Pride and Circumstance
“Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18). These words are often quoted by many people. They form the foundation of a warning against thinking too highly of yourself and your accomplishments. Is pride always sinful? Is it ever acceptable to think positively and highly of yourself and your accomplishments.
Lets think about the second question in this article and the first one in a sermon. We can and should think positively and even highly of ourselves in a controlled way. Paul wrote to the Romans, “For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.” (Romans 12:3).
So, what are the parameters of this proper thinking about ourselves? The most obvious one is the fact that we are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26). This image of God informs the next call to proper self-love. Jesus identified the second greatest command as, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:39). Proper love for self is the foundation upon which we can build our love for others.
This properly-informed love for ourselves recognizes that we are nothing without God. Paul placed the parameter for self-love in the cross of Christ. “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ…” (Galatians 6:14).
These passages provide us the parameters for loving ourselves. They give us a triangle-shaped boundary for the love of ourselves. We love ourselves because we are made in the image of God. We love ourselves because we have been re-made in the image of God. We love ourselves so that we can love others properly.
However, we are in a month that glorifies an improper love for self—Pride Month. It is so sad that so many people have been seduced into honoring something that is in opposition to God’s plans and desires. This month-long celebration of the homosexual lifestyle is in direct conflict with God’s words on the topic.
When He had made a man, Adam, and declared that it was not good for him to be alone, He did not give him options for his aloneness. He made a woman for him. God put them together to meet the needs of both. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and they shall become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24).
There were no other options. God did not offer them the option of declaring their own “gender identity.” He did offer them the option of another person of the same gender to fill their needs. He did not offer them the option of more than one other person to fill those needs. He gave them one option and encoded it in what many have come to call “the finger of God”—DNA.
The problem with “Pride Month” is that it is honoring something that God never intended and still does not want. His word does not support this activity. Yet, people so seduced into this by the world should be offered support and love in the same way that Jesus did. He loved the person in the position of life without approving the particular position of life.
-Mike Johnson
