Pride!

Pride is one of the seven deadly sins, but there are two kinds of pride. There is justifiable pride in, say, the successes of a child in studies or sports, or a job well done. But there is the pride that considers oneself above others, that looks down with disdain on what are considered the weaknesses or faults of others, believing in one’s own superiority. That is not a good attitude.

As human beings seek answers to our profound questions, our pride can get in the way of finding the authentic answers we need. We so easily dismiss proposals that call in question our preferred ideas; why? Because we suffer from intellectual pride and we are unwilling to admit we may have got things wrong. 

Why does Jesus call us to be humble and to repent? Because he knows that human pride causes us our own worst problems: it cuts us off from the attitude we should have to enjoy the answers that will give us true fulfilment.

Let me share this gently with you: you will never find the authentic answers you seek unless you humble yourself like a little child and adopt an attitude of openness to receive truth from God himself, brought by Jesus. Otherwise, pride will go before a fall – and a terrible final fall it will be unless there is a change of mind!

Who could ever find a better story, a more desirable vision, a more appropriate worldview? There is nothing to compare with the profound simplicity of the Christian revelation. You will never find anything more life-affirming, love-inspiring, heart-uplifting, soul-stirring, and conscience-cleansing as the message of God’s grace, revealed in his Son, our saviour. We who know the story so well know that nothing can compare with God’s purpose for our lives when we are brought into harmonious relationship with him.

Who could invent anything approaching the sublime profundity and the enriching simplicity of the greatest love-story in the world – the love of Christ for us wayward men and women? The Lord of glory incarnate condescended to be treated on earth by wicked men as the most criminal blasphemer. Why? Because his judges were so blind and proud they couldn’t admit that their judgment on Jesus might be wrong! Jesus humbly came, he said, to serve mankind – and mankind did away with him. Knowing what was going to happen to him, he came “not to be served but to serve and to give his life” to pay the ransom to free us from evil and save us from an eternity in hell. By his horrendous suffering, freely endured on our behalf, he demonstrated unfathomable divine love and compassion for the wicked rebels we were, who deserved his just condemnation. He came to save us from the suffering we deserve, by taking that suffering on himself; only thus could a righteous and just God deliver us from the righteous condemnation that otherwise must fall on us, sinners that we are in his sight.

Where else do you find love like that? Love so amazing, so divine is absolutely unique – and it has been demonstrated once for all in the historic person of Jesus, our Lord and Saviour. And his resurrection proves it must have been of God.

Did you ever realise you were loved like that? Certainly it humbles us to acknowledge our unworthiness and shame; we are so far from deserving love of that kind. Better to humble ourselves and enter into that glorious eternal love relationship that Jesus proposes than to remain proud, stiff-necked, and end up in eternal torment.

Clive Every-Clayton