Pride
Nebuchadnezzar was walking on the roof of his palace, looking out over the greatest city in the world. "Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?" (Daniel 4:30, ESV). The words were still in his mouth when a voice came from heaven, and he lost his kingdom and his mind.
When his reason came back, he had learned one thing, and he wrote it down for the whole empire: "those who walk in pride he is able to humble" (Daniel 4:37, ESV).
In one sentence: Pride is self-sufficiency, living as though everything you have is your own doing, and at its root it wants God's place; it comes out of the heart, it deceives the one who has it, and God sets Himself against it, so the way down is to humble yourself before Him and boast in the cross of Jesus.
Key Takeaways
(This section follows the Key Takeaways format — see that page for what each part is for.)
Types & Prophecy
- The day of the LORD. Isaiah foresees a day when "the lofty pride of men shall be humbled, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day" (Isaiah 2:11, ESV). Every proud thing ends there.
- The man of lawlessness. Pride's last and fullest form is a man "proclaiming himself to be God" (2 Thessalonians 2:4, ESV), whom the Lord Jesus will "bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming" (2 Thessalonians 2:8, ESV).
- Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar's fall (Daniel 4) and Isaiah's taunt over the king of Babylon (Isaiah 14:4-21) set a pattern Scripture carries to the end: Babylon the great, who says in her heart "I sit as a queen" and falls in a single day (Revelation 18:7-8, ESV).
Lessons about Jesus
- Jesus reverses pride. Mary sang it before He was born: God "has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate" (Luke 1:51-52, ESV).
- Jesus' cross leaves pride nothing to stand on. We are "justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:24, ESV), so boasting "is excluded" (Romans 3:27, ESV).
Memory verses
✝️ Proverbs 16:18 (ESV)
18 Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
✝️ Jeremiah 9:23-24 (ESV)
23 Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, 24 but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD."
Be Transformed
- Think. Your wisdom, strength and money are all received (1 Corinthians 4:7). Boast in knowing the LORD (Jeremiah 9:24).
- Attitude. Suspect yourself. Pride deceives the heart it lives in (Obadiah 1:3), so you will be the last to see it.
- Do. "Humble yourselves before the Lord" (James 4:10, ESV): ask someone close to you where they see pride in you, and thank them without a defence.
Prayer
LORD, yours is the majesty. You are the King of heaven; all your works are right and your ways are just. Forgive us for the glory we have taken for ourselves, and for living as though we did not need you. Search our hearts, and show us the pride we cannot see. Humble us under your mighty hand, and teach us to boast only in the cross of your Son Jesus, who humbled Himself and died for us.
In Jesus' name. Amen.
Study outline
- What pride is. Self-sufficiency, and the wish to stand where God stands.
- What the words mean. Hebrew words for height and presumption, and Greek words for showing off, smoke and swelling.
- Where pride comes from. The heart, success (Uzziah, and the church at Laodicea), and gifts.
- What pride looks like. Six faces; Kadesh and Galatia, where pride tries to earn what God gives; and how pride deceives its owner.
- "You are gods". Every claim to be divine that Scripture records, and the verses some use to call believers gods.
- Did Satan fall through pride? Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, with the case on both sides.
- Why God opposes the proud. His glory, pride's end, and His mercy to those who turn.
- The way down. The cross, and boasting in the Lord.
- Discussion questions. Six, for a group or on your own.
What pride is
Moses warned Israel what pride would sound like once they were settled and full:
✝️ Deuteronomy 8:14, 17 (ESV)
14 then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, ... 17 Beware lest you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.'
Nebuchadnezzar said exactly that on his roof: "which I have built by my mighty power" (Daniel 4:30, ESV). Pride forgets the Giver and credits the self.
At its root, pride wants God's place. The serpent's offer to Eve was "you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (Genesis 3:5, ESV). Eve was already made in God's image. The temptation was to have God's place without God. Every later form of pride has that shape.
Eve then judged the tree by her own eyes. Genesis 2:9 calls the trees God gave נֶחְמָד (nechmad, H2530, "pleasant") and טוֹב (tov, H2896, "good") for food. Genesis 3:6 gives the forbidden tree the same two words: she "saw that the tree was good for food" and "to be desired to make one wise" (ESV). Nechmad comes from חָמַד (chamad, H2530), the verb of "You shall not covet" (Exodus 20:17), and Achan's confession runs through the same steps: "when I saw among the spoil a beautiful cloak... then I coveted them and took them" (Joshua 7:21, ESV). Pride trusts its own verdict on what is good over God's word about it.
What the words mean
Height and presumption
The Hebrew word most often translated "pride" is גָּאוֹן (gaʾon, gah-OHN, H1347), from a root meaning "to rise up." It occurs 49 times with several senses. Used of God, it is His majesty: Isaiah 2:10 tells the proud to hide "from the splendor of his majesty," and the next verse says "the lofty pride of men shall be humbled" (Isaiah 2:11, ESV). Used of a person set against God, it is pride: "Pride goes before destruction" (Proverbs 16:18, ESV), and the king of Babylon's "pomp is brought down to Sheol" (Isaiah 14:11, ESV). It can also be a good pride God gives, "the pride of Jacob whom he loves" (Psalm 47:4, ESV), and even the thick growth along the Jordan (Jeremiah 12:5).
So the word itself describes something lifted high. Whether that is good depends on who lifted it. God's majesty is His own. A person who lifts himself up takes a height that was never given.
Two more words fill out the picture. The second half of Proverbs 16:18 has גֹּבַהּ רוּחַ (govah ruach, H1363), "height of spirit." And זָדוֹן (zadon, H2087) is presumption, the pride that takes liberties. Obadiah uses it for Edom: "The pride of your heart has deceived you" (Obadiah 1:3, ESV).
Showing off, smoke and swelling
The New Testament has four pictures:
- Showing yourself above. ὑπερήφανος (hyperēphanos, G5244) is built from "above" and "to appear." Abbott-Smith glosses it "showing oneself above others." Its noun, ὑπερηφανία (hyperēphania, G5243), is the Septuagint's usual word for gaʾon, and it is in Jesus' list of what comes out of the heart (Mark 7:22), its only New Testament use.
- Smoke. τυφόω (typhoō, G5187) is built on the word for smoke. In use it means "to puff up, becloud with pride" (Abbott-Smith). Paul uses it of the new convert who should not be made an overseer (1 Timothy 3:6).
- Swelling. φυσιόω (physioō, G5448), "to puff up," from the word for a bellows. "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up" (1 Corinthians 8:1, ESV).
- Pretension. ἀλαζονεία (alazoneia, G212), boastful self-assurance. James uses it of people who plan their year without God (James 4:16). John calls it "pride of life" (1 John 2:16, ESV).
Where pride comes from
The heart
Jesus puts pride inside:
✝️ Mark 7:21-23 (ESV)
21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."
Pride sits in the same list as theft and murder, and it comes from the same heart.
Success
Moses expected pride to arrive with prosperity: "when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses" (Deuteronomy 8:12, ESV). King Uzziah is the example. God helped him, and he grew strong. "But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction" (2 Chronicles 26:16, ESV). He walked into the temple to burn incense, a priest's work, and left it a leper (2 Chronicles 26:19-21).
A whole church lived like its prosperous city. Laodicea was a banking city with a textile trade, a medical establishment, and eye salve made in the region (NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible). An earthquake damaged it in AD 60, and Tacitus records that it recovered by its own resources, with no help from Rome (Annals 14.27); the ESV Study Bible says it declined imperial relief. Jesus quotes the church back to itself:
✝️ Revelation 3:17 (ESV)
17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
"I need nothing" echoes proud Ephraim: "Ah, but I am rich; I have found wealth for myself" (Hosea 12:8, ESV).
Gifts and knowledge
Spiritual gifts and Bible knowledge are no protection. Corinth was rich in both, and Paul calls some there "arrogant" (1 Corinthians 4:18, ESV), using physioō. He would not have a new convert made an overseer, "or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil" (1 Timothy 3:6, ESV).
What pride looks like
Six faces
Scripture gives pride faces you can recognise.
- Comparison. "God, I thank you that I am not like other men" (Luke 18:11, ESV). Jesus told the parable "to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt" (Luke 18:9, ESV). Pride needs someone below it.
- Planning without God. "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town ... As it is, you boast in your arrogance" (James 4:13, 16, ESV). The fix James gives is one sentence: "If the Lord wills" (James 4:15, ESV).
- Putting yourself first. John names a church leader, "Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first" (3 John 1:9, ESV).
- Taking God's glory. The crowd shouted that Herod spoke with "the voice of a god," and he let them. "An angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory" (Acts 12:22-23, ESV).
- Contempt in the eyes. The first of seven things the LORD hates is "haughty eyes" (Proverbs 6:16-17, ESV). Pride looks down.
- Religious show. Pride can dress as humility. At Colossae, a man practising self-denial was "puffed up without reason" (Colossians 2:18, ESV). See In Humility.
Earning what God gives
Pride can wear the face of repentance. At Kadesh, after the spies came back, Israel would not go up into the land, and God said to Moses, "how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?" (Numbers 14:11, ESV). The next morning they changed their minds. "Here we are. We will go up to the place that the LORD has promised, for we have sinned" (Numbers 14:40, ESV). Moses remembered what they said: "We ourselves will go up and fight" (Deuteronomy 1:41, ESV). He told them the LORD was not with them. "But they presumed to go up" (Numbers 14:44, ESV), and they were beaten back to Hormah.
"Presumed" is עָפַל (ʿaphal, ah-FAHL, H6075), to swell. It appears twice in the Hebrew Bible, here and at Habakkuk 2:4, "his soul is puffed up," and the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible points to Numbers 14:44 to explain that verse. One day Israel would not go with God. The next morning they went without Him. Both days they trusted themselves, and that gives pride two faces before a promise of God. At Kadesh the unbelief was fear of the sons of Anak and of falling "by the sword" (Numbers 13:33; 14:3, ESV). In a believer today the same refusal of the promise, and the same reach to earn it, can sound like this:
- It will not believe. "It's too good to be true. God could not save someone like me."
- It tries to earn it. "I have sinned, so now I'll make up for it. I will go up and fight."
The second face confesses sin and gets busy, and it still has the self at the centre.
The Galatians had believed the gospel. Then teachers came and told them they needed circumcision too, to be complete. Paul answered: "Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?" (Galatians 3:3, ESV). His verdict is severe: "You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace" (Galatians 5:4, ESV). Whatever you add to Christ as the ground of your standing with God, you are leaning on it instead of Him. Readers differ over what "fallen away from grace" means for a true believer. Paul's point in the verse is that law and grace cannot both be the ground you stand on. This site's statement of faith holds that those God justifies, He also glorifies (Romans 8:30), and that "he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion" (Philippians 1:6, ESV).
Paul had a longer list to add than anyone. He was "circumcised on the eighth day... a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee... as to righteousness under the law, blameless" (Philippians 3:5-6, ESV). He counted it all loss to "be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ" (Philippians 3:9, ESV). By his own reckoning it was a longer list than anyone's ("I have more," Philippians 3:4, ESV), and he let go of it. The Faith study follows the trust that receives instead.
Pride deceives its owner
Pride deceives its owner. Edom lived in the high rocks and said, "Who will bring me down to the ground?" (Obadiah 1:3, ESV). God answered: "from there I will bring you down" (Obadiah 1:4, ESV). Edom's pride was the reason Edom could not see what was coming.
"You are gods"
Men who claimed to be gods
Scripture records people claiming to be divine, or letting others call them so, and it answers every one.
- The prince of Tyre said, "I am a god." God's reply: "yet you are but a man, and no god" (Ezekiel 28:2, ESV).
- Herod accepted "the voice of a god" and was struck down (Acts 12:22-23).
- The man of lawlessness will take "his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God" (2 Thessalonians 2:4, ESV).
The apostles show the humble answer. At Lystra the crowd cried, "The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!" and brought oxen to sacrifice. Paul and Barnabas tore their clothes and ran into the crowd: "Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you" (Acts 14:11, 15, ESV).
Three verses read as "little gods"
Some teach today that believers are "little gods," usually from three verses. Read in context, none of them says so.
- Psalm 82:6. "I said, 'You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you'" (ESV). The next verse is a sentence of death: "nevertheless, like men you shall die" (Psalm 82:7, ESV). The "gods" are judged for judging unjustly (Psalm 82:2-4). Who they are is contested: the ESV Study Bible and the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible take them as human rulers; the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible sees heavenly beings with human rulers as their agents. On either reading the psalm condemns them.
- John 10:34. Jesus quoted Psalm 82:6 when He was accused, "you, being a man, make yourself God" (John 10:33, ESV). He argued from the lesser to the greater: if Scripture could call those judges "gods," He was not blaspheming when He said, "I am the Son of God" (John 10:36, ESV). He was defending His own unique sonship.
- 2 Peter 1:4. Believers "become partakers of the divine nature" (ESV). The verse goes on to say how: "having escaped from the corruption that is in the world." The ESV Study Bible says believers "never become part of God" but share His character as they become like Him (note on 2 Peter 1:4).
The believer's glory is real. You are God's child and will be like Christ (1 John 3:2). It is given, and it is always creature-glory. A teaching that makes you a god has returned to the serpent's offer in Genesis 3:5.
Did Satan fall through pride?
Many Christians have read two Old Testament poems as the story of Satan's fall: Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ezekiel 28:12-17. This reading is contested. It is old and widely held, and the passages themselves name human kings.
The two passages
Isaiah 14 is "this taunt against the king of Babylon" (Isaiah 14:4, ESV). Its centre is a boast:
✝️ Isaiah 14:12-14 (ESV)
12 "How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! 13 You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.'
"Day Star" is הֵילֵל (heilel, H1966), "shining one," found only here. The Latin Vulgate rendered it lucifer, "light-bringer," the old name for the morning star, and the KJV kept "Lucifer."
Ezekiel 28 has two oracles about Tyre. The first is to "the prince of Tyre," who says, "I am a god" (Ezekiel 28:2, ESV). The second is a lament over "the king of Tyre" (Ezekiel 28:12), who was "in Eden, the garden of God," was "an anointed guardian cherub," and was "blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you" (Ezekiel 28:13-15, ESV). Then: "Your heart was proud because of your beauty" (Ezekiel 28:17, ESV). The verb is גָּבַהּ (gavah, H1361), "to be high."
The case for reading them of Satan
- The language goes beyond a man. A human king was not in Eden, was not a cherub, and was not blameless from the day he was created. Origen made this argument about Ezekiel 28: "what fiery stones can he imagine in the midst of which any man could live?" (De Principiis 1.5.4, ANF 4, from Rufinus's Latin). He concluded it spoke of an angel set over Tyre, a fallen power. Of Isaiah 14 he went further and read it of the devil, pairing it with Luke 10:18 (De Principiis 1.5.5).
- It is old. Tertullian, early in the third century, read Ezekiel 28 of the devil: "in the person of the prince of Tyre it is said in reference to the devil" (Against Marcion 2.10, ANF 3).
- Modern commentators hold it too. The NLT Life Application Study Bible sets out a reading in which both a human king and Satan are in view, and says "Pride was Satan's sin as well as Babylon's" (note on Isaiah 14:12-14; compare its note on Ezekiel 28:12-19).
- Jesus used similar words. "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven" (Luke 10:18, ESV). The Greek Isaiah 14:12 also has a fall "from heaven," and the ESV Study Bible points to Isaiah 14:12 at Luke 10:18. Three verses earlier Jesus said of Capernaum, "will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades" (Luke 10:15, ESV), the two places of Isaiah 14:13 and 14:15. So Isaiah 14 is likely in view in Luke 10, and Jesus applies it both to a city and to Satan. This study's cross-reference tools find no quotation, so treat it as an echo.
- Scripture does join conceit and the devil. The new convert "puffed up with conceit" falls "into the condemnation of the devil" (1 Timothy 3:6, ESV). The most natural reading is the condemnation the devil himself fell under, which implies his sin was conceit. The NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible notes it could instead mean being handed over to Satan (note on 1 Timothy 3:6).
The case for reading them of human kings
- Each passage names a man. Isaiah 14 is addressed to the king of Babylon, and the onlookers say, "Is this the man who made the earth tremble?" (Isaiah 14:16, ESV). The first Tyre oracle tells the prince, "you are but a man, and no god" (Ezekiel 28:2, ESV).
- Eden may point to Adam. The ESV Study Bible says the king of Tyre is likened to "a second Adam, clearly a created being," set in the garden and fallen from it (note on Ezekiel 28:11-19). That answers "in Eden" and "blameless from the day you were created" without an angel.
- "Cherub" is a vowel question. The Hebrew consonants of Ezekiel 28:14 can be read "you were an anointed cherub" or "with an anointed cherub." The Septuagint reads "with the cherub" (μετὰ τοῦ χερουβ), and the CSB's footnote gives "Or With an anointed guardian cherub." On that reading the king is placed beside a cherub.
- The imagery was familiar. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible notes that heilel is probably Venus, the morning star, which appears in Ugaritic myth. The ESV Study Bible notes that in Canaanite myth the gods met on a mountain in the north (note on Isaiah 14:12-15). Prophets used their neighbours' pictures to mock their neighbours' kings.
- Commentators hold this too. The NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible says Isaiah 14 "argues for a continued reference to creaturely pride," while allowing that since Satan is a creature, applying the words to him "is not inappropriate" (note on Isaiah 14:12-15). The ESV Study Bible reports that "some" see an allusion to Satan in each passage, and commits only to the king's own arrogance (notes on Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ezekiel 28:11-19).
Where that leaves the reader
The passages are first about two human kings, and the words are theirs. The language reaches past them, Jesus seems to echo Isaiah 14 of Satan's fall, and the church has read a spiritual power behind them since the early third century. That reading is possible, and the texts themselves do not establish it, so no doctrine should rest on it alone. What Scripture says plainly is enough: the serpent's temptation was "you will be like God" (Genesis 3:5), the conceited man falls into "the condemnation of the devil" (1 Timothy 3:6), and "that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan" will be thrown down (Revelation 12:9, ESV). The proud person walks the devil's road.
Why God opposes the proud
His glory, and pride's end
"God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6, ESV), quoting Proverbs 3:34. "Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the LORD" (Proverbs 16:5, ESV).
The proud person claims a height that belongs to God, and so he claims something untrue. God guards His glory, and in guarding it He guards the truth. It is also His kindness, because pride destroys the one who holds it: "One's pride will bring him low" (Proverbs 29:23, ESV). The day of the LORD will finish the work: "the LORD alone will be exalted in that day" (Isaiah 2:11, ESV).
Mercy to the proud who turn
God opposes the proud, and He also receives them when they come down. Hezekiah's heart grew proud after God healed him, "But Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart ... so that the wrath of the LORD did not come upon them in the days of Hezekiah" (2 Chronicles 32:26, ESV). Nebuchadnezzar lifted his eyes to heaven, and God gave him back his reason and his kingdom (Daniel 4:34, 36).
The way down
The answer to pride is a different thing to boast in.
✝️ 1 Corinthians 1:28-31 (ESV)
28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."
At the cross Jesus bore the sin of the proud and paid for it. That is why "our boasting" is "excluded" (Romans 3:27, ESV): we are "justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:24, ESV). Nothing in your salvation is your own doing, so pride has nothing left to stand on. And everything you need, you have "in Christ Jesus" (1 Corinthians 1:30), so you are free to boast in Him: "far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Galatians 6:14, ESV).
The practice is humility: humble yourself before the Lord, and He will lift you up (James 4:10). Peter ties humbling yourself to "casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you" (1 Peter 5:7, ESV), and the ESV Study Bible draws from it that worry is a form of pride, carrying what belongs to God; the humility study treats the passage in full. That link is Peter's and the commentator's. When Jesus said "you of little faith" to anxious disciples, He named their fear and provided for them; the Faith study follows those five sayings. The fuller study of it, and of Jesus who humbled Himself to the cross, is In Humility.
Discussion questions
- The language. Gaʾon can mean God's majesty or human pride, depending on who is lifted up. What does that tell you about what pride is?
- The text in its context. Uzziah grew proud "when he was strong" (2 Chronicles 26:16), and Israel was warned about pride when they were full (Deuteronomy 8:12-14). Why is success more dangerous than hardship?
- Christ. Mary sang that God scatters the proud and exalts the humble (Luke 1:51-52). Where did Jesus do that in the Gospels?
- The hard part. Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 name human kings, and the church has long read Satan behind them. What is gained and what is risked by each reading?
- Recognising it. Which of the six faces of pride in this study are you least likely to see in yourself, and why?
- Be transformed. What would it mean for you to "boast in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 1:31) this week about something you would normally take credit for?
Group study sheet for a 40-minute group: two A4 sheets, or one with the guided path
The point, the passage, the questions and the response, from this study. Print on both sides of two A4 sheets, flipping on the long edge. While this block is open, printing the page prints the sheet; close it to print the study.
Pride
Proverbs 16:18The point Pride is self-sufficiency, living as though everything you have is your own doing, and at its root it wants God's place; it comes out of the heart, it deceives the one who has it, and God sets Himself against it, so the way down is to humble yourself before Him and boast in the cross of Jesus.
Ask: What is pride, and why does God oppose it?
Hear a few answers before anyone reads.
Proverbs 16:18 18Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
Also read:
Pride
- What pride is. Self-sufficiency, and the wish to stand where God stands.
- What the words mean. Hebrew words for height and presumption, and Greek words for showing off, smoke and swelling.
- Where pride comes from. The heart, success (Uzziah, and the church at Laodicea), and gifts.
- What pride looks like. Six faces; Kadesh and Galatia, where pride tries to earn what God gives; and how pride deceives its owner.
- "You are gods". Every claim to be divine that Scripture records, and the verses some use to call believers gods.
- Did Satan fall through pride? Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, with the case on both sides.
- Why God opposes the proud. His glory, pride's end, and His mercy to those who turn.
- The way down. The cross, and boasting in the Lord.
Pride
1The text in its context. Uzziah grew proud "when he was strong" (2 Chronicles 26:16), and Israel was warned about pride when they were full (Deuteronomy 8:12-14). Why is success more dangerous than hardship?
2The hard part. Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 name human kings, and the church has long read Satan behind them. What is gained and what is risked by each reading?
3The language. Gaʾon can mean God's majesty or human pride, depending on who is lifted up. What does that tell you about what pride is?
4Christ. Mary sang that God scatters the proud and exalts the humble (Luke 1:51-52). Where did Jesus do that in the Gospels?
5Recognising it. Which of the six faces of pride in this study are you least likely to see in yourself, and why?
Pride
6Be transformed. What would it mean for you to "boast in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 1:31) this week about something you would normally take credit for?
- Think. Your wisdom, strength and money are all received (1 Corinthians 4:7). Boast in knowing the LORD (Jeremiah 9:24).
- Attitude. Suspect yourself. Pride deceives the heart it lives in (Obadiah 1:3), so you will be the last to see it.
- Do. "Humble yourselves before the Lord" (James 4:10, ESV): ask someone close to you where they see pride in you, and thank them without a defence.
Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
Proverbs 16:18 (ESV)LORD, yours is the majesty. You are the King of heaven; all your works are right and your ways are just. Forgive us for the glory we have taken for ourselves, and for living as though we did not need you. Search our hearts, and show us the pride we cannot see. Humble us under your mighty hand, and teach us to boast only in the cross of your Son Jesus, who humbled Himself and died for us.
In Jesus' name. Amen.
Pride
Proverbs 16:18Open Ask: What is pride, and why does God oppose it?
Hear a few answers before anyone reads.
Read it aloud Proverbs 16:18
1The text in its context. Uzziah grew proud "when he was strong" (2 Chronicles 26:16), and Israel was warned about pride when they were full (Deuteronomy 8:12-14). Why is success more dangerous than hardship?
2The hard part. Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 name human kings, and the church has long read Satan behind them. What is gained and what is risked by each reading?
3The language. Gaʾon can mean God's majesty or human pride, depending on who is lifted up. What does that tell you about what pride is?
4Christ. Mary sang that God scatters the proud and exalts the humble (Luke 1:51-52). Where did Jesus do that in the Gospels?
5Recognising it. Which of the six faces of pride in this study are you least likely to see in yourself, and why?
6Be transformed. What would it mean for you to "boast in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 1:31) this week about something you would normally take credit for?
- Think. Your wisdom, strength and money are all received (1 Corinthians 4:7). Boast in knowing the LORD (Jeremiah 9:24).
- Attitude. Suspect yourself. Pride deceives the heart it lives in (Obadiah 1:3), so you will be the last to see it.
- Do. "Humble yourselves before the Lord" (James 4:10, ESV): ask someone close to you where they see pride in you, and thank them without a defence.
Pride
The point Pride is self-sufficiency, living as though everything you have is your own doing, and at its root it wants God's place; it comes out of the heart, it deceives the one who has it, and God sets Himself against it, so the way down is to humble yourself before Him and boast in the cross of Jesus.
References & Recommended Reading
- ESV Study Bible (Crossway) — notes on Isaiah 14:12-15, Ezekiel 28:11-19, Luke 10:18, Psalm 82:6, 2 Peter 1:4 and 1 Peter 5:7 (worry as a form of pride).
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible (Zondervan) — notes on Psalm 82:6, Isaiah 14:12-15, 1 Timothy 3:6, Habakkuk 2:4 (the link to Numbers 14:44) and Revelation 3:17 (Hosea 12:8).
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible (Zondervan) — notes on Psalm 82:6, Isaiah 14:12 and Revelation 3:17-18 (Laodicea's banking, textiles and eye salve).
- NLT Life Application Study Bible (Tyndale) — notes on Isaiah 14:12-14 and Ezekiel 28:12-19.
- CSB Ancient Faith Study Bible (Holman) — translator footnote at Ezekiel 28:14.
- Origen, De Principiis 1.5.4-5, in Ante-Nicene Fathers vol. 4 (public domain).
- Tertullian, Against Marcion 2.10, in Ante-Nicene Fathers vol. 3 (public domain).
- G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, via STEPBible's TBESG (CC BY) — ὑπερήφανος, ὑπερηφανία, τυφόω, φυσιόω and ἀλαζονεία.
- Macula Hebrew (WLC) and Macula Greek (SBLGNT) — occurrence data for גָּאוֹן, גֹּבַהּ, זָדוֹן, הֵילֵל and עָפַל, and for the Greek of Mark 7:22, Luke 10:15-18 and 1 Timothy 3:6.
- Septuagint lemmas — the Greek of Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ezekiel 28:14.
- Tacitus, Annals 14.27 — Laodicea's recovery from the AD 60 earthquake without Roman aid.
On this site
- Precious Stones in Scripture — the Hebrew of Ezekiel 28:13 names nine of the high priest's breastpiece stones; the Greek names all twelve, in the breastpiece's order.
- In Humility — the virtue that answers pride, and Jesus who humbled Himself.
- Sin and Idolatry — the heart that sets up something in God's place.
- Faith — leaning your whole weight on God, and the people who did.
- Why We Need Saving — what sin is, from the garden to the cross, and why the forbidden tree looked good.