By Kevin Shrum
Pastor, Inglewood Baptist Church, Nashville
God hates pride (Proverbs 6:16-19). In fact, James 4:6 notes that God resists the proud. So, let’s be clear. God doesn’t just hate pride; God hates the proud person. This is strong, but biblical language. Pride is not some disembodied sin that someone, somewhere, in another time and place commits. Pride is a sin committed by a person. Pride is being self-sufficient to a fault; pride is arrogance wrapped up in a ‘know it all attitude’; pride is not needing God even when we say that we do. Pride puffs up our self-esteem and destroys relationships. Whereas godly confidence is grounded in a reliance upon God, pride is self-centered.
Pride declared (Daniel 4:28-30). Nebuchadnezzar was a proud man. Twelve months after Daniel interpreted two dreams for him that made him appear powerful and supreme (Daniel 5), Nebuchadnezzar was “walking on the roof of the royal palace in Babylon,” exclaiming to himself that he alone had vast power and majestic glory (Daniel 4:30). It’s one thing to think it; it’s quite another to say it aloud. [Read more…]