Spiritual Pride

Gal 2:11-17 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, "If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?" We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners;  yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not!

Pride is one of the most damaging and destructive components in life. Pride in any form and in anybody is a dangerous thing. The well known Proverb reminds us, “Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Yet knowing this, so many, so easily fall prey to holding their heads high with this haughty spirit as thought they were especially created out of some form of preferable “dust of the earth”. One does not have to search far to find reasons to think more highly of himself “than he ought”. Whether it is being proud of riches, education, beauty or physical perfection, adornment, clothing or a name, pride in oneself for anything is more often than not, misappropriating the source whereby these things are rendered.

But this blog post is about something even more dangerous than just pride, I am speaking of the far reaching, extremely dangerous and highly contagious spirit and attitude of spiritual pride.

Spiritual pride is at first of course an extreme example of selfishness and self-righteousness, both of which are the opposite of the crucified life in Jesus Christ.

Spiritual pride has at its root the belief that one can make himself "holy" by his own "self-righteousness".

Spiritual pride manifests itself in many ways and in many attitudes.

Spiritual pride allows one to view himself as superior to this brother.

Spiritual pride allows one to view his OWN acts of righteousness as helping him obtain righteousness.

Spiritual pride says, “You don’t look like me, so therefore you’re not as good as me OR as spiritual as me”.

Spiritual pride looks down its nose at someone it perceives as being less “spiritual” than them and condemns and marks them for not “measuring up”.

Spiritual pride has been around for a LONG time.

Jesus dealt harshly with pride and its chief adherents, the Pharisees more than he did about any other subject. He was constantly rebuking his disciples for their constant seeking of hierarchy in the Kingdom and instead telling them to become a servant to be “great”.

Paul repetitively admonishes, exhorts and sometimes even resorts to outright rebuke to teach his converts to Christianity about the gross dangers of spiritual pride.

In some of his harshest writing, Paul rebukes the great Apostle Peter for allowing his Jewish heritage, and his Jewish brethren to draw him away and keep him from dining with Paul’s fledgling gentile congregants in Galatia.

Paul sternly reminds not only Peter, but the rest of his readers, that everything we have and everything we are comes only in our dying with Christ and our putting on of Christ. He reminds us that we CANNOT and yea are NEVER justified or “made holy” by ANYTHING we have done, but only through faith in the saving power of the blood of Jesus Christ.

To be continued…..

Thanks for reading today!