Pride is most often characterized by loud, arrogant, boastful, in-your-face annoyances. However, pride can also wear many disguises and be present in our lives in ways we may easily miss. Pride and its aftermath bother all of us.  Even more than bothering us, it offends God and is sin against Him. It is included in the list of heinous sins in scripture.  

 In his popular article on pride, Evangelist Harold Vaughn states the following:

Pride was the first sin to destroy the calm of eternity. It was pride that cast Lucifer from heaven and it was pride that cost our first parents their place in Paradise. Pride is the first sin to enter a man’s heart and the last to leave. No sin is more offensive to God than the sin of pride. Pride has been referred to as the “complete anti-God state of mind.” It militates against God’s authority, God’s law, and God’s rule. This is why the Bible equates rebellion with witchcraft (1 Sam. 15:23). Pride assaults God’s throne and asserts its independence in an attempt to dislodge God as the Sovereign of the universe.

Humility is the foundation of all virtue, but pride is the essence of all sin. The world system operates on the basis of pride, for all that is in the world is lust and pride (1 John 2:16). Pride and lust are root sins from which all other sins spring. Pride is the mother of evil.

God detests pride. He even hates a proud look (Prov. 6:16-17). God’s loathing of pride is unalterable, for “Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD” (Prov. 16:5). But why does God hate pride so fiercely?  (See link at the end to read the full article on his website) 

Pride, at its root, is selfishness. From selfishness grow two ugly trees, sinful anger and sinful fear, that produce ugly sinful fruit. We usually think of pride in terms of the fruits of sinful anger alone: a life of bitterness, malice, cruelty, spite, yelling, demands, envy, resentment, intolerance, criticism, and more.  However, pride can take on the characteristics of the fruit from the tree of sinful fear, too. These fruits, such as suspicion, indecision, worry, inferiority, some types of depression, social withdrawal, and over-analyzing, though not often seen as pride, are just as much the fruit of pride.

With these thoughts in mind, what are some of pride’s best disguises?

--  Manipulation 

--  Depressed Donald – What’s the matter, Don? Why so glum?  Don: “Ah, things didn’t go MY way. I don’t like the way the day turned out. I don’t like what God is doing in MY life. People don’t seem too care too much about ME and MY world and MY problems.”

--  Silent Susie – Why so quiet, Susie?  Susie: “I don’t know.” [while inwardly thinking: “Please ask more; I want to have your attention. I want people to notice I’m silent because I want to be heard. I want people to know about ME and MY problems and that I didn’t get MY way.”] 

Note: Sometimes people do have real issues of concern and need help. This example is in reference to common, every-day life issues and people feeling sorry for themselves for no good reason. 

--  Grouchy Grant – Why so touchy, Grant?  Grant: “I’m frustrated that things got in the way of MY goals and plans. Now everything and everyone seems to set my teeth on edge.”

--  Martyr's complex

--  Mad-action Martha – Hey Martha, take a break.  Slow down and catch your breath. Martha: “Are you kidding!? I’m the only one that can get all this done. No one else seems to care about how much there is to do and how much I’M doing.  No one seems to say ‘thank you’ or notice all the work I do. I can’t stop, though, or it won’t get done. I’m the only one that can humbly serve around here.” 

--  Aggressive Action

--  Get-‘er-done Gary – See Mad-action Martha. 

--  Procrastination – subtle defiance

--  Drag-your-feet Drew – Drew, can you please get the project finished?  Drew: “I’ll get to it soon.  MY plans come first.  I’ll do it when I want to. I’m not lazy; I just have MY own priorities.” 

--  Suspicion

--  Suspicious Sam – Sam, why weren’t you at the meeting today? Sam: “I’m not sure they want my input. I saw a couple of guys talking after lunch. I think they were conspiring against my ideas. I think they don’t like me and want to see me defeated.”  Note: Actual conversation he saw was about lawn mower engines and not about him at all. 

--  Worry

--  Worried Wilma – Why so bewildered, Wilma?  Wilma: “I have everything figured out and planned out for my family and our future. I know it’s best the way. I’ve planned it so that I’M in control. I’m worried I’LL lose control or something unplanned will happen.” 

--  Overt Shyness

--  Timid Tom – Why are you sitting by yourself here, Tom?  Tom: “I don’t think people will like ME and I’M afraid I’LL get MY feelings hurt again if I reach out to others and build relationships.  I’M afraid they won’t like ME.” 

Do any of these sound familiar?  We all struggle with forms of pride and always need to be assessing the fruit of pride in our lives.  Thankfully, God can save us from our pride and make us truly humble by His grace allowing us to be righteously pursuing our relationships and efforts in a way that is not prideful.

What comments do you have? Can you think of other disguises that pride may take in our lives?


Here are some other helpful resources you may be interested in:

Some of us or perhaps all of us doubt God, his Bible or even his existence from time to time. There are two kinds of doubt however. One is good and one is bad. Good or Honest doubt prompts us to look for answers and seek truth while flippant or bad doubt tends to be an excuse for living and acting however we want. Which kind do you or those you love struggle with?

It can be expressed with these two phrases one might hear from doubters.

Good doubt may sound like this.  "I need to know more. I want to understand who God is and why he is trustworthy."

Bad doubt may sound like this. "Hey, who knows right? Live and let live. We'll find out who is right or wrong eventually anyhow when we all gather at the big party in the sky."

For a long time, I’ve felt that Thomas has gotten a bad rap. Remember him? Doubting Thomas? He’s the disciple who was out somewhere when the resurrected Christ appeared to the others.
“Hey, Tom! You really missed it. He’s back—Jesus. And He was here just a few hours ago—Where were you?”
“I was out. Just out. Walking. I’ve got a lot of thinking to do.”
His friends were obviously excited about something. Maybe one of them said, “That empty tomb Peter and John saw on Sunday—this is why. Jesus is really alive! We’ve seen Him!”

Thomas wasn’t one to buy into someone else’s excitement. Still hurting over the loss of one he had committed his life to, he said, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”
That’s pretty strong wording. Thomas said he would have to poke his finger into the holes made by the nails of the crucifixion. Maybe that was hyperbole. But we forget how confused and discouraged all of the disciples were. But Thomas was the realist in the crowd. It was only Thomas who heard what Jesus clearly had told them on their way to the Passover feast, just a week before. Jesus had said to them that he would be betrayed and killed. All the others were expecting Jesus to use this huge gathering to announce his earthly kingdom and to lead a revolt that would push the occupying Roman army out of Israel. Some of them were jockeying for position in this new kingdom. Most of the disciples were not ready for God’s unexpected plan.
But Thomas was. His take on it? He was ready for the worst. Before they came to Jerusalem, he had said, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.” You’ve got to give him credit for faithfulness. For him, it wasn’t about a place in the inner circle or getting a high office in the kingdom. For Thomas it was about Jesus.
Do you see the unexpected juxtaposition: the no-nonsense realist, the doubter, was in some sense the most faithful of them. Can faith and doubt coexist? In his book The Case for Faith, Lee Strobel proposes that doubt is necessary for faith. People who have never seriously examined the evidence, pro and con, have a shallow faith. They are easily blown away by the first argument they cannot answer. And they can’t answer, not because there is no answer, but because they have not done the “due diligence” of examination.

The honesty of doubt, good doubt, in contrast to smoke-screen or bad doubt, is what will build a person up. Lee Strobel wrote of that. A Pulitzer-prize winning journalist and an atheist, Strobel started his investigation of Christianity to disprove it. As the evidence for the validity of faith began to mount, he experienced the natural reaction of trying to avoid God’s claims on his life. He clung to arguments that he knew were weak, just to avoid the consequences of admitting that God is real. He knew that his life would have to change. However, the tough-minded pursuit of truth that made him a good journalist compelled him to confront his intellectual dishonesty, and he became not only a Christian, but also one of the major defenders of Christian belief in our time.

Thomas struggled with that too. Do you see the profound insight of his wording: “I will not believe.” He did not say, “can’t believe”; he said, “won’t believe.” There is an act of the will involved. Honest doubt seeks truth, not convenience or a way to continue in a given lifestyle. Some people are more interested in saving face than honestly considering faith.

 Good or Honest doubt matters. So does the point-of-decision principle. An old story has a college freshman challenging the professor, “How do you know that I exist?” Perhaps the student expected a discussion of a universal life force and the illusory nature of our perception of individual existence and human will. Instead, the prof answered, “Who, may I ask, is speaking?” The evidence of the student’s existence was overwhelming. Yes, you can always come up with some argument, but sooner or later, you must choose. To continue putting off choice is itself a powerful choice, perhaps a deadly choice. For the enquiring mind, there never will be a point when all questions have been answered as simply and clearly as a high school math problem.

Some years ago, when I was struggling with a career change, a friend introduced a new phrase to me: “Eventually, you just have to pull the trigger.” Quite a picture: a small action performed with full knowledge that something big and consequential will follow. There comes a time when the weight of evidence demands a verdict. So it is with Christ. Healthy good doubt moves toward a goal; it doesn’t drift. It seeks truth, not excuses.

It is God who says “Come now, let us reason together.” (Isaiah 1:18). God also says, “You will seek me and find me, when you search for me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). I would encourage you to seek where answers are likely to be found: at a Bible-teaching church. For a safe, friendly place to investigate the claims of God’s word, visit us at Calvary Bible Church.

For more information, we suggest the book mentioned above.  You can purchase it here on Amazon or listen to the audio book here on YouTube. 

More from our church you may find helpful.