Proverbs 18.12
“Before destruction a man’s heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor.”
Scripture consistently and repeatedly condemns arrogance and self-centered pride. Arrogance rejects God’s standards and resists constructive correction. It refuses to submit to God’s authority.
Where there is arrogance, there will eventually be disaster. Not immediately, but inevitably. Arrogance blinds people to what is eventually coming. Consequences are often delayed, but make no mistake … there is always a high price to pay for arrogance. Do not equate the delay of consequences with the absence of them. Proverbs repeats this to make sure we get the message:
“Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished.” (Proverbs 16.5)
“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” (Proverbs 16.18)
Arrogance and self-centeredness is the mark of the evil one, and he has left this corrupting influence everywhere on our planet. Even secular writers recognize the destructive impact of an arrogant ego. “The fundamental enemy of moral living is the fat relentless ego of humanity’s inherent selfishness,” writes one sociologist. “Every one of us lives with this enemy. It is that part of each of us that screams out “me first” and demands to be satisfied no matter who gets hurt along the way, and that includes hurting oneself in the long term to gain satisfaction in the short term.”
Selfish ego is an adversary that we must defeat. Best-selling author Ryan Holliday makes this observation: “Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, your worst enemy already lives inside you: your ego.”
Though not a follower of Christ, Holliday rightly observes and defines the impact of an arrogant ego: “It’s that petulant child inside every person, the one that chooses getting his or her way over anything or anyone else. It’s the sense of superiority and certainty that exceeds the bounds of confidence and talent. It’s when the notion of ourselves and the world grows so inflated that it begins to distort the reality that surrounds us.”
The title of Holliday’s book? Ego is the Enemy. Here is how he describes it: “The ego we see most commonly goes by a more casual definition: an unhealthy belief in our own importance. Arrogance. Self-centered ambition.”
May we reject arrogance and humble ourselves before the God who created us, saves us, and sends us into the world as agents of his kingdom.
“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8)
