LORD who delivered me from
the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will
deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." And Saul
said to David, "Go, and the LORD be with you!"
(1Sam 17:34-37)
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The Bible sometimes uses the word
“pride” to describe a warm hearted
admiration that someone feels toward
another person.
Children's children are a crown to the aged,
and parents are the pride of their children.
(17:6 - NIV)
 I [Paul] am acting with great boldness
toward you [Corinthians]; I have great pride
in you… (2Cor 7:4a)
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Such an admiration is normally not
sinful, but virtuous.
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Pride is thinking more highly of
ourselves (and therefore lower of others)
than we ought to think (Romans 12:3).
Pride is the need to feel superior to other
people (Keller)
 Pride is self-obsession, a preoccupation with
ourselves.
 A proud person puts his own desires and
interests above God and is therefore
unwilling to trust God
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Pride is the need to feel superior to other
people
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A proud person looks down on other
people in order to feel better about himself:
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There are … those who are pure in their own
eyes and yet are not cleansed of their filth; those
whose eyes are ever so haughty, whose glances
are so disdainful. (30:12-13 - NIV)
A proud person will criticize others to make
themselves look better by comparison:
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Whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense, but a
man of understanding remains silent. (11:12 )
Pride is the need to feel superior to other
people
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Pride gets no pleasure out of having
something, only having more of it than the
next guy.
C.S Lewis points out that, pride is
competitive in a way that other vices are
not:
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The sexual impulse may drive two men into
competition if they both want the same girl…
But a proud man will take your girl from you,
not because he wants her, but just to prove to
himself that he is a better man than you. (Mere
Christianity, p.110)
Pride is self-obsession, a preoccupation
with ourselves:
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The proud person is constantly aware of
himself, always thinking about how I’m doing,
how I’m being treated, etc.
A proud person will “pat themselves on the
back” for something good they’ve done; realize
that they’re being proud and confess it to God;
and then turn around and be proud of the fact
that they are so good at repenting of pride!
What we call “low self esteem” is often just
another form of pride. Someone with low self
esteem is feeling sorry for themselves, but they
are still focusing on themselves!
A proud person puts his own desires and
interests above God and is therefore unwilling
to trust God
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The devil successfully convinced our first parents to sin
by appealing to their pride and distrust of God:
 But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not
surely die. For God knows that when you eat of [the
forbidden tree] your eyes will be opened, and you
will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the
woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that
it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to
be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and
ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was
with her, and he ate. (Gen 3:4-6)
We follow in their footsteps every time we, in our
pride, fail to obey God and trust him:
 "I, I am he who comforts you; who are you that you
are afraid of man… (Isa 51:12)
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Humility is the opposite of pride. To be
humble is recognize that you are a
created being who is:
Dependent upon God
 Accountable to God
 Called by God to:
 Put him first in your life
 Love and serve others more than yourself
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Pride puts you in direct opposition to
God:
[The LORD] mocks proud mockers but gives
grace to the humble. (3:34 - NIV cf. Jas 4:16;
1Pet 5:5)
 There are six things that the LORD hates,
seven that are an abomination to him:
haughty eyes… (6:16-17a)
 [Lady Wisdom says:] I hate pride and
arrogance… (8:13b)
 The LORD tears down the house of the proud
but maintains the widow's boundaries.
(15:25)
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Pride will often cause you to inappropriately
exalt yourself, only to be humiliated later:
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Do not exalt yourself in the king's presence, and do
not claim a place among great men; it is better for
him to say to you, “Come up here,” than for him to
humiliate you before a nobleman. (25:6-7 - NIV)
Now [Jesus] told a parable to those who were
invited, when he noticed how they chose the places
of honor, saying to them, "When you are invited by
someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a
place of honor, lest someone more distinguished
than you be invited by him, and he who invited you
both will come and say to you, 'Give your place to
this person,' and then you will begin with shame to
take the lowest place. (Luke 14:7-9)
When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with
the humble is wisdom. (11:2)
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Pride will keep you from being able to
receive good advice.
When someone tries to help you by
giving you good advice, you’ll often be
so busy being offended, you won’t be
able to hear what they’re telling you and
all you’ll be able to do is argue with them
and try to show them how wrong they
are!
Pride only breeds quarrels, but wisdom is
found in those who take advice. (13:10 - NIV)
 The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but
a wise man listens to advice. (12:15)
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Just as Satan will often disguise himself
as an angel of light (2Cor 11:14), so pride
will often disguise itself as a virtue:
Pride can often be used to beat down simpler
vices… Many a man has overcome cowardice,
or lust, or ill-temper by learning to think that
they are beneath his dignity – that is, by Pride.
The devil laughs. He is perfectly content to see
you become chaste and brave and selfcontrolled provided, all the time, he is setting
up in you the Dictatorship of Pride – just as he
would be quite content to see your [minor skin
inflammation] cured if he were allowed, in
return, to give you cancer. For pride is spiritual
cancer. (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, p.112)
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Pride will distort your entire view of the
world.
The “lamp” that guides a proud person
through life is his sinful, misplaced selfconfidence!
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Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of
the wicked, are sin! (21:4)
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In the end, pride will utterly destroy you:
Pride goes before destruction, a haughty
spirit before a fall. Better to be lowly in spirit
and among the oppressed than to share
plunder with the proud. (16:18-19)
 The LORD detests all the proud of heart. Be
sure of this: They will not go unpunished.
(16:5)
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Two Part Solution*:
You’ve got to get the glory that only comes to
the humble
 You’ve got to use the joy of the gospel to
erode your pride for the rest of your life
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*Taken from Tim Keller’s sermon on Pride in his series on the book of Proverbs
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Get the glory that only comes to the
humble:
The fear of the LORD is instruction in
wisdom, and humility comes before honor.
(15:33)
 The reward for humility and fear of the
LORD is riches and honor and life. (22:4)
 One's pride will bring him low, but he who is
lowly in spirit will obtain honor. (29:23)
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Paradoxically, the person who is not
seeking glory before God is, in the end,
crowned with honor and wisdom
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Use the joy of the gospel to erode your
pride for the rest of your life:
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ
Jesus: who being in very nature God, did not
consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of
a servant, being made in human likeness. And being
found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself
and became obedient to death-- even death on a
cross! (Phil 2:5-8 - NIV)
 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter
of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured
the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the
right hand of the throne of God. (Heb 12:2 - NIV)
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