Pride Devours People

You know, every time I see this title and the featured image, I wonder if it’s a bit… much.

I wonder if it comes on too strong…

I wonder if I ought to soften it up, and make it more palatable…

But then I remember why I wrote it, and where it came from…

I remember how offensive pride is to God, and how destructive it is and I think… I can’t sugarcoat that. I don’t want to sugarcoat that. (Pro. 8:13; Pro. 16:5)

Pride is ugly. Pride is spiritual gore.

I want people to understand that it’s serious.

That it is pride that compels the ravenous wolf to devour the flock. (Matt. 7:15)

I used to believe that pride was a mostly harmless aspect of human nature. I considered it an undesirable flaw, but one that had little bearing on the people around us. There came a point in my walk with the Lord however, when God began to illuminate to me the treacherous depths of pride within my own life. I understood, that although I had tried to be perfect and live uprightly for many years, there had been within me, all the while, this dreadful, awful hidden ambition to do things my own way. A secret self-promotion, self-preservation, self-pampering.

I thought I was doing so many things to please Him, and all the while, I was an abhorrent offense to Him.

When I became cognizant of this pride, all I knew, was that I wanted Jesus to be Lord over every area of my life. I wanted to do things HIS way, and not my own, so I began praying for God to dig out this root of pride within me… to extract it. For about the space of eight months, God dragged me through the gruesome horror of my own pride. On and off, I tried to battle this beast on my own, and I found, over and over again, that I am powerless against it in my own strength. I began to understand it’s sly, insidious nature, it’s endless string of failures, and how it’s presence taints all of our actions.

I realized that pride is the heartbeat of all sin. It was the original sin. (Isaiah 14:12-14) It is the source of all Satan’s motives. It is the sinful, straying nature of every man.

Pride is the currency of hell.

I realized, that when Satan devours, he uses our pride to do it.

No matter who we are.

Preacher. Missionary. Parent. Philanthropist. Bible Teacher. Worship Leader. Prayer Team Member. Outreach director. Counselor. Spouse. Friend. Confidant. Sibling. Street Evangelist. Layperson.

If it’s available within you, he can use it, and he will use it to afflict those around you, those under you, those in front of you…

Pride is not always immediately perceptible.

It’s slippery. Subtle. Sly.

It’s in the young lady who weeps at an altar, declaring with passion, “I WILL GO LORD! To the farthest reaches of Africa!”

The sacrifice disguises the motive of heroism.

It’s neatly tucked away in the generosity of the man who stands up in service and says, “I’ll donate $10,000 to the building fund!”

For a moment, he is the hero.

That is what truly mattered.

It’s a little splinter, deep inside of the person that cries out to God, “Make me a mighty man/woman of faith! Do miracles through me!”

What? A person who wants to be so yielded to God?

Do they? Or is it an ever-so-subtle need to be esteemed… noticed… important…

If it is, it is infecting every action.

Every time that person prays for a vulnerable person, they are exploiting them to gratify an insatiable beast within themselves.

It’s in the wife and mother who constantly neglects to serve her husband, her home and her children, so she can pursue a “more meaningful” ministry in the church.

It’s the pull toward a “calling.” The deep need to do or be something “significant”. The draw toward an “important” glamorous “destiny.”

It’s the noise and confusion of three dozen YouTube channels and 27 podcasts of self-proclaimed “prophets” and Bible “authorities” clamoring to be relevant.

It’s in the testimony that sacrifices the dignity of another human-being so you can ultimately express how spiritual you were. And it’s in the testimony that distracts people from Christ and fixates their attention, even in small ways, upon yourself.

It’s the theatrics and performance in worship.

It’s the slight you feel when you aren’t picked to be “up front” for awhile.

It’s in every sermon where Scripture is preached out of context, because the preacher decides their cute idea was more important than handling the Word of God carefully and reverently. It’s in every Bible lesson, where the Gospel message is obscured by redefining the meaning of the text.

It’s in the voice that speaks to you, that you think is God, telling you to do this and do that. And you can’t tell the difference, because pride is, in fact, your god.

It’s the photo-op with disheveled, poverty stricken children on missions trips. It’s the recognition of being known as a powerful man of God. It’s doing anything charitable to make yourself look or feel good. It’s the hunt for spiritual significance in every corner.

It’s everything you do to gain or maintain approval, and preserve your reputation, while people are sitting under false teaching, and you know it.

Here’s the truth about pride.

Satan consumes through it.

If you are governed by it, in some deep, inward part of yourself, you are harming other people.

Hands down.

Pride indulges upon those around you, in order to appease itself.

We tend to think of sin in terms of overt actions. Stealing, lying, gossip, manipulation, murder, etc. All of those are examples of pride consuming too… but the danger for the professing Christian, the apparent Church, is this subtle, discreet creature. (2 Tim. 3:1-9)

We walk around, with this false sense of our righteous acts and our moral goodness, and all the while, there’s pride… butchering… slaughtering… left and right.

You may not intend to hurt another person.

It’s probably the farthest thing from your mind.

In fact, you’ve convinced yourself you’re doing an important work for God…

But if pride is permitted to reside within, that is what you will do.

Your little ministry… it will be no ministry at all.

You will humiliate. You will oppress. You will confuse. You will deceive. You will discourage. You will exploit. You will press down. You will afflict. You will tragically and fatally wound.

You feel important? You feel significant? You feel like you are doing something so special for God?

Every time your pride lifts you higher, it lowers someone else.

You do not point them to Christ. You herd them toward the edge of the cliff, ever closer to Hell.

Those subtle tendencies for internal gain or satisfaction, even if no one else seems to detect them, reduce people, made in the image of God, into objects that are used to serve self.

Precious people… consumed in small and great ways, here and there, to strengthen and nourish hidden vanities.

Tools to stroke your ego. Pawns to manipulate for five minutes of fame. The people around you become a means to an end.

The Christian, whose ministry is tainted with pride… coaxes God’s little lambs…

Draws them in… Causes them to feel some sense of love, belonging, and security…

And then they are 𝘴𝘭𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥.

Splayed on the altar and sacrificed…

𝙎𝙖𝙘𝙧𝙞𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙜𝙤𝙙 𝙤𝙛 𝙥𝙧𝙞𝙙𝙚.

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢 𝘸𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵?

I cannot tell you how much grief I felt as God illuminated this pride in my own life, and thriving in the Christian community all around me. I saw how pervasive it was within us, me especially. I’m convinced it is at the root of every error. It’s the blindness by which we are deceived.

𝙋𝙧𝙞𝙙𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙨𝙤 𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙛𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙤 𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙣𝙖𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙞𝙩𝙨 𝙞𝙢𝙥𝙤𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙙𝙚𝙖𝙡 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙞𝙩 𝙗𝙮 𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙫𝙚𝙨.

It 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴 who we are.

We indulge in it without even recognizing it. Much of the time we are not even 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 of the trail of carnage behind us. (2 Timothy 3:13)

As I went through this time, I found, that even when I was wholeheartedly surrendered to the Lord and sincerely dependent upon Him to help me navigate each day, and refusing to trust any aspect of myself, I 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 wrestled and struggled with this monster. I would find myself, inadvertently drifting in and out of it, frustrated by the power of it. Overwhelmed by the failures incurred by it. Discouraged by the destruction of it. No matter how hard I tried, I found pride at every turn, and it horrified me. I believe the Lord truly had to show me how helpless I was against it. I learned, through this experience, that there is nothing in and of myself that can overcome this in my own life. It is only through Christ and the grace of God that we can become free.

And what does that freedom look like?

I think it looks like 1 Corinthians 13.

“If I speak in the tongues of angels…” “If I have the gift of prophecy…” If I “can fathom all mysteries…” If I have “all knowledge…” If I have “faith that can move mountains…” If I “give all I possess to the poor…” If I “give my body over to hardship that I may boast…”

Paul stated it so beautifully… If I have all those things, but I “do not have love, I am nothing.”

Nothing.

I am nothing.

I gain nothing.

A big fat zero.

A “clanging cymbal.”

Irrelevant noise.

The mark of an irrelevant ministry is pride. Pride and the love of God don’t co-exist. They oppose each other. God resists the proud. (James 4:6)

John actually tells us that we can discern a spirit of truth from a spirit of error by the presence of love.

“𝘏𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘣𝘺 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘩, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘳. 𝘉𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘥, 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘶𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳: 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘎𝘰𝘥; 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘵𝘩 𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘎𝘰𝘥, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘵𝘩 𝘎𝘰𝘥. 𝘏𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘵𝘩 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘵𝘩 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘎𝘰𝘥; 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦.” (1 John 4:6-8)

Sometimes, if you’re not accustomed to seeing the genuine, it can be hard to discern the difference between this and a pride-motivated love. Peter warns us of a feigned love. (1 Peter 1:22) Jesus does also. (Matt. 23:5) This feigned love is the insidious veil that conceals our insatiable pride. That kind of love is false compassion. Surface level behavior, and mannerisms that resemble love, but are done for self-gratification. It’s a counterfeit. One that makes you look good and feel good, but disguises the lack of the real thing.

True love, rooted and grounded in Christ, does not seek her own. She doesn’t skim off “benefits” so to speak. (1 Cor. 13:4-5) A ministry, or an action, or an activity that is fueled by any measure of self-gratification, is unlikely to ever be a God-ordained ministry. A ministry that harms, destroys, exploits, pressures, or uses people in anyway, even unseen ways, is not a ministry rooted in Christ.

Wherever we, or anyone else, are compelled to act for our own benefit, we can be sure that the Love of God does not abide there. Because love does not seek her own. Love never consumes. Love does not even crave her own benefit. The love of God is pure, and is absolutely, utterly selfless.

Pride is self-centered. Destructive. Selfish. Fearful. Manipulative. Self-seeking.

Love that is rooted in Christ is self-sacrificing. Not puffed up. Takes a lower position. Esteems others. (Luke 14:10) Selfless. Serves. Doesn’t seek significance. It gives and doesn’t take. Humbles itself. Doesn’t preserve itself. (John 15:13) Love trusts God and doesn’t try to control an outcome. (1 John 4:18) Love ministers, even when reviled. (Matt. 5:44)

“…𝘐𝘧 𝘸𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘥𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘩 𝘪𝘯 𝘶𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘶𝘴. 𝘏𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘣𝘺 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦 𝘥𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘪𝘮, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘶𝘴, 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘶𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘵… 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘴. 𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦; 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘩 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘥𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘩 𝘪𝘯 𝘎𝘰𝘥, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘪𝘮.”

(1 John 4:12-13;16)

Pride will always cause an endless string of pain and failure… but while we fail, and fail, and fail in our prideful, self-loving nature, love… the love of Christ, never fails. (1 Cor. 3:8)