Wisdom And Folly

Being proud of accomplishing something is not necessarily a bad thing. Working towards a goal and then reaching said goal usually makes a person proud. Rightfully so if you’ve put a lot of time, energy and effort into something. But, there’s always a but, you should know that pride comes before a fall. The proud man that boasts of himself only is the one headed towards a fall.

Prov 16:18 Pride [goeth] before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

A haughty spirit. What in the world is that you may ask? Well haughty just means prideful or self absorbed. The latter being something we see a lot of in society today. It is often used to describe someone who thinks they are better than others and looks down on them . We see both pride and haughtiness appearing before something bad happens. So it’s safe to say those attributes are ones a christian should try and stay away from.

The book of proverbs is called by some a book of wisdom and folly. It is folly to fall into prideful ways. Doing things with the sole purpose of taking all the credit or making yourself look better than you are are sure fire ways to bring about destruction. But destruction of what? The destruction of your faith.

Whenever you fall you are generally moving away from something. This something here is God. Pride grows the gap between God and man. If a man has pride in himself only, he isn’t trusting in Christ alone. He isn’t holding the work of Christ on the cross to a high standard. This is something every christian needs to be aware of and be actively seeking to rid himself of.

Pride is something that can easily creep into a minister’s life after he’s been in a role of authority for any amount of time. This is why Paul in 1 Timothy 3 addresses pride in talking about traits that a bishop or overseer should have.

1Ti 3:6 Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil.

He references a novice because they are more susceptible to pridefulness than someone who has been walking with Christ for some time. You want someone in a leadership role who is more aware of the traps the devil uses so he can better see to avoid them and help others do the same.

Wisdom comes with a price. It usually comes after falling and or failing at many things many times. God will put situations in front of you that are difficult, you have to be wise enough to see that as an opportunity to gain more knowledge and wisdom and then put what you’ve learned into practice.