The Evil Ugly Snake Inside us All
Another enemy of love mentioned in 1 Corinthians 13 is so dangerous, we’re warned about its perils all through the Bible.
It’s something we want to be quick to spot and stop the minute it tries to get a hold on us.
It’s the enemy of pride.
Pride is defined as “a high or inordinate opinion of one’s own dignity, importance, merit or superiority.” It’s an overinflated or exaggerated sense of one’s self. It’s associated with haughtiness, arrogant behavior and conceit. It’s what we used to refer to as “getting too big for your britches.”
The opposite of love, pride is totally self-centered. Where love focuses on God and on being a blessing to others, pride causes a person to focus on self and other people’s opinions of him or her. It makes the person so self-conscious, so concerned about image and reputation that, as Psalm 10:4 says, “In all his thoughts there is no room for God” (NIV).
Some people allow pride to hinder them from taking even the first step toward God. They’ll go to church with a friend, hear the gospel preached, and want to make Jesus their Lord, but then refuse to respond to the invitation at the end of the service. They’ll stay in their seats and keep silent rather than praying the prayer of salvation because they’re afraid of what other people will think.
At times, pride even has that effect on believers. It gets us preoccupied with ourselves and keeps us from pressing further into God. Christians, for example, who haven’t yet received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, might hear a sermon about speaking in other tongues. But pride might stop them from believing and acting on it. They might say to themselves, It would be wonderful to be able pray out of my spirit, to pray beyond what I know, and pray out the perfect will of God, but I’ d look so foolish! What would my friends think if they heard me?
Believers who have pressed past those concerns and gone on to receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit might let pride hinder them in other ways. They might let it throw a stumbling block in their paths every time God tells them to do anything the least bit unusual. They might start thinking about themselves and their reputation and stop short of obeying God.
In my early years in ministry, although I was Spirit-filled, I was still fairly timid and quiet, so I was inclined to be reserved. But I had a strong desire to walk with God, so I began to pray, “Lord, show me how to follow Your Spirit. I just want to obey You. You tell me what to do, and I’ll do it.”
He answered, of course. But when He’d tell me to do something that was a little out of the ordinary, I’d be hesitant to step out on it. I was afraid I might look foolish. Fear isn’t of God because He is Love, and “there is no fear in love” (1 John 4:18). So the problem was obvious: I was being held back by pride.
So what did I do about it?
I’m happy to say, I chose to resist pride and yield to love!
I chose to put my love for God first and to love His people enough to do whatever He told me, particularly when I began teaching Healing School in our Believers’ Conventions. I decided, I am going to obey the Holy Spirit. Whatever He leads me to do, I’ ll do it—even if, in the eyes of others, it makes me look silly.
“But Gloria,” you might ask, “weren’t you concerned about losing your dignity?”
I was at first, but then I looked up dignity in the dictionary and found out that one of its meanings is “to be self-possessed.” I don’t want to be self-possessed. I want to be God-possessed! I want His Spirit to have His way in my life.
God’s people believe and obey Him, even when He tells them to do things that don’t always look sensible or reasonable to anyone else.
That’s what God’s faith people did in the Bible. Look at Joshua, for instance. It didn’t look reasonable for him to do what God said at the battle of Jericho. It didn’t make sense for him to march the Israelites around the walls of the city for seven days without saying a word, and then tell them to shout on the last day for no apparent reason. Yet Joshua followed God’s instructions and, as a result, the walls of Jericho fell down flat (Joshua 6:20)!
That story would have turned out differently, however, if Joshua had let pride get involved. Instead of obeying God, he could have come up with a more “sensible” battle plan. He could have done things his own way and closed the door on God’s supernatural power. But the walls of Jericho wouldn’t have fallen down.
Psalm 138:6 says, “Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.” Joshua couldn’t afford for the Lord to be afar off when he was trying to conquer Jericho. And we can’t either, when we’re facing the challenges in our lives. If we want to walk in supernatural victory, we have to keep the door wide open to God by walking in love and remaining humble. We have to say no to the enemy of pride!
An Ugly, Evil Thing
As believers, we don’t really have any reason to be proud, anyway. All the good things in us, as well as what we have, come from God (James 1:17). We didn’t produce them ourselves through our own great ability. They’re ours through Jesus and the grace that flows to us through Him. No matter how talented we may be in the natural, apart from Him, we wouldn’t be able to do anything of real value. It’s because He loves us and gives to us generously, out of His own abundance, that we’re so richly blessed.
The more we mature in God, the clearer that becomes to us. The better we know Him, the more we steer away from pride because we realize how totally dependent we are on Him. Someone wrote to me one time, years ago, after hearing me preach on this and said, “In the natural, as you grow up, you become less dependent on your parents. But as you grow up in the spirit, you become more dependent on your Father.”
That’s absolutely true! It was even true for Jesus when He was on earth. He said, “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works” (John 14:10).
As Jesus’ disciples, we should have the same attitude. We should give all the praise and glory to God for the victories we win and the successes we enjoy. Instead of getting into pride we should worship and thank Him.
God appreciates it when you take that attitude. He responds well to gratitude and thankfulness but not to pride. He considers it an ugly, evil thing. As the Bible says:
These…things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood (Proverbs 6:16-17).
The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate (Proverbs 8:13).
An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin (Proverbs 21:4).
Therefore pride compasseth [the wicked] about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment (Psalm 73:6).
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)
Notice in those verses, pride is tied up with things like lies, violence, wickedness and sin. It’s referred to as one of the things God hates. Why does He hate it? Because He loves us and wants us to enjoy His best, and pride cuts us off from it. Pride hinders our connection with Him and stops us from receiving His blessings. It puts us over on the devil’s turf and makes us vulnerable to his destructive works.
If we understood the kind of damage pride can do in our lives, we’d hate it as much as God does. We’d avoid it like a plague because we’d realize that:
Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall (Proverbs 16:18).
A man’s pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit (Proverbs 29:23).
When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom (Proverbs 11:2).
By pride comes nothing but strife, but with the well-advised is wisdom (Proverbs 13:10, NKJV). The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee (Obadiah 1:3).
Look again at that last verse. It says pride is a deceiver. It tricks people into thinking they’re high and exalted and then deceives them into doing things that bring them down.
Pride will even try to deceive you into thinking you can get away with sin! It will tell you, “Hey, other people might not be able to handle a little flirting at work or watching a few ungodly movies, but that stuff won’t hurt me. I can indulge in it for a little bit, and if it starts giving me trouble, I’ll just repent.” I’ve even known of ministers who fell for that deception! They got prideful over the success they were having in God. They began to think, I’m someone special. I don’t have to obey the Word like everybody else does. I can do whatever I want, and God will still back me because I’m His man. Before long, their ministries were ruined.
The same kind of thing can happen to believers who aren’t in fulltime ministry. A business executive, for instance, might become wealthy and so successful he gets the idea he can snort a little cocaine, and it won’t cause any problems for him. Despite having seen other people get hooked on drugs he might think, I’m too smart to let that happen to me. I’ve got it all together. I’m Mister Big.
Another person might start drinking alcohol with the same attitude.
They might be deceived by pride into thinking, I’m too strong to ever succumb to this stuff. I have enough self-discipline to drink whenever I want and stop whenever I want. I’ d never let my drinking get control of me.
Watch Out for That Snake!
This is always how pride works. Like all temptations, it slips into your thoughts first. Then, once it gets a place there, it deceives you into doing sinful things that will defile you. As Jesus said:
For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye [envy], blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from within, and defile the man (Mark 7:21-23).
Pride is subtle. It won’t come barging in, announcing itself and saying, “I’m pride, and I’m here to get you to sin!” It will just try to creep in undercover here and there. It will try to stay enshrouded in darkness so you won’t notice it.
This is why we need to study what the Scriptures say about it. God’s Word brings things into the light. It exposes pride for what it is and reveals its deceptive tactics.
As we’ve seen time and again, deception is the devil’s game. Regardless of how spiritually mature we become, he never stops trying to deceive us.
As 1 Peter 5:8 says, he is an adversary, and we must “be vigilant.”
To be vigilant means “to stay awake, watch, or stay alert to avoid danger.” It’s doing what Ken and I do when we’re walking around the creek at our prayer cabin. There are a lot of water moccasins and other snakes there, so we watch our step and tread cautiously. When we turn over our old fishing boat, after it’s been sitting unused for a while, we’re always careful to watch out for snakes!
That’s the way we as believers need to be in our love walk. We want to be vigilant and on the alert against the enemies that come against it. We must be very watchful so that when the devil slithers up next to us and tempts us with pride, we can resist him with our words of faith.
Pride will always bring us low (Proverbs 29:23). It is the nature of the devil. Resisting it is crucial to our safety and success in life. If we don’t do it, we put ourselves in a very dangerous position. James 4:6 says, “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.” Why is that? Because the devil is a creature of pride. That’s what got him into trouble. You can’t walk in the pride of life, being your own god, and walk in faith toward God at the same time because you must depend on God to walk in faith.
So don’t allow yourself to get into that place! You won’t make any progress in life. Basically, you’ve gone as far as you’re going to go. On the other hand, when you’re flowing in God’s grace, no one can stop you from advancing. When you submit to Him and let go of the pride that’s been pushing Him away, He’ll personally see to it that you succeed:
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time (1 Peter 5:6).
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you (James 4:7).
One way you humble yourself and submit to God is to simply believe what He says in His Word, the Bible. When you read the Scriptures or hear someone preach from the Word that “by [Jesus’] stripes ye were healed” (1 Peter 2:24), accept that it’s the truth. When you find out the Bible says it’s God’s will for you to prosper (3 John 2), receive it as the truth. Why is that important? Because Jesus said in Matthew 9:29, “According to your faith be it unto you.”
So don’t treat God’s Word with skepticism. Don’t go away after hearing it preached and say, “That can’t be right! My church teaches such and such. I see what the Bible says, but I’m going to stick with what I was taught growing up.” No, that’s pride—pride in your denomination or your religious heritage—and it will push God away from you. In other words, it will keep you from receiving His blessings in your life.
As believers, we’re not called to sit in judgment on the Scriptures. We’re not supposed to try to figure out if we agree with them or decide if acting on them will be to our advantage. We’re just supposed to humble ourselves beneath God’s mighty hand and do whatever He says. Why? Because God is smarter than we are! His ways are higher than our ways.
When we believe and obey His Word, it keeps us under His protective covering. It keeps the devil under our feet.
When we’re living in obedience to God, it keeps the devil from getting a foothold in our lives. Sin opens the door to him. But when we’re obedient to God and submitted to Him, the devil has to do what we say and flee when we resist him (James 4:7). So, if we’ll just walk according to the Scriptures, he’ll be defeated, and we’ll always come out on top!
Don’t Be a Know-It-All
One vital area where obeying the Scriptures will protect us from pride is in our relationships with other believers. It’s easy for us to let arrogance slip in, particularly when we’re fellowshipping with those who aren’t as strong in the Lord as we are. We can be tempted to act like know-it-alls and correct people in ways that leave them feeling inferior or embarrassed.
The New Testament warns us against that. It says:
Don’t criticize and speak evil about each other, dear brothers (James 4:11, TLB).
Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters (Romans 14:1, NIV).
Look after each other so that not one of you will fail to find God’s best blessings. Watch out that no bitterness takes root among you, for as it springs up it causes deep trouble, hurting many in their spiritual lives…. Continue to love each other with true brotherly love. Don’t forget to be kind (Hebrews 12:15, 13:1-2, TLB).
Be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love (Ephesians 4:2, TLB).
When we’re walking in love, we won’t criticize other Christians for their faults and failures. If they’re not as knowledgeable of the Word as we are, we won’t argue with them about the Bible and make them feel like they’re not as spiritual as we are. We’ll minister to them in a way that uplifts them.
If they don’t have all the light we have, we’ll meet them where they are. If they don’t know anything about divine healing and don’t believe it’s for today, but they’re born again, we’ll fellowship with them about how wonderful it is to be saved and to know we’re going to heaven. We’ll let them know, above all, that they are loved by God and loved by us.
God’s love in you will cause you to be kind to them and prevent you from saying things that would plant seeds of bitterness in them. It will keep you from rejecting them just because you think they’re wrong about something or they’ve made a mistake.
Instead of saying, “OK, I’m done with this person because he or she didn’t act right,” love will make you take a humbler attitude. It will make you think, Well, sometimes I’m wrong, too, and I don’t want people to reject me. So I’m going to be tolerant in this situation. I’m going to make allowances for this brother’s mistake.
Have you ever noticed how we as parents tend to make allowances for the imperfections in our children? Someone else’s child might do something wrong, and we’ll get totally exasperated about it. But when our children do the same thing, our inclination is to overlook it. Instead of criticizing them, we’re likely to say, “Well, they were just tired,” or, “They’re hungry. That’s the reason they misbehaved.”
Why do we respond differently to our own children? Because the love we have for them goes beyond their faults. It causes us to want to protect and defend them regardless of what they do.
That’s the way it’s supposed to be in the Church! We’re a spiritual family. We’re to love one another unconditionally. We’re to support and pray for one another and overlook one another’s faults because love is what makes this family work.
When love isn’t manifesting among us, gaps open up between us and the devil gets in. We become critical toward one another and miss out on “God’s best blessings” (Hebrews 12:15, TLB). We start fighting each other and tearing each other down so that in the end, none of us win.
When love is manifesting among us, we’re undefeatable. We can overcome anything. Because we’re lifting each other up instead of lifting ourselves up in pride, God’s love causes us to triumph. Its power goes to work in us as individual believers and as a spiritual family and makes sure we don’t fail!
Maintaining a Pride-Free Home
“But what about my natural family?” someone might ask. “How are things going to work there? I’m the only one in it who knows anything about God.”
Well, love has to start somewhere! In your family, it can start with you. If you’ll walk in unconditional love toward your unsaved family members, God will come right into the midst of them. If you’ll treat them the way the Bible says and pray for God to send laborers across their paths to share the Word with them, you can win your whole family to the Lord.
I can testify to this personally. I’m the oldest of seven children, and when I was born again, no one in my family but me knew the Lord. Today, however, my entire family knows and loves Jesus! Why? Because Ken and I took the Word of God, got it into our hearts, and set ourselves to love those family members. We opened our hearts to them, and they became interested in what we have.
When my whole family gets together now, we have a great time, both spiritually and naturally. We all love one another. We stick with one another through thick and thin.
If someone does something that’s not right, we don’t turn our backs on them. We don’t say, “You hurt my feelings,” and cut off contact with them. We keep standing by them and praying for them. We keep coming together and giving ourselves for one another until things get turned around.
The same thing can happen in your family. As you continue to love them and live by faith in the Word, they’ll eventually notice. They’ll see the testimony of your life and say, “What is it you have that makes you so pleasant and easy to get along with? What is it that gives you such peace, even when things around you are in turmoil?” Then, you can tell them about Jesus, and they can come to know Him, too!
It makes life so sweet. That’s one reason the Bible has so much to say about family relationships. It’s why the New Testament says to those of us who are married, for instance, to stop fighting for the top spot in our marriages, put the other person first, and obey the instructions in Ephesians 5:
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it…. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband (verses 22-25, 28-33).
Ladies, you’ve got to brace up for this. According to those verses, the way you love your husband is to show reverence for him. Reverence means “to notice, regard, honor, prefer, venerate, esteem, defer to, praise, love and admire exceedingly.” When you treat your husband like that, he’ll generally be easier to get along with. When you don’t, he’s likely to get cranky!
Men, the reverse is also true. If you treat your wife like her happiness and well-being is as important to you as your own, she’ll just naturally want to bless you. It’s easy for a wife to submit to a husband who loves her like Christ loves the Church.
It’s also easier for your children to submit to you as their parents in that kind of atmosphere. So, set the example for them and teach them that the Bible says:
Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 6:1-4).
Teach your children that you want them to obey you not because you’re puffed up and want to be the boss of everything, but because you want things to go well with them like the Bible says. You want them to operate like God says and be blessed. Make a commitment before God that you’ll not be harsh and overbearing toward them, but you’ll treat them with kindness and compassion. When you do have to correct them strongly, be sure you do it in the love of God.
Children want to be loved, and Proverbs 22:6 says if you “train up a child in the way he should go…when he is old, he will not depart from it.” So, if you make the love of God the law of your home and train your children in it, they won’t be inclined to rebel or run away from you when they grow up. They’ll want to stay close to you. And even if, like the prodigal son, they do try to go their own way for a while, they’ll always come back home again—to faith, family and God!
