The Brown Bible

Posted By Ken Brown on September 12, 2009

“Pride goes before a fall” has been a devastating expression for many Christian believers.  They don’t understand it, and they get it used against them.  Often there has been some wonderful believer faced with adversity who has made up his mind to go for it, to trust God, to choose to believe that his efforts with God’s help will bring to fruition his dream.  Upon sharing his optimism with some other supposedly more seasoned “believer.”  The latter feels compelled to deflate his tires and does so with, “Watch out. Pride goes before a fall.” Forgive me.  I have an emotional response to this one, having seen it used by God’s people to hurt others of His people and dissuade His purposes.

The expression is misquoted from Proverbs.

Proverbs 16:18 Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall

Hey, so pride does NOT go before a fall.  It goes before destruction, which is even worse, but the point is that those who “quote” it aren’t getting it right, and they are certainly not applying it correctly.

What is pride?  Is it looking to God for positive outcomes?   Hardly.   Is it thinking you might actually have an idea for how to build a better mousetrap?  That’s not how it is used in God’s Word.  Psalm 73 is illustrative of “pride” as it occurs in God’s Word.

Psalm 73:1 <A Psalm of Asaph.>  Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.
2 But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.
3 For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4 For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm.
5 They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men.
6 Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment.
7 Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish.
8 They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily.
9 They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth.
10 Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them.
11 And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High?
12 Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.

“Pride” is used repeatedly in the Scriptures of the mind set of those who speak against God and the things of God.  It is the epitome of arrogance for anyone to think he knows better than The Almighty God.  Here is another example:

1 Timothy 6:3 If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness;
4 He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings,

Granted, if we observe one who is constantly looking down his nose at others, always confident of his own superiority, we may view him as prideful and rightly so; but that is not the pride spoken of in Proverbs 16:18.

Is it prideful to say that we who have believed on Jesus Christ have been made the righteousness of God in him?  No. This is what the Scriptures say.

2 Corinthians 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

It is not prideful to say what God’s Word says.  Pride is believing anything else. In this case, the truly prideful statement would be to claim to be an unrighteous sinner in spite of God’s statement to the contrary.  It is arrogance, not humility, to say you are not worthy of all God has given you.  You WERE unworthy, but He made you qualified, fit for the deal.

Colossians 1:12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet [qualified, able, fit] to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:

A misunderstanding of what is and what is not prideful is usually at the root of wielding Proverbs 16:18 against other believers. The apostle Paul, for example, was not being prideful when he said, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”  He was speaking the truth.

Granted, mere thinking of oneself above one’s peers can be included in some contexts of “pride” as it is used in God’s Word, but it is not the focus.  The word, when used in a negative sense, is used primarily of lifting one’s self above God’s Word, against His judgments.  And this is what causes destruction.

Another consideration on this proverb is that it is, after all, a proverb; a wise saying that is not necessarily always true without exception.  (See our posting, “Have You Ever Wondered About Proverbs?“) Not everyone who goes against God’s judgments sees destruction.  Plenty of murderous dictators have died of old age.  But exalting your opinions above God’s is asking for trouble, never a good idea; and that is what Proverbs 16:18 is talking about.

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Categories: 01) By Ken Brown, Biblical Considerations Series
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