Pride Comes Before the Fall

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

PRIDE COMES BEFORE THE FALL

John 7:45-52

45 Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, "Why didn't you bring him in?" 46 "No one ever spoke the way this man does," the guards declared. 47 "You mean he has deceived you also?" the Pharisees retorted. 48 "Has any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? 49 No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law — there is a curse on them." 50 Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, 51 "Does our law condemn anyone without first hearing him to find out what he is doing?" 52 They replied, "Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee."

NIV

The trouble with pride or being prideful is it blinds you to the truth, or we could say, pride is like a blindfold that keeps the mind from seeing. There might be another way to view the effects of pride. It is like a matrix which is nothing but an illusion to keep the mind from knowing the truth. This was the condition the chief priests and Pharisees would have been deceived by. Although they accused the guards of being deceived, they were the ones deceived by their pride. They were so upset because the guards had their minds opened by Jesus. Listen, you ignorant temple guards, have any of us smart intelligent ruling, better class, people believed in him? At least that is the impression their comment leaves us with. The mob, the ignorant mod, those uneducated, lazy, no good for nothing, know nothing mod, they have a curse on them, they are cursed, which means they must be under the control of demons, led by the chief demon. But hold on, just a minute, says Nicodemus. If you are toting the law, and your brilliance, your great knowledge of the law, how then can you condemn someone without first hearing what he has to say and what he is doing? Their prideful, puffed up, self-righteous attitudes lash out even at one of their own number. Come on, Nicodemus, check it out, look into it, you will find we are right and have been right in our interpretation of the law, the prophets and everything else, for that matter, all along. But the fact is they did not see the truth as they could only see Jesus as coming from Galilee and did not fully investigate the truth of his family’s lineage. Had they checked it out, they would have found that both Joseph and Mary were from the line of David and that during any census, by law, they would have to return to their hometown to be counted, which was Bethlehem, the city of David. The truth will always lead people in the right direction, but these men were so filled with their pride, they could not spend any time seeking truth, because they believed they were living the truth. It has not changed much in some two thousand years. There are still those who have such pride they cannot see how they are living in a fog, in a matrix, an illusion, having their minds blinded to the truth. We have to always be a disciple, a learner, always having the word of God opening our minds, revealing more and more truth, so we constantly are becoming more and more like Jesus. Solomon said in Proverbs 16:18, Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. He also spoke of the opposite of pride as being humble, or humility. This simply means we cannot afford to declare we are always right in our thinking but allow the Spirit to lead us into the truth. We always have more to learn, more to find out, more to grow. However, we also have to be careful in our learning, not to be deceived by the prideful. In our openness, we must be careful of the closedness of men. What this leaves us with is listening to the Spirit, he will not deceive us, but always leads us to the truth. The humble will learn, the prideful will fall.