Proverbs 16:5 ESV
Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished.
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Man’s arrogance really lacks bounds. We are sure of ourselves in all sorts of ways, from controlling the world to controlling how the next day will go to controlling our own hearts. In others, this arrogance seems by turns terrifying and stupid; in ourselves, we often fail to recognize it until it has already cost us. Yet arrogance has only two endings, and persistent arrogance only one.
One locus of exceptional arrogance nowadays is the government and all its hangers-on. It’s full of people who believe they can control reality, that they are utterly in charge. They start wars with reckless disregard for life or consequence; they declare that your children are theirs to raise; they demand that you undergo whatever medical procedure they deem necessary. Worse, they seem to have the power to follow through on their threats. Conspiracy theories are proved true every day, and it can be tempting to follow through this chain to its seemingly logical conclusion, that these people are truly in control. In the end, it is arrogance. Though their eyes swell with fat, though “They are not in trouble as others are” (Ps. 73:5), yet they are not God, and so they are not in control. Above it all, God laughs and does His good will (Ps. 2).
Of course, that’s not the only pride we see around us. We deal with prideful people every day, if we ever deal with people. In some it’s unobtrusive, away from our interaction with them. In some it’s blatant and painful. This arrogance comes too in a thousand varieties. It can be ideological pride, the belief that mankind can create his own God-less utopia. It can be self-righteousness, a presumption of moral perfection. It can be something more subtle, like a person sure of the impossibility of their salvation, regardless of God’s word on the matter. This pride too is doomed- though whether the last ends in damnation or salvation depends on God’s will.
The pride we really need to beware of is our own pride. We are capable of pride of a breathtaking range and depth. We may be proud obviously, holding to some excellency of our own or of our position or of our deeds. This sort of arrogance is often the easiest to see from the outside, but from the inside it’s a steel-bar trap. We can be proud more quietly, assured of our superiority but carefully concealing it from others, particularly ourselves. Of course, that concealment tends to be imperfect; hidden pride is generally hidden only from strangers and the self. It leaks out in small gestures and sweeping patterns of behavior and subtle emphases, and in the end only the prideful man does not see it.
We can hold to the yet subtler pride, though, the pride of disagreeing with God. We can believe that our enemies control the world, despite God’s declaration of sovereignty (Ps. 115:3). We can believe we are beyond His saving or that we have no need of it, when God denies us the right to either belief (Is. 59:1; Ps. 53:1-3). We can declare that we know better than God how to prosper our relationships, but that never ends well. Pride is a insidious foe, and every moment we declare our own judgment superior to God’s, we indulge in it. We must like Job be asked if we dare assault the wisdom of the Almighty, and we must like him repent of our temerity (42:1-6).
This pride will bring a downfall. See, pride means holding on to a lie. It means establishing a falsehood as truth, and thereby distorting how we see reality. Inevitably, therefore, pride leads us to make foolish decisions, for foolishness begets foolishness. These foolish acts will take the character of the pride they originate from. So, the man who believes himself beyond God’s redemption rejects God’s call and is damned. So, the government that believes itself capable of re-shaping the world and its ways crumbles to bits as it uplifts the incompetent, ignores prudent restraint, and spends money till it’s worthless. So we when we put our own authority above God’s without exception cause more harm than hurt (because it turns out that God knows what He’s talking about).
The remedy for pride, like for all sin, is repentance and faith in Him. Here is where those two endings come to their divergence. In the first case, we persist in our pride, and for that pride we are destroyed. Perhaps in this world it is only in our hearts that the judgement appears, for oft the wicked seem to prosper (Ps. 73:1-5), but if not now, in the next life unrepented pride assures damnation. In the second case, by the grace of God we turn away from the sin of pride, abhor it body, soul, mind, and strength. This is repentance, and together with the faith which accompanies it, true repentance brings life. Though on this earth the repentant man may struggle with pride still, in the end he will see God’s mercy and will be healed. Therefore, let us praise Him, who died so that we might live (1 Thess. 5:10).
God bless.
Written by Colson Potter
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
