“God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”  This is a well-known sentence from the Bible, and it’s worth considering just how serious a statement it is.  

Imagine being opposed by God.  It’s a horrific thought. He is our Creator, after all; we are just creatures.  And He is all-powerful, so His opposition could by nature be unlimited and ultimate.  And the Bible tells us that He – the all-powerful Creator – stands in opposition to the proud.

On the other hand, this statement about God’s opposition to the proud is coupled with a statement about his grace.  Those who are humble are given grace by God – unmerited and undeserved favor from their all-powerful Creator.

With these two statements in mind – one terrifying beyond belief and the other providing comfort beyond measure – we have to ask ourselves the question: what does it look like to be proud and what does it look like to be humble?

To begin to find the answer to this question, we can look at the two places where the phrase, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” appears.  The first is in James; the second in 1 Peter.

James 4 is about quarrels and relational conflict.  It begins with a simple question, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?” (James 4:1).  The answer, according to James, is actually quite simple: quarrels and fights are caused by desires with us.  Think about it.  Your relational conflict is not just because of other people; it’s because of you.  You have things you expect from them, ways you want them to react and behave.  Some of these expectations may be legitimate, but it is these unmet expectations – whether legitimate or not – that lead to relational conflict.  

James goes on to say that instead of asking God to meet us and fill us, we continue to look with frustration to others.  He sums it up with one phrase in 4:6, “’God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’” Relational conflict is a symptom, but the disease is pride.  If you see the symptom, you can know for certain that you have the disease.

The same logic applies is the second New Testament passage, 1 Peter 5:5.  Here the issue is two-fold: submission to proper church leadership, and anxiety (1 Peter 5:6-7).  That’s right, anxiety can be a sign of pride – another symptom which points to the disease. Think about it.  Why are we anxious? Basically, it’s because of two things that coexist in our minds. The first is that we should have control of the future.  We believe that the future should feel controlled, subdued, solid. But the second idea that exists uneasily alongside this one is the sense – the overwhelming knowledge – that the future is out of our hands.  We believe on the one hand that we should have control, but we know on the other hand that we don’t. That leads to anxiety.

The solution to this is humility before God.  “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”  This is a sign of the grace of humility, the very opposite of the disease of pride.

I think we often convince ourselves that we are not proud because we do not lift our noses up in the air and look down on other people overtly.  That’s surely a sign of pride. But James tells us that relational conflict is a sign of pride, and so is the kind of unsubmissive anxiety of which Peter writes.  Examine your heart for pride; look for the symptoms the Bible gives. And bear in mind this biblical truth, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

– Written by Jonathan Master