Help from John Piper on identifying pride

I’ve always struggled with pride, and I know that I am not alone in this.  I am always struck when I am reminded of how much God utterly despises pride in human beings.  Look up “proud” in a concordance, or just click here for a smattering of verses using the word and look at just how many talk about God’s intentions toward boastful and arrogant men.  

John Piper is perhaps my favorite Christian author today.  I consider him to be a teacher to me.  Last year he published a book titled What Jesus Demands from the World, and I simply cannot recommend any book more than this one.  I am being very slow and intentional as I work my way through it, reading just enough at a time to savor its content as best I can.  I want to share a quote that I came across today as I read “Demand #16:  Humble Yourself by Making War on Pride.”

 Pride is difficult to define because its manifestations are subtle and often do not look like arrogance.  We can see this if we compare boasting and self-pity as two forms of pride.     

Boasting is the response of pride to success.  Self-pity is the response of pride to suffering.  Boasting says, “I deserve admiration because I have achieved so much.”  Self-pity says, “I deserve admiration because I have sacrificed so much.”  Boasting is the voice of pride in the heart of the strong.  Self-pity is the voice of pride in the heart of the weak.  Boasting sounds self-sufficient.  Self-pity sounds self-sacrificing.  The reason self-pity does not look like pride is that it appears to be needy.  But the need arises from a wounded ego, and the desire is not really for others to see them as helpless but as heroes.  The need that self-pity feels does not come from a sense of unworthiness but from a sense of unrecognized worthiness.  It is the response of unapplauded pride. 

I don’t know about you, but that causes me to really pray that God might make me keenly aware of any pity party I might attempt to throw for myself.  Rather than seek pity, which shows a desire for the praise of men, I need to learn to count as joy anything that requires endurance for the sake of the Gospel.

May we take up the arms God has given us for battle–His Word and our brothers and sisters in the faith–and wage a war against pride in all its forms. 

~ by jakeporter on December 11, 2007.