God Resists the Proud but Gives Grace to the Humble

Pride is often seen as a virtue in our culture today. But the Bible says pride is a sin. 

God hates pride (Proverbs 8:13).
Pride brings shame (Proverbs 11:2).
ONLY by pride comes contention (Proverbs 13:10). This means if there is a fight somewhere, pride was involved.
The proud will be punished (Proverbs 16:5).
Pride leads to destruction (Proverbs 16:18).

The Bible is clear: God hates pride, and we need to get it out of our lives.

“Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5).

Younger people are commanded to submit to older people. Submission means “subordinate, obey, be under, subdue unto, yield.” 

Our culture often views submission as a bad thing. But it’s a virtue according to the Bible. Every Christian should cultivate the virtue of submission. 

Submission means that there are authorities to submit to. Authorities are not bad. They are necessary. The benefit of submitting to authority is protection, peace, and a quiet life.

Submission is connected to humility. If a person is humble, he or she will be submissive.

The opposite of submission is “contrariness, balkiness, defiance, resistance, obstinacy, willfulness, stubbornness, hardheadedness.” This is rebellion. A rebellious person will refuse to submit. Rebellion will lead to trouble, pain, and sorrow. 

When the Bible tells the younger to submit to the elder, it is not necessarily speaking about natural age. While it is important for young people to show respect to older people, this is primarily a spiritual instruction. God is urging those who are spiritually immature to submit to those who are spiritually mature. Spiritual maturity is not a function of years as a Christian. Sometimes people are Christians for forty years but they are still spiritually immature. Spiritual maturity comes not through time but through obedience to God. Sometimes a person has been a Christian only for a short time, but because they have obeyed God in key things they quickly become spiritually mature.

In all areas of life, there are authorities that we need to submit to. As citizens, we should submit to the government. As members of a family or a household, we should submit to the authority in the home. We should submit to authority in the workplace. We should submit to leaders in the church (Hebrews 13:7). We should all identify who the authorities are in our lives. The limits of our submission are defined by the word of God. If an authority tells us to do something that is contrary to the Bible, then we should obey God rather than man. Otherwise we need to submit.
Right after talking about submission, the Bible says that God resists the proud. This is because pride is connected to lack of submission. A proud person will have trouble submitting to authority. Lack of submission is a symptom of pride. Pride produces rebellion. 

Pride comes from the flesh. When we believed in Jesus our flesh was crucified. But sometimes our flesh is still alive and kicking and squealing like a stubborn pig. We need to crucify our flesh and put off the old man. Submission is an opportunity to crucify the flesh.

During the time I was working overseas for the Lord, I spent a summer here back in the US. This was before I was married. That summer I was studying organic agriculture so I could teach organic principles overseas as a way to reach poor farmers, and also in preparation for whatever may be coming in the world. So I planted a large garden with all kinds of crops. Interestingly, Abraham Lincoln once prophetically said, “Before long, the most valuable of all arts will be the art of deriving a comfortable subsistence from the smallest area of soil.” That’s an important statement.

My garden was growing, and it was looking good. 

Next to my garden was a hog shed. There were two big hogs inside this shed. Somehow they escaped their pen and began tearing up my garden.

I ran out to try to get the hogs back into the shed. They didn’t want to go. I couldn’t push them, they would turn on me and push at me. They were stubborn. They didn’t listen to reason. They had an idea about where they wanted to go and no one could convince them otherwise. Finally through much prayer and the help of a big slab of plywood, I urged them back into their pen.

Pride is like a stubborn hog. It refuses to submit. It is defiant. If you tell it to do something, it squeals. It tries to bite. It will try to roll around with you in the mud.

Proverbs 9:7 says if you rebuke a wicked man, you harm yourself. The flesh doesn’t want to be corrected or rebuked. Pride says, “I know better. Who are you to tell me what to do?”

Isaiah 59:5 says when some eggs are broken a viper emerges. Some people are fragile. When someone corrects them with the word of God, they snap. They get mad. They become a viper. This violent response is a sign of pride.

Proverbs 9:8-9 says if you rebuke a wise man he will love you. A wise person loves rebuke because it helps him grow spiritually. A wise person is humble. He is submissive. He is like Christ.

In Psalm 141:5 the Psalmist says let the righteous rebuke me, and it will be like a precious oil. A rebuke from a spiritually mature person brings the Holy Spirit into a person’s life. This is why the wise love rebuke and instruction. Our flesh doesn’t like it. But let us walk in the Spirit, not in the flesh.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:7). Fools are proud, and therefore they are unable to receive correction.

Pride often comes from insecurity. Insecurity often comes from worrying too much about what others think. Insecurity causes a person to walk around with a chip on their shoulder. This means that they refuse to bend down. They are defiant and arrogant. Insecurity leads a person to focus on self-preservation. The desire to preserve self produces rebellion. Jesus says we must be willing to lose ourselves in this world. He said we must take up the cross daily. If we are worried about self-preservation we will not take up our cross.

True security can only come from God. When we are secure in God, then we will trust him to preserve our lives and our reputations. Then we can take up our cross and allow our flesh to be crucified. We can become humble and submissive, knowing that God will preserve us.

God knows how to deal with pride. The Bible says God resists the proud. This means that he blocks up their way. He makes their path miserable. He opposes them. It’s not pleasant to be opposed by God.

Let us forsake pride. Let us embrace humility so we can receive grace from God. We want his presence to flow into our lives. Let us embrace submission. Submission is not a bad thing, but it’s a sign of humility and Christlikeness. As we humble ourselves, we will experience more of God’s presence, power, and authority in our lives.