Facing Pride

Defining Pride

Dictionary.com definition of pride:

a high or inordinate opinion of one’s own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether as cherished in the mind or as displayed in bearing, conduct, etc.

Pride comes in a variety of shapes and forms; but at its core pride is an overly high estimate of one’s own importance. Pride is often portrayed as a positive character trait in today’s society. It is often paired with the idea of self love and characterized as a way to view yourself as significant. The question then becomes where does our significance as human beings stem from? The post-modern understanding is that our own basis for significance stems from our own valuations of our lives, so as we value ourselves more we will feel more significant. There are issues with this point of view which we will discuss later.

The most obvious and recognizable version of pride looks like White Goodman in the film Dodgeball; White views himself as incredibly important and spends his whole life trying to make himself look good to the outside world. He never spends time trying to help, serve, or love other people because he is so obsessed with his own pursuits. We see this when he lies to Kate’s boss about her committing professional misconduct so that he could fire her and ask her on a date. He never once considered how these actions could impact her; and to be honest, he doesn’t really care because he wants what he wants. We also see him trying to make his bulge look bigger so that Kate will think he has a big dick. He does this because to him the truth doesn’t matter, people just need to see how cool and great he is.

Another common manifestation of pride is represented in Peter Lafleur the protagonist of the film. He seems to have a very low view of himself and has no goals in life. He doesn’t want to experience the feelings that come along with failure and rejection; so instead he protects himself by having no expectations for life and rarely exerting effort to try. He is quick to give up on the idea of saving his gym, and all of his relationships are kept at an arm’s length so that he won’t be hurt. This type of pride is deceiving because it masks itself as self deprivation or false humility. Someone who has this kind of pride sees themselves as protecting themselves and others by not trying or caring in life. The lie that they believe is that they don’t view themselves as important, but the fact that they live their lives protecting themselves from pain would indicate otherwise.

The Problem of Pride

From a Christian perspective the issue here is that our value doesn’t come from how we view ourselves; but how God views us. The way that we view ourselves and the way that we perceive that others see us is constantly changing. Our own estimation of ourselves is flawed because we don’t know the proper standard to weigh ourselves against. Are we to just compare ourselves to the other people in our lives? Are we to compare ourselves to our ever changing definition of good and evil? Are we to compare our lives to some societal definition of success? The problem is that none of these standards are consistent. God on the other hand is immutable, which means he is unchanging, and the standard He compares us to is His perfect character; which is the true basis for good. God fully knows us better than we know ourselves which makes Him a better judge than ourselves of our own worth.

Interestingly when it comes to our value God states that there are a few things that define us more than the ethical weight of our actions. First and foremost, God says that we are his “masterpiece.”

Ecclesiastes 2:8-10

“8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”

God when He created us stated that we are made in “His own image.”

Genesis 1:27-28

“27 So God created human beings in his own image.

In the image of God he created them;

male and female he created them.

28 Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.””

So we are God’s masterpiece and bearers of His image. As free-willed, soul having, and capable of love human beings we reflect God’s image to the surrounding world; not only this but we are His masterpiece of creation. We reflect God’s power and love just through us being created human beings in His universe. Honestly this is the best basis for human dignity and why we are more valuable than all other created beings.

Christians can also look to Ephesians 1:3-14 for a list of things that are true of our identity in Christ (our new identity as Christians). This passage explains that Christians are: children of God; forgiven of all sins through Christ’s resurrection/viewed as perfect in sight of the law; Citizens of Heaven, with a perfect life with God in Heaven to look forward to; Sealed in the Holy Spirit and have the Spirit inside of them; given every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places; and completely loved and accepted by God.

Our God given human dignity and identity in Christ give us real significance as people created, loved, forgiven, and empowered by God. These things are at the root of who we are as Christians. This would mean that 1 we didn’t/can’t earn our ultimate significance, 2 we have no basis to view ourselves as morally or ethically better than other people, and 3 we are extremely important but not in ways that are relative to the world of people around us.

Now all this isn’t to say that our actions don’t matter and our mistakes don’t have consequences. Our choices and actions can leave a positive or negative impact. Many people think the weight of our actions is our ticket to heaven or hell, but this isn’t what the Bible tells us. Our eternal life and God’s stamp of perfect approval comes from us accepting God’s free gift of eternal salvation and forgiveness. God chooses often to use human agency (work through humans) to do His ministry and share His love.. God has given us the truth in His word and He has empowered Christians to go out and share the Gospel. So when we preach the truth; share God’s love; or choose to sacrifice for the good of God or others, our actions can leave an eternal impact on someone else’s life and God may reward us either in this world or in the world to come.

God has a record of our works and he judges our individual actions as good or evil. He will reward us for the good that we have done in heaven and we will be shown the ways that we have acted against the Lord. 2 Corinthians 5:10 Paul said “ 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” Conrad Hilario puts it this way in his book Searching For Wisdom: Finding the Father in the Proverbs “ But God promises he will return one day to settle accounts. Luckily, no one who has forged a relationship with God through Christ will stand under his judgment. Yet, we will still stand before him to explain what we did with our lives. He will reward those who were faithful. And those who squandered their lives will experience loss.” There also can be worldly consequences for our actions both positive and negative.These worldly consequences aren’t necessarily gonna be equal to the weight of our actions, because as we all know this world isn’t fair. Our choice to sleep with someone without a condom on may lead to an unwanted pregnancy, or our acts of service and love may cause someone else to choose to serve someone else in their lives. It’s hard to say when and where these worldly consequences will come, but they will come.

Our existence is a gift from God; our righteous moral standing is a gift we accept from God; and our meaningful work in this life is yet another gift from God. We have no basis to think that we are better than other people, because as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4:7 “…What do you have that you didn’t receive?…” (this is a rhetorical question). We should view these precious gifts of God as the blessings that they truly are Judging ourselves and others isn’t our job, so we should leave it to God who is the righteous and loving Judge.

Fighting Pride

Now that we see that there is no basis for our pride, the question becomes how do we fight against our pride practically in our lives? There are a number of things that we can do to face our prideful thoughts and beliefs. Here are some ideas that I have come to by thinking about biblical truths, the biblical model for change, and my personal experiences fighting against OCD.

We can regularly practice counting our blessings and express our gratitude to God
We can take our prideful thoughts captive
We can act against our prideful thoughts/beliefs.
And as we do the first 3 we can change our prideful beliefs over time.

1. We can regularly practice counting our blessings and express our gratitude to God

This needs to be a regular practice of any growing believers life, because it allows us to put ourselves in the correct perspective that God is the reason for much of the good in our lives. We can honor God’s generosity through prayer and song, as our forefathers David and Paul exemplified. God has given us blessing after blessing and if we take God’s gifts for granted we will likely grow a stronger more independent view of ourselves than is actually true. God is the creator and central figure of this Universe and we should show reverence and gratitude for His lovingkindness to us. It is good for Christians to give thanks to God as regularly as possible. It helps us to see just how much God has done for us.

Ways We Can Do This

We can start by listing to God 5 things we are thankful for when we pray.
We can praise God for His perfect Character attributes.
We can thank God for His forgiveness of our sins through Christ’s death on the cross.
We can thank God for His jaw dropping and beautiful creations.
We can thank God for our existence/free will.
We can sing songs of praise that remind us of God’s love. (Such as Amazing Grace)
We can thank God for the people He has placed in our lives.
We can thank God for the purpose that He gives our lives.

2. We can take our prideful thoughts captive

Sometimes we are able to recognize when our thoughts are prideful. When we recognize our prideful thoughts we should mentally note what that thought is. It could be something like we feel people should affirm our comment at homechurch or people could be more in touch with our feelings in some situations rather than someone else’s. We need to mentally take note that we have a prideful disposition toward ourselves. This is part of our human nature and since we are in touch with our own perceived needs and feelings we are going to have a bias toward our own disposition. We need to put our needs in sight of the bigger picture of the other people in the room or situation. If we are to have full relationships we need a balance of sharing ourselves with others and learning about them and being sensitive to other’s needs. So putting yourself in other people’s shoes can be an important way to take our prideful thoughts captive. In Dodgeball we see throughout the movie Peter learns to consider others rather than just his own needs. This leads Peter to come back and play in the Championship game and help his teammates save the gym that they all knew and loved.

Ways We Can Do This

We can label our prideful thoughts as such.
We can consider other people’s feelings and needs.
We can ask God to help us recognize our prideful thinking
We can take a step back and try to look at the bigger picture outside of ourselves.
We can look at our identity in Christ and consider our incredible value as well as the equally incredible value of other human beings.

3. We Can Act/Fight Against Our Prideful Thoughts

This is one of the more important steps of taking on our prideful thoughts. What we do often reflects what we choose to believe. As we act in truth or humility it will help us reshape our minds towards humility. So if we recognize a selfish or prideful thought we should choose to act against the thought. The prideful thought could be us desiring attention or praise rather than the well being of the body of Christ. We may want to provide for other people to make us look good rather than allowing someone else to have an opportunity to serve. We could look to gratify our own desires in the moment rather than serving someone else with the time that we have been given. This is not a call to lose all desire or personality, but a call to fight our prideful bias and tendencies in order to better serve the body of Christ or other people in our lives. It is easy to see that many preachers today try to use the pulpit as a place to bring attention and praise to themselves rather than building a stronger community and allowing other people to take the spotlight. Jesus modelled true sacrificial love and said that if you want to be first you must make yourself last. Jesus was willing to get dirty and wash the disciples feet in order to show them what he meant. In Dodgeball Peter Lafleur wrisked all the money he was given in the buyout of Average Joe’s Gym in order to try to save the place that his friends had been fighting for throughout the film. He went from a position of putting himself first, to sacrificing everything he had gained for desire of the team. When we choose to sacrifice our livelihood for others it creates a deeper level of trust and gives people a glimpse of the love that God has for us. Jesus went through incredible amounts of pain and rejection in order to show the deep love and forgiveness that he offers to us.

When we recognize a prideful thought we can choose to act against it
We can take time to pray and consider others
We can look for ways to serve other people in our lives
We can serve in ways that may or may not be noticed
We can do the dirty work that no one wants to do

4. As We Continue To Put Our Pride In Place We Can Change Our Values

As we choose to invest in other people our hearts will begin to value others as important as we know them to be. Peter’s friends throughout the film showed their love and support to him by trying to help him save the gym that he had created. This love broke through to him near the end of the film and lead him to choose to sacrifice everything he had gained for the friends that he loved. When we choose to invest in other people and lay our lives aside for others this will communicate a love beyond mere words. Jesus walked the walk of love and it changed the world. He didn’t do this for his own sake, but because he truly valued us despite our sin, rejection, and general nastiness towards him. When we choose to walk the walk of love as we talk the talk we will begin to truly love people. Giving God’s love to others is at the core of a meaningful human existence. White Goodman is never satisfied with the gratification of his desires, he always wants more. Peter on the other hand chose to stop protecting himself from hurt in order to love others and this opened the door to a new life with real friendships. At the end of the day the life of self sacrifice and humility is painful yet it produces the greatest joy of the human heart a real experience of love. And receiving and giving God’s love is the best life we can truly hope for.

Work Cited

Hilario, Conrad. Searching For Wisdom: Finding the Father in the Proverbs. New Paradigm Publishing, 2018.

Thurber, Rawson Marshall, director. Dodgeball: a True Underdog Story. 20th Century Fox, 2004.