What is pride in the Bible?

Pride. There are several words so translated in the Greek Testament. The one used here (hyperephania) conveys the sense of a spirit of self-exaltation in a man coupled with the disparagement of others. The Pharisees who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others (Luke 18:9) are flagrant examples, but the Gentiles are not free from guilt in this respect any more than the Jews (Rom. 1:30). This arrogance displays itself in boastful words and vain-glorious deeds, but its origin is within the heart, as is shown by that sentence from the Magnificat: "He scattered the proud in the imagination of their heart" (Luke 1:51). This particular form of haughtiness is obnoxious to God and amenable to His summary judgment, for both James and Peter write that "God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5).

The root idea of the word is that of lifting up oneself to show oneself off above one's fellows, a personal puffing up which brings into the condemnation of the devil (1 Tim. 3:6). The full development of this sin of unmitigated arrogance in man was not seen in the Pharisee, but will be fully displayed in the coming "man of sin," the son of perdition, who "opposes and exalts himself" exceedingly against everyone that is called god, or object of veneration: so that he sits down in the temple Of God, showing himself that he is God (2 Thess. 2:4). That great personage having exalted himself to heaven in the folly of pride, will be brought down to hell in swift abasement by the epiphany of the coming in glory of Him who humbled Himself to death, even the death of the cross (2 Thess 2:8).

Aye, it is pride which calls for abasement. "The day of Jehovah of hosts shall be upon all that is proud and lofty, and upon all that is lifted up; and it shall be brought low: and upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan; and upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up; and upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall. … And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day" (Isa. 2:12-17).

Thus the cry here is in perfect accordance with the demands of holiness, and with the manner of the coming judgment. Pride is the very essence of sin; the creature lifted up out of its place and God dethroned from His; and for this the stroke must come. Here then is the prevailing plea.

Pride is the first enemy, and it is the blackness of double iniquity; it is the intensest kind of wickedness; it is that by which Satan fell; he became dim by reason of his brightness. What a contradiction it is that his very beauty had a spot put upon it, because he sought to exalt himself by reason of his beauty. So when the Church of Christ, or an individual Christian, lifts himself up, and is satisfied with himself and filled with pride, you have there that intensest form of wickedness, because it is independence of God, it is the exaltation of self, and, therefore, the very opposite of Christ. We see much of this in Ephesus and in Laodicea in Revelation — the beginning and ending of the Church's history.

30 Pride is the greatest of all evils that beset us, and of all our enemies it is that which dies the slowest and hardest. . … God hates pride above all things, because it gives to man the place that belongs to Him who is above, exalted over all. Pride intercepts communion with God, and draws down His chastisement, for "God resists the proud."

But you may ask — What do you mean by moral order? I mean the order in which Satan's temptations usually reach us, as they reached Eve at first, and all the world since. It is written, "And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food" (the lust of the flesh), "and that it was pleasant to the eyes" (the lust of the eye), "and a tree to be desired to make one wise" (the pride of life), "she took of the fruit thereof and did eat; and gave also to her husband with her, and he did eat" (Gen. 3:6). The order here is akin to Luke's account of the Lord's temptations, and exactly what the Spirit of God elsewhere thus describes: "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world" (1 John 2:16). Poor world! Its composition is after all only twofold, lust and pride. Lust is seeking what I do not possess, pride is self-exaltation on account of what I do possess. These principles form and actuate the world — away from God.

If the love of the Father possesses us, we shall see the world in its true light. We shall possess a spiritual faculty which acts after the fashion of the much prized X-rays. We shall get down beneath the surface of things to the skeleton framework on which all is built. That skeleton is revealed to us in verse 16 as, "The lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life;" all of which spring not from the Father but are wholly of the world.

The lust of the flesh is the desire of having — the desire to possess oneself of those things that minister to the flesh. The lust of the eyes is the desire of seeing, whether with the eyes of the head or with those of the mind, all the things that minister to one's pleasures. It would cover man's restless intellectual cravings as well as his continual hunt for spectacular pleasures. The pride of life is the desire of being — the yearning to be somebody, or something that ministers to pride of heart. This is the most deep-seated evil of the three, and often the least-suspected.

Pride is in every human heart; it runs in man's blood; all are afflicted with this disease, though by too many, alas, it is regarded rather as an ornament than a blemish. The Word of God says simply of “a high look, and a proud heart,” so much thought of in the world, that they are sin (Prov.21:4). They are hateful to God (Prov.6:16,17; 16:5), and to Christ, typified by wisdom (Prov.8:13).

Pride is the first thing mentioned by the Lord, and it is the leading member of the seven things that are an abomination unto the Lord (Prov. 6:17); it was the cause of Satan's downfall (Ezek. 28:17), and the cause of the fall of many another, even as Scripture teaches, "A man's pride shall bring him low" (Prov. 29:23), and "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall" (Prov. 16:18). Pride marks nations, such as is recorded in Scripture, "We have heard of the pride of Moab" (Isa. 16:6), it marks individuals, and also cities, as here in Sodom. The Lord, who hates pride, takes account of it, wherever it is found, and deals with it in His government.

The actuating motive in this audacious act of king Uzziah's is not made known. It has been suggested that he wished, like the Egyptian kings, to combine in himself both the office of king and high priest, so arrogating to himself the religious as well as the civil power. But whatever the immediate impelling motive, we know the primary cause of his profane deed. It was pride, the really "original sin," that hideous parent-sin of all succeeding sins, whether among angels, or among men (1 Tim. 3:6; Ezek. 28:2, 17). "He was marvelously helped till he was strong. But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction." "Strength of Jehovah" was the meaning of his name; and happy would it have been for him had he realized that only in His strength is any really strong. "My strength," says He who is "the Almighty" (Rev. 1:8), "is made perfect in weakness." "When I am weak, then am I strong," wrote one who knew his own utter powerlessness and his Lord's sufficient strength. "Be strong in the Lord," he cautions his fellow-weaklings. Uzziah prospered; and because of his prosperity, his foolish heart was lifted up with pride: and in him was fulfilled his great ancestor's proverb, "The prosperity of fools shall destroy them": and another — "Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall" (Prov. 1:32; 16:18).

Pride is the greatest of all the evils that beset us. Of all our enemies, it is that which dies the slowest and hardest. Even the children of the world are able to discern this. Madame De Stael said, on her death-bed, "Do you know what is the last to die in man? It is self-love." God hates pride above all things, because it gives to man the place which belongs to Him, who alone is exalted over all. Pride intercepts communion with God, and draws down His chastisements. For God resists the proud. He will destroy the house of the proud; and we are told that there is a day appointed, when the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of man laid low.