Two definitions for Pride
I wrote a post about why it’s clever to be humble a few days ago.
The last few days I was thinking about pride. I started out by assuming pride is the opposite of humility, but with that assumption I kept thinking myself into a corner!
Then today I realized: the English word pride refers to two completely different things.
Godly Pride – Rooted in Thankfulness
And a voice from heaven said: This is my beloved Son, and I am wonderfully pleased with him.
This type of pride is the pride a father has when he speaks proudly about his son. It’s the type of pride a woman has when she thinks about her husband – her hero. It’s the type of pride you feel when you see someone you love succeed at something they’ve worked hard for.
It is also the type of pride you feel about something you received from someone who loves you. These gifts include the things you are good at.
You can, and you should be proud about the things you are good at. Be proud in the knowledge that God gave you those talents! Know and acknowledge your talents, know that God gave them to you as gifts of love, and then nurture and use them to the best of your ability. This is your praises to God for the gifts He gave you.
How can you tell if the pride you are feeling is Godly pride? Simply ask yourself if the feeling is rooted in thankfulness.
Ungodly Pride – Rooted in Lies
This type of pride is the opposite of humility. I also like to call it Babylon Pride. Humility means you are thinking truthfully about yourself. Being proud in an ungodly way is just plain foolish.
Ungodly pride is to believe lies about yourself.
If you’ve ever wondered why ungodly pride leads to a fall, there’s your answer.
Having ungodly pride is like believing: This new car of mine is the safest car on the road; I can drive it as fast and as recklessly as I want.
It’s perfectly logical: if you have ungodly pride, you’re believing lies about yourself, and you’ll do things based on those lies that will get you hurt.
July 9th, 2008 at 06:24 pm
“humility means you are thinking rightly about yourself”
that’s true.
there is also a false humility which is actually pride as well because false humility still says “it’s all about me”
July 10th, 2008 at 05:08 pm
I agree with your statement that pride rooted in thankfulness is good.
I also believe that ungodly pride means that you believe you are responsible for your abilities. Like if you go and help someone or you do something nice for someone or if you are really good at something – you take the credit for it. All we are, all we are able to do is because of God. We are here for His glory. He alone is why we are good at what we do, or why we have the skill to be able to do a certain thing. The job and the money we “earn” are given by Him. Our home – everything we have is not ours, it is His and was given from Him. Believing that we have anything to do with that is lying to ourselves. That is pride – Ungodly pride. Everything is for God’s glory.
July 10th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
@Nate: I want to do a post about false humility too sometime. Once I can get my head around it.
@Robin: 100% well stated! Everything because of Jesus, everything for Jesus.