When I was a child my family would often accuse one another of too much pride during most arguments. Whenever we were losing an argument or irritated with one another “you have way too much pride!” But, what exactly is pride? The apostle John mentioned the pride of life in his first letter.
For all that is in the world-the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life-is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does teh will of God abides forever. – 1 John 2:16-17
What Is the Pride of Life?
Is it refusal to admit you are wrong? Demanding you get your way?, being a know-it-all? …all of the above?
I think it may include these traits but these are not necessarily a complete explanation of the pride of life. Jesus Christ being the truth and source of all wisdom should be seen as the source and definition of every concept. Including the pride of life. There is a story Jesus told that I think perfectly depicts what is meant in scripture by the pride of life.
“Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. 11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. 12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. 13 And the publican, standing afar off, would not life up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. 14 I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other, for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” – Jesus Christ
Traits of the Pride of Life:
- Jesus used a sinner (publican), as the prideless example and the religious guru as the prideful example. Publicans were basically tax collectors who were notorious thieves. They did the dirty work for a corrupt government of collecting taxes, while stealing some, from the people.
- The Pharisee, a religious leader and teacher was comparing himself to other people.
- The Pharisee was self-confident and felt at home in the place of prayer, he was pleased with his life. He was thankful for the life that he was living, his tithes, his fasting, his lack of outward sin. But Jesus considered this self-exaltation and was neither impressed nor moved by his prayer.
- The publican was a far way from the spotlight of the altar, with his eyes down cast, his was a posture of grieving over his life of sin.
Pride of Life Meaning
According to Jesus’s story the pride of life is a self-confident comparison, and a pleasure with ones own life.
Also, according to Jesus, the solution to pride was a downcast humble repentance. Real repentance is like a death, it is an utter abandonment, it is not just apology.
When people would come to God in the days of John the Baptist they would get baptized. Baptism symbolizes death to the world system and former life. We die with Jesus in order to be resurrected with Jesus and to live by his life, not our own great lives. Our best life now is really death and the life of Christ taking us over.
The Apostle Paul spoke of dying daily to the old man (1 Cor 15). Constant defeat and death to the self and to the flesh and to the world system.
Worldliness Relies on Pride
The pride of life is a thing of the world. The world system, ruled and controlled by Satan, is founded upon the pride of human life.
“For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father but is from the world.” – 1 John 2:16
So the pride of life is not necessarily an arrogant boastful attitude that must be right about everything.
Recognizing Pride
The pride of life is more like internal (or open) rejoicing over our superior circumstances or way of living.
The pride of life says “I’m glad I’m not like that person” or “look at how good this situation is for me/us we are living a good life.” and its modern version sometimes is “Let me post a selfie and show others and maybe they will have envy and learn to behave like me/us.” Pride is entirely behavior based and envy driven. It works hand in hand with legalism and it spreads itself with a message of ‘try harder’.
The pride of life can look different for each person:
To the businessman it can be his title and his balance sheet.
To the scientist it can be his superior insight or his patent or publication list.
To the activist it can be her rights to fight the powers and her chosen list of particular injustices.
To the stay at home mom it can be her insistence she stay at him and not have to be bothered to work outside the home. And judge and insult the moms who do.
To the academic it can be her PhD, and her masters, and her bachelors, and her status as Ivy League.
To the tradesman it can be his superior no-nonsense attitude over the non-tradesman.
To the politician it can be his power and influence over others.
To the Christian minister, pastor, or priest it can be his status over other Christians he calls or thinks of as “dumb sheep”, or “wanna be pastors:, or it can be his insistence on receiving other people’s tithes as his income, maintaining superiority over them. Or it can be his son take his job as a pastor continuing on the pride of life for that family.
Unfortunately, I think the pride of life is the foundation of many Christian ministries today. Weekly, the message is focused on trying harder, live like this, try harder to please God….like me or like us.
Pride has a component of a response to internal envy and it also in various ways tries to elicit envy in others. Or assume others are motivated by that same pride.
Pride of Life in Original Sin
The pride of life can also be seen in the original sin story in the garden.
“When the woman saw that the tree was… desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.” – Genesis 3:6
Eve desired to “be made wise“, daily dependency on God was not enough, she wanted to live a ‘wise’ life. This was probably in response to the life and wisdom that she had seen in Satan. He brazenly contradicted God himself and appeared to her to be correct, after all she didn’t die physically after she ate the fruit. And they did suddenly realize (wisdom) that they were in fact naked.
J. Oswald Sanders in his book The Incomparable Christ describes the pride of life as an “ambition… to produce spiritual results by un-spiritual means.”
What Must We Do?
If we see we have a problem with the pride of life (and almost everyone does at some point) how can we do away with this state? How should we react to it? Trying hard to display a certain contrary attitude CANNOT rid us of the pride of life. Attitude adjustments are often mask inner problems with behavior modification.
Only in death and surrender do we find freedom from the pride of life. We must embrace death through repentance especially if we find ourselves comparing and being boastful about our wonderful lives and/or circumstances. In emptying our selves by following the will of Jesus we are freed from the pride of life. This can be a very painful experience.
For the rich young ruler it meant him emptying his accounts of his stored up riches and he could not do it.
We are to stop comparison, we are to stop our displays of wonderful lives which provoke envy in others.
We are to repent, to live humble, it is okay to not see ourselves as a conquering hero. It is okay to not be powerful and victorious all the time.
I’ve been guilty of the pride of life so my only legitimate response has been to die the death of repentance. We die daily so that Jesus can live, (read 1 Cor 4:10-11). And he lives through us as we live out our physical lives on earth.
For similar content about overcoming the pride of life through repentance click here.
For more on this same topic from another trusted blogger click here.
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- BestWoodToCarve.com, a site for the beginning wood carvers to help them get going in wood carving, either chainsaws or knives.
- CleanLiving.coach, a site to teach people how to live cleaner lives, clease their bodies of toxins, and to live physically clean.
- WeedyPond.com , a site to help people with fish pond or farm pond problems.
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- AgesToCome.com, a coming site to help people to understand the gospel of the kingdom of Jesus Christ, to understand the meaning of life and the reason we exist.
