SPIRITUAL PRIDE KILLS

Spiritual pride is deadly. One reason for this is that it disguises itself as virtue and deceives and blinds people to themselves and the saving truth about God. This is the judgment that Jesus brought against the religious leadership:

·       “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.” (Matthew 23:13; ESV)

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus charged:

·       “Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.” (Luke 11:52)

How did they take away this “key of knowledge” that would open the door to God? By giving the people a false portrait of what it means to please God! Most of the people, even Jesus’ disciples, had been convinced that the spiritual pride of the scribes and Pharisees represented the pinnacle of piety. However, Jesus saw through them:

·       “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” (Matthew 23:27-28)

According to Jesus, they were masters at image management, at presenting a false face, but they were no better than whitewashed tombs. However, on the outside, they looked faultless:

·       “They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others.” (Matthew 23:5-7)

Jesus’ condemnation was damning. It was not that they occasionally lapsed into deception. Instead, “all their deeds” are performed to deceive, perhaps even themselves. No wonder Jesus proclaimed:

·       “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.” (Matthew 23:25-26)

Jesus called them “blind” Pharisees, perhaps because they were barely conscious of their willful self-deception. But what could they do about it? They could submit to the light of the Savior. Therefore, Jesus instructed His disciples to not engage in Pharisaical practices:

·       “But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” (Matthew 23:8-12)

Why these severe restrictions? Because we are all Pharisees! We are all susceptible. We too all want the acclaim, the recognition, the honor, the influence, and the power. That’s why Paul had warned us:

·       Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. (1 Corinthians 10:12; 2 Cor. 3:5; Gal. 6:3)

None of us has what it takes to stand. If we think we do, then we are deluding ourselves. The Apostles all proclaimed that they would never abandon Jesus. However, their spiritual failure proved to be a painful lesson that we all need to learn. Jesus had warned them, “Without Me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5), but we need to experience painful reinforcements of this lesson.

Well, how do Jesus’ teachings against taking honorific titles prevent us from becoming like the Pharisees? These teachings are humbling. We find that it is very hard to resist pursuing the acclaim and honor, and we come to see the Pharisee prowling within. This should humble us and cause us to confess our sins.

Elsewhere, Jesus taught us to seek to serve as He had. In contrast, His disciples had been seeking their own honor. Two of them came to Jesus requesting that, once He had received His kingdom, they would be elevated to reign alongside of Him.

When the others heard about this, they became indignant. Jesus then corrected them all:

·       “But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant.” (Matthew 20:25-26)

This teaching continues to humble me, showing me how unworthy I am of anything good from the Lord. It continues to put to death the Pharisee within. Yes, this self-realization, that I do not want to be the servant, humbles me, but it also nurtures gratefulness that God loves this unworthy person.

When Jesus’ 72 disciples had returned from their evangelistic outreach, they boasted that the demons were subject to them. However human this celebration over their spiritual accomplishment might have been, they were celebrating the wrong thing. Accomplishments come and go. However, what we have of supreme value is an eternal relationship with our Savior. Therefore, Jesus corrected them:

·       “Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” (Luke 10:20)

My prayer is that He would always correct me.

THE GREATEST THREAT TO THE CHURCH

Pride has an insatiable appetite. It is never satisfied. There is never enough money, power, popularity, or recognition that will cure us of pride. It is the opposite of humility. Pride always seeks to build self-esteem; humility is satisfied with the esteem that comes from God alone. Pride delights in a grandiose image of self; humility exults in lowly transparency. Pride compares itself favorably to others; humility humbles itself before the perfection of the Savior. Pride trusts in self; humility knows self too well and therefore trusts in God. Pride destroys true friendship and fellowship through self-glorification, like a mouth that consumes all of the food on the table; humility attracts others, allowing them to put aside their defenses.

Spiritual pride is even more lethal. It disguises itself in clothes of virtue, but it makes everyone into an object to be used for its own fulfillment. It takes while it hides behind a façade of giving. While it boasts of being the caretaker of truth, it is the servant of darkness.

Painful lessons are necessary to expose and purge us of this all-consuming lust. Aaron and Miriam, Moses’ brother and sister, needed to have their spiritual pride exposed. Otherwise, it would have destroyed Israel. They had become jealous of their brother Moses and spoke against him:

·       Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the [dark-skinned] Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman. And they said, “Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?” And the LORD heard it. (Numbers 12:1-2; ESV)

Evidently, they believed that Moses’ Cushite wife was beneath them – a sure sign of pride. Even worse, they had convinced themselves that God had equally revealed Himself to them. Although it is doubtless that He had revealed Himself to them, it was pride that had prevented them from seeing that God’s revelation to Moses was far more extensive, direct, and intimate:

·       And he said, “Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” (Numbers 12:6-8)

It was Moses who had spent 40 days and nights with the Lord on two occasions. It was to Moses that He had given His Words and His Ten Commandments. It was Moses who had been transformed by hearing the Words of God so that his face shined. In contrast, it was Aaron (and probably also Miriam) who had allowed Israel to rebel by creating the calf of god and cavorting before it.

From where then did they get the hubris to think themselves equal in role to Moses? From the blindness of pride! Meanwhile, Moses was humble and self-effacing:

·       Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth. (Numbers 12:3)

Only a man taught the painful lessons of humility could be able to lead God’s people. Moses had been proud. He had thought that, by the strength of his character and status, he would be able to lead the children of Israel out of their bondage in Egypt. However, his God showed him that he didn’t have what it took. When God approached him 40 years later in the burning bush, Moses had been so humbled that he knew that he wasn’t up to the task of leading the children of Israel out of Egypt. He therefore demurred:

·       But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” (Exodus 3:11)

In contrast to 40 years earlier, Moses lacked self-confidence. He now needed to clothe himself in God-confidence. Aaron and Miriam also had to learn God-confidence. This would require that they be stripped of their self-confidence and pride. So God struck down Miriam with leprosy. However, Aaron (perhaps Miriam had been the ringleader) was quick to confess their sin and humbled himself:

·       And Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord, do not punish us because we have done foolishly and have sinned. Let her not be as one dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother’s womb.” (Numbers 12:11-12)

The Moses could have thought, “She deserved what she got, and so I won’t pray for her.” However, humility instructs us that, apart from the grace of God, we would do even worse. Therefore, in the face of repentance, humility cannot hold grudges:

·       And Moses cried to the LORD, “O God, please heal her—please.” (Numbers 12:13)

What a leader! Miriam and Aaron could have led a movement that would have divided Israel. However, as far as we know, they had learned their lesson and never again rebelled against God in their pride.

MY PRAYER: Lord, humble us, if need be, that we might be vigilant against the sin within. Show us what we are and the extent of the grace that we have received from you that we might never allow the ugliness of pride take control.