How God hates pride! How it taints this world, making people 1. 1 unlovely and unlovable. How disastrous when it invades God’s world, poisoning what is best, making a mockery of religion. Yet sad to say, it is entrenched there, pride of the worst sort. Subtle, blinding, destructive of all that is true and pure, no wonder God puts it first among the things He hates.
The strongest words Jesus used were levelled against pride — “whited sepulchres; generation of vipers; fools and blind; children of Gehenna!” These were words of scorching rebuke, spoken with an intensity which made the hearers wince, deepening their hatred of the One who had no pride.
Sharply, Jesus draws a picture of pride: a Pharisee in prayer, parading his goodness before God and men, self-satisfied, praying with himself; sneering at the poor publican who dared to worship alongside him in the same holy place. Imprisoned by a barrier of pride which sealed him off from God, he went away unjustified, unheard, unwanted by God.
How God loves humility, for He Himself is humble, dwelling with the contrite humble spirit!
How else can we understand the God who was moved by the domestic problems of a woman of faith, listened to her pleadings, gave her a son, and then revealed Himself through that son, while still a boy?
What other meaning can we attach to the One who “stretched out His hands all the day long” to rebellious people, getting up early to plead with them through His prophets? This is not a picture of a proud autocrat, but of One great enough to be humble, teaching us the greatness of humility.
Nothing is more revealing, unless it be the cross, than the stable in Bethlehem. Deliberately, God’s hand ruled the events which led to the birth of His beloved, His only begotten Son. In a place which no woman or man would have chosen, He chose His Son to be born. In the overcrowded, unhygienic outbuildings of an inn, in circumstances human dignity would blush with shame to confess, God proudly presents His Son. Then, hand in hand, they walk the path of humility, bowing to the wickedness of men that they might crush pride.
“God forbid that I should glory,” cries a humbled Paul, “save in the cross of Christ.” Which is his way of saying, God forbid that he should boast at all. What was true for him is true for us too! There is no place for pride in our midst.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One