For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. Luke 14:11
From the context of the scriptures, Jesus taught here: “Don’t sit in the first place when attending a wedding banquet”, which mainly means not to be proud and think that you are superior to others.
The essence of pride is to think for yourself, or hope that you are stronger than others, and can be superior to others.
In fact, as long as a person has pride in his heart, even if he does not choose the first place in behavior, he has already chosen the first place in his heart. Pride is the root cause of human corruption and a sinful undercurrent that lingers throughout human history. The first thing that caused Eve to sin was not the attraction of fruits, but the words of the devil: “Your eyes will be bright, just like God.” Being proud and wanting to be above others, and even wishing to be like God, is the sinful root of man from beginning to end, and it is also the most fundamental manifestation of pride.
Some people say that pride is the first thing people give birth to, but pride is the last thing that dies. Pride makes people lose the ability to objectively know, and have self-righteousness. We are easy to be brainwashed and easy to judge. Behind all this is the work of pride. Moreover, it is easy for us to get used to feelings of pride and not easy to know ourselves, easily judge others in our hearts but not to take it as our sin seriously.
The other side of pride is low self-esteem. Inferiority is afraid of being despised by others, and if you are afraid of being despised, you want to prove yourself, such as fighting for a high position. Today, we see a lot of jealous disputes, fame and fortune, fighting in our daily life, but it is the pride of the heart that wants to surpass others and be superior to others. It is the desire to gain both fame and fortune, and the desire to control others.
When we are afraid of being despised by others, we will seek the approval of others and use the approval of others as our motivation to fight. And in order to identify, we hope that there will always be something that attracts the attention of others, that others dare not do, or that I have things that you do not have, such as being the first. In fact, this is precisely the psychological weakness and the public-minded psychology of seeking approval. Augustine talked about stealing plums from neighbors when he was a child in his “Confessions”. He didn’t want to eat them, nor did he like plums. It is the driving force of sinful nature and seeking approval. He wants to prove his bravery by daring to do evil that others dare not do. Behind it is to strive for the identity of the group.
Why does he want to win the approval of others? Because he is afraid of being isolated, afraid of being humbled, afraid of not showing himself, afraid of loneliness and not being recognized that he can be superior to others. You see, pride seems to be powerful, but the driving force behind it is actually an alternative weakness and fear. Want to be special because of fear, fighting for fame and gain because of fear, inferiority because of pride, fear because of inferiority, crime because of fear, and tyranny because of weakness. This seems to be a common criminal trajectory.
The Bible says it well. Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe. Proverb 29:25
We are worried about being despised, we will be despised, at least, we have despised ourselves in our own hearts.
In fact, because we are not the truth itself, we are not the origin of existence, we all need to have our own positioning and recognition of value and identity. The difference is that if we have faith, we will look at ourselves with God’s eyes; we will judge by the standard of truth; and we will make behavior choices based on God’s ethics. We will be confident because of our faith in God, and we will no longer be inferior or proud because of our self-confidence. Because God is our standard.
From this point of view, humility comes from God, and pride comes from the devil.
And the humility from God is the source of our strength to get out of the embarrassment and regain strength, and it is the only narrow way for us to remain joyful forever.
