If you think chapter one is convicting, wait till you read and mediate on chapter two: “The Perils of Pride.”
C. J. Mahaney begins by illustrating that you can be amazingly incompetent and still proud because pride is illogical. He tells a personal story about his mechanical ineptness which made me laugh out loud.
Then Mahaney turned all serious and refers to pride as the first sin in history. Lucifer committed the first sin in Isaiah 14:13 because he wanted to exalt himself above God. We emulate Lucifer when we pridefully exalt ourselves by putting someone else down. Mahaney agrees with John Stott who says pride is not just “the first of the seven deadly sins; it is itself the essence of all sin.”
Mahaney drew blood with a barrage of verses from Proverbs against pride:
Proverbs 6:16-17 “These six things does the LORD hate: yes, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongure, hands that shed innocent blood….”
Proverbs 8:13 “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.”
Proverbs 16: 5 “Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished.”
Mahaney’s definition of pride takes this sin to a new level in our thinking: “Pride is when sinful human beings aspire to the status and position of God and refuse to acknowledge their dependence upon Him.” In other words, as Charles Bridges put it: Pride “contends for supremacy” with God. Like Lucifer, I want to exalt myself and my glory above God’s glory. Whenever I am glorifying myself Iam not glorifying God and pride has won in my life.
There are very serious consequences to this self exalting pride:
God goes on the offense when we are proud: “God opposes the proud” (James 4:6).
Pride destories unity: “Only by pride comes contention” (Proverb 13:10). Whenever there is conflict at home, church, or in any relationship, one or more people are proud.
Pride brings down leaders: “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). Now there is a staggering thought. Every time a leader falls because of adultery, embezzlement, or contention, pride was the root.
Mahaney calls these merciful warnings from God intended to convict of us our selfish pride so that we might fall broken before Him.
