The Pride of Life
Introduction. God did not reveal how hard Eve struggled to resist the devil. We are only told the three things that led her to sin. First, she saw it was “good for food.” While we know Satan waited until Jesus was very hungry, we don’t know if Eve’s decision was based on hunger. What is clear is that she saw it as good food and wanted to eat it. Second, she saw it was a “delight to the eyes.” This beauty enhanced her desire to eat it, and created doubt about God’s dire warnings against it. Third, it was “to be desired to make one wise.” With these three things in her heart, she was led into sin (Gen. 3:6).
When John summed up “all that is in the world,” that “is not of the Father but is of the world,” he used the three things Eve’s felt: “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1Jn. 2:16). When Eve saw it was “good for food” she was fighting against her “lust of the flesh.” When she saw it as a “delight to the eyes” and coveted it, she was wrestling against the “lust of the eyes.” When it became evident to her that this fruit was “desirable to make one wise”, she then struggled against the “pride of life.”
What is Pride? Pride is “an insolent and empty assurance which trusts in its own power and resources and the stability of earthly things.” One who ‘makes more of himself’ than the reality justifies, ascribing to himself either more and better things than he has” and one “who promises what he cannot perform.” (Thayer/ Kittel NT:213). These definitions don’t quite fit Eve’s circumstances, so we must look a little closer.
James spoke of three distinct stages to create “full grown” sin. In its infancy, “one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.” As it begins to grow, and this “desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin.” Finally, “when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” (Jas. 1:14-15). Since every lust follows this progression, so also does the pride of life. What Eve felt in this “enticement” was actually created by her own desires. In infancy, temptation uses “lawful” desires. This is when good emotions and lawful desires go bad. Eve felt the good emotions of ambition, competition and the desire to win and conquer, but she used them toward something that was forbidden.
This is the grave danger of the “pride of life.” While guarding against “insolence and empty assurance,” we may overlook these initial stages. In infancy, the pride of life is the misuse of “wanting to win” and “wanting to be the best.” When ambition leaves the bounds of righteousness and purity, it creates terrible lusts. “Road rage” stems from this pride of life. When someone cuts us off, and we see it as they “won” and we “lost,” the pride of life will create the fleshly lust of anger. All such competitive desires leading us to cheat or break laws are the stirring of the “pride of life.” This “pride of life” makes “turning the other cheek” and “going the second mile” nearly impossible. We don’t want to allow others to get the best of us and thus “win” in that conflict or competition (Mt. 5:38-41).
This pride of life that can create a desire for vengeance. It is the competitive desire to win after the fact. The confrontation is over, but we keep reliving it, seeking for a way to turn the tables and come out on top. This is why we are warned never to “rejoice when your enemy falls” or let our “heart be glad when he is overthrown” (Pr. 4:17).
The pride of life can also create stress, despondency and anxiety. This is because when we seek to be the best and don’t succeed, our desire to excel can turn against us. The prospect of losing creates anxiety and after such a loss it is very normal to feel disappointment, but the pride of life can turn this into a sense of hopeless depression.
Hence we can avoid all of these terrible emotions when we see them as the “pride of life.” When anger begins to grow in traffic, we need to remind ourselves that we are not in a competition and tell ourselves we just need to “turn the other cheek.”
The solution to these early stages of “pride of life” is to turn to humility, agape-love, and our trust in God. In our interactions with others, life is not filled with competitions to win. It is a journey on the straitened and narrow way to life that gives us opportunities to help others along the way. When we “love our neighbor as ourselves,” and “do unto others as you would have others do unto you,” we can crush this pride of life before it becomes “an insolent and empty assurance which trusts in its own power and resources.”
When John summed up “all that is in the world,” that “is not of the Father but is of the world,” he used the three things Eve’s felt: “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1Jn. 2:16). When Eve saw it was “good for food” she was fighting against her “lust of the flesh.” When she saw it as a “delight to the eyes” and coveted it, she was wrestling against the “lust of the eyes.” When it became evident to her that this fruit was “desirable to make one wise”, she then struggled against the “pride of life.”
What is Pride? Pride is “an insolent and empty assurance which trusts in its own power and resources and the stability of earthly things.” One who ‘makes more of himself’ than the reality justifies, ascribing to himself either more and better things than he has” and one “who promises what he cannot perform.” (Thayer/ Kittel NT:213). These definitions don’t quite fit Eve’s circumstances, so we must look a little closer.
James spoke of three distinct stages to create “full grown” sin. In its infancy, “one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.” As it begins to grow, and this “desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin.” Finally, “when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” (Jas. 1:14-15). Since every lust follows this progression, so also does the pride of life. What Eve felt in this “enticement” was actually created by her own desires. In infancy, temptation uses “lawful” desires. This is when good emotions and lawful desires go bad. Eve felt the good emotions of ambition, competition and the desire to win and conquer, but she used them toward something that was forbidden.
This is the grave danger of the “pride of life.” While guarding against “insolence and empty assurance,” we may overlook these initial stages. In infancy, the pride of life is the misuse of “wanting to win” and “wanting to be the best.” When ambition leaves the bounds of righteousness and purity, it creates terrible lusts. “Road rage” stems from this pride of life. When someone cuts us off, and we see it as they “won” and we “lost,” the pride of life will create the fleshly lust of anger. All such competitive desires leading us to cheat or break laws are the stirring of the “pride of life.” This “pride of life” makes “turning the other cheek” and “going the second mile” nearly impossible. We don’t want to allow others to get the best of us and thus “win” in that conflict or competition (Mt. 5:38-41).
This pride of life that can create a desire for vengeance. It is the competitive desire to win after the fact. The confrontation is over, but we keep reliving it, seeking for a way to turn the tables and come out on top. This is why we are warned never to “rejoice when your enemy falls” or let our “heart be glad when he is overthrown” (Pr. 4:17).
The pride of life can also create stress, despondency and anxiety. This is because when we seek to be the best and don’t succeed, our desire to excel can turn against us. The prospect of losing creates anxiety and after such a loss it is very normal to feel disappointment, but the pride of life can turn this into a sense of hopeless depression.
Hence we can avoid all of these terrible emotions when we see them as the “pride of life.” When anger begins to grow in traffic, we need to remind ourselves that we are not in a competition and tell ourselves we just need to “turn the other cheek.”
The solution to these early stages of “pride of life” is to turn to humility, agape-love, and our trust in God. In our interactions with others, life is not filled with competitions to win. It is a journey on the straitened and narrow way to life that gives us opportunities to help others along the way. When we “love our neighbor as ourselves,” and “do unto others as you would have others do unto you,” we can crush this pride of life before it becomes “an insolent and empty assurance which trusts in its own power and resources.”