What Kind of Pride is Evil?
How to Properly Understand the Sin of all Sins
Over the past few days, it’s come to my attention that many think all pride is evil.
That notion is both dangerous and unbiblical.
Nowhere does God in Christ condemn all pride. Like with all matters, he is concerned with proper order, proper design, the proper directing of desires and focus where they are due. With himself at the top of the hierarchical ladder.
Before we get deep into details, let’s first consider what “pride” means in the English language (and what it also means in all other languages).
It is a universal term (as in, all languages have a “pride” and various ways of describing its kinds) and is the noun form of the adjective “proud,” which means “happy, joyous, ecstatic.” To take pride in something, then, means to find happiness, joy, ecstasy in it.
The term “pride” itself is innocuous (neutral), but it can be twisted beyond recognition by bad actors. The LGBTQ movement is a case in point. They adopted pride as their banner largely because homosexuals were called “gay” by 20th-century culture, which is another term for happy, since they always give off the air of flamboyance. But what they really engage in was and is the sin of self-pride, selfishness, self-obsession, self-aggrandizement.
The central sin of all sins.
When the Bible mentions the sin of pride, the latter is to what it refers. But there is another form of pride that is both holy and commanded from every Christian everywhere…
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Ancient Hebrew and Greek Terms for “Pride”
The ancient languages of the Bible use a wide range of terms to describe pride:
Hebrew Terms (Old Testament)
Ga’avah (גַּאֲוָה) — Pride, haughtiness, arrogance. Common in Proverbs 16:18 (“Pride goes before destruction”), Psalm 10:2, and Isaiah 16:6.
Ga’on (גָּאוֹן) — Pride, majesty (can be positive or negative), arrogance. Used in Leviticus 26:19, Jeremiah 13:9, Ezekiel 7:24, and Zechariah 9:6.
Zadon (זָדוֹן) — Presumptuous pride, arrogance, insolence. Found in Psalm 119:21 and Proverbs 11:2.
Rum / Ram (רוּם / רָם) — To be high or exalted (often implying haughty pride when used negatively). Examples include Psalm 101:5 (“haughty eyes”) and Isaiah 2:11-12.
Greek Terms (New Testament)
Hyperephania (ὑπερηφανία) — Arrogance, haughty pride. Appears in Mark 7:22 as part of a list of evils that defile a person.
Alazoneia (ἀλαζονεία) — Boastful pride, pretentious arrogance. Found in 1 John 2:16 (“the pride of life”) and James 4:16.
Philautia (φιλαυτία) — Self-love, selfishness. Used in 2 Timothy 3:2 (“lovers of self”) in a list of end-times characteristics.
Physioo (φυσίω) — To puff up, become conceited or proud. Frequently used by Paul, such as in 1 Corinthians 4:6, 4:18-19, and 13:4 (“love is not puffed up”).
As you can see, pride is used to translate many different words, not all bad. The central evil is self-pride (obsession with one’s self above all else). Self-worship. Also known as arrogance, haughtiness, insolence.
The latter was the central sin of the serpent in the Garden of Eden that damned creation. He sought to usurp the throne of God, to claim what did not belong to him, to violate the established order, and we all now struggle with the same sin because Adam and Eve listened to him, disobeyed God, and committed the same violation: Attempting to strip God of his rightful rule.
The implied opposite would’ve been taking pride in or boasting in God.
Paul’s Antidote to Self-Worship
It’s okay to find happiness and joy in God’s creation. After all, it was made for us. The Bible makes clear that the danger arises when the creation replaces the Creator, when other gods and idols are put above God Most High (there’s a reason those two are forbidden in the first of God’s Ten Commandments).
Christ himself reiterated the forbiddenness of idolatry when telling us that wherever our treasure is, there will our heart be also. After first telling us to seek first the Kingdom of Heaven (God).
In lockstep with his Lord and with Hebrew Scripture, Paul reframed Jesus’s words as “boasting in the Lord.”
The apostle argues for boasting in several places throughout his epistles, but the two key spots known by almost everyone are 1 Corinthians 1:31 and then 2 Corinthians 10:17. In each, he uses the Greek term kauchaomai, which means “to boast, to glory, to exult, or to take pride in something.” Both verses quote from Jeremiah 9:23-24:
“Thus says the Lord: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.’”
Jeremiah uses the Hebrew word halal, which means “to shine, to boast, to praise.” Imagine someone beaming with overwhelming joy and infatuation. Adoration. God says he wants that very attitude directed toward himself first and foremost. To be exulted over everything in the Israelites’ lives.
For the Corinthians, Paul ties the idea of exulting (taking pride in) God to Christ Jesus (God-made-flesh) and emphasizes the distinction between the sin of self-pride and the proper obedience of finding one’s own happiness in Christ, the Creator and eternal King, above all else. He, his desires, and his commands take precedence over and in our lives.
One is reminded of John the Baptist saying of Christ Jesus, “He must increase and I must decrease” (John 3:30).
Indeed, the act of elevating God in Christ to his proper place is the act of humbling ourselves to our proper place.
How to Become Humble
Humility was shunned in the Greco-Roman world because it was associated with slaves, the poor, and the lowliest of the low.
The only ones who had a somewhat positive view of humility were the Jews because of the commands in the Old Testament scriptures to elevate God Most High above all, and because of many verses praising the trait of self-emptying or self-lowering. But even for them, humility was not a central practice.
So, when Jesus commanded humility from all humans in the Sermon on the Mount, it was beyond shocking.
Here are the terms used in the original languages to describe humility:
Hebrew Terms (Old Testament)
Anav / Anaw (עָנָו) — Humble, meek, lowly, afflicted. This is the most common term for humility in the Old Testament. Examples: Numbers 12:3 (“Now the man Moses was very humble”), Psalm 37:11, Psalm 147:6, Zephaniah 2:3.
Anavah (עֲנָוָה) — Humility, meekness. Examples: Proverbs 15:33 (“The fear of the Lord is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor”), Proverbs 18:12, Zephaniah 2:3.
Shaphel (שָׁפֵל) — To be low, to humble, to bring low (verb form). Often used to describe God humbling the proud or the humble being exalted. Examples: Proverbs 29:23, Isaiah 2:9-12, Daniel 4:37.
Greek Terms (New Testament)
Tapeinophrosyne (ταπεινοφροσύνη) — Humility of mind, lowliness of mind. This is the primary New Testament term for the Christian virtue of humility. Examples: Ephesians 4:2, Philippians 2:3 (“in humility count others more significant than yourselves”), Colossians 3:12, 1 Peter 5:5.
Tapeinosis (ταπείνωσις) — Humility, lowliness, humiliation. Examples: Luke 1:48 (Mary’s song: “he has looked on the humble estate of his servant”), Philippians 3:21, Acts 8:33.
Tapeinoo (ταπεινόω) — To humble, to make low, to bring low (verb). Examples: Matthew 23:12 (“Whoever humbles himself will be exalted”), James 4:10 (“Humble yourselves before the Lord”), 1 Peter 5:6.
Prautes (πραΰτης) — Meekness, gentleness (often closely associated with humility). Examples: Galatians 5:23, Ephesians 4:2, Colossians 3:12, James 1:21.
Meekness and humility are associated (and both appear in the Sermon on the Mount) because they encompass the idea of self-control. Having a character that knows its own powers and weaknesses and keeps them arranged according to Godly design. Ever vigilant against sin.
Such is holy wisdom.
Foolishness is living however you see fit, without consideration for higher order. Consider what James has to say on the matter: “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” (James 1:12-15)
The fool is the one who follows his own desires (i.e. LGBTQers and anyone else who makes idols of their desires), which inevitably leads to sin and death because all humans are depraved since the Fall, but the wise man is he who empties himself of himself and follows the desires of the Creator.
From Nothing to Something
Therefore, the idea that all pride is sin is pure hogwash. What the Bible really emphasizes is what the Catholic Church calls (and for the record, I am not Catholic; I’m just calling it like I see it) ordo amoris (order of loves). Living out the hierarchy of design God built into creation.
Arranging our desires in accordance with the desires and demands of the King. Making ourselves nothing so that he can make us into something. Thereby evading the trap of forming idols from our wants.
Put another way, you and I must become allegiant to God in Christ, our eternal King…in all ways…at all times.
Such allegiance entails submitting our bodies, minds, souls...everything...unto him forevermore. We will ourselves into clay so he can mold. So he can breathe into us new life and then re-fashion us into his image, making priceless gems from the rubble of sin and death.
All of the above is what it means to take pride in Christ Jesus, and it is not only biblical, it is our holy and sacred duty.
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