We often hear people say,
“I am proud of you.” Is pride good or bad? “Oh no! Come on, that’s the phrase
we often use. It doesn’t mean what you think as . . .,” you may protest. Well, let’s
look at the meaning of this phrase: the WordWeb dictionary defines, “adjective:
proud of – Feeling pleasurable satisfaction over something by which you
measure your self-worth.” There you go, it clearly adds ‘by which you
measure your self-worth.’ That’s exactly what you mean when you say, “I am
proud of you.” End of discussion!
What does the Bible
say about pride or ‘proud’? Last night, I opened up theWord Bible
Software to see how many verses in the whole Bible talk about pride. 56 Bible verses [NKJV] talk about ‘proud’ and
49 Bible verses [NKJV] talk about pride. So, it is safe to say we have 105
Bible verses regarding pride.
I went through every single
verse of these 105 verses and found nothing positive regarding pride. On the other
hand, they are all negative, we have verses such as these:
PROUD
Jeremiah 13:15
“Hear and give ear: Do not be proud, For the LORD has
spoken.”
James 4:6
“But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: ‘God resists the
proud, But gives grace to
the humble.’”
Proverbs 15:25
“The LORD will destroy the house of the proud, But He
will establish the boundary of the widow.”
Daniel 5:20
“But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit was
hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his
glory from him.”
1John 2:16 “For all that is in the world—the lust of
the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but
is of the world.”
Well, what can we be proud
of? I don’t think we have anything or are anything or have done anything to be
proud of. Are you rich, I mean super-wealthy? Read what the glorious King David
says in 1 Chronicle 29:10-15:
1 Chronicle 29:10-15
“Therefore David blessed the LORD before all the
assembly; and David said: “Blessed are You, LORD God of Israel, our Father,
forever and ever. Yours, O LORD, is the greatness, The power and the
glory, The victory and the majesty; For all that is in heaven and in earth is
Yours; Yours is the kingdom,
O LORD, And You are exalted as head over all. Both riches and honor
come from You, And You reign over all. In Your hand is
power and might; In Your hand it is to make great And to give strength to all. “Now therefore, our
God, We thank You And praise
Your glorious name. But who am I, and who are my people, That we should be
able to offer so willingly as this? For all things come from You, And of Your
own we have given You. For we are aliens and pilgrims before You, As were all our
fathers; Our days on earth are as a shadow, And without hope.”
Are
you mighty, smart, intelligent, powerful, or the best? Think through the
observation of King Solomon, which is inspired by the Holy Spirit. He was the
wisest man, the wealthiest king, the womanizer (had 1000 wives), the
philosopher, the poet, the lyricist, and the scientist. He says in Ecclesiastes
9:11,
Ecclesiastes 9:11
“Again, I observed this on the earth: the
race is not always won by the swiftest, the battle is not always won by the
strongest; prosperity does not always belong to those who are the wisest,
wealth does not always belong to those who are the most discerning, nor does
success always come to those with the most knowledge – for time and chance may
overcome them all.” [NET version]
Well,
the phrase “proud of” is so common that we will continue to hear and maybe even
find ourselves using it on and off. But, remember the F-word is also common,
but we don’t use that, and for most of us the F-word has never entered our vocabulary.
In
the days to come, I shall try to post it on “boasting.” In the Bible, boasting
is both positive and negative. The Bible allows us to boast in some
instances. How and where to boast is the only limit . . .