Proverbs 11:1-5 — Pride comes before…

READ THIS: Proverbs 11:1-5

1 The Lord detests dishonest scales, but accurate weights find favor with him. 2 When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom. 3 The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity. 4 Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death. 5 The righteousness of the blameless makes their paths straight, but the wicked are brought down by their own wickedness.

WHAT’S THIS MEAN, ANYWAY?

There’s a well known saying that goes something like this: “Pride comes before the fall.” That saying comes from a couple of verses in the Bible, including verse 2 (we will see this idea come up again in Proverbs 16). When we talk about what pride looks like, we tend to think of people who brag a lot about how great they are, but pride has many forms! Pride tends to be the root of a lot of wrong choices we tend to make, and we can see that in these other verses.

In verse 1, we see people judging unfairly (dishonest scales). Often times, we judge people unfairly because we think we know best… that’s pride! In verse 3, we see people who are destroyed because of their duplicity, which is a fancy word for being two-faced or deceitful. We can sometimes act two-faced because it benefits us without even thinking of how it benefits others… that’s pride too! In verse 5, we see wicked people who are ultimately brought down because they choose their own path rather than trusting God… Guess what? That’s pride.

So what are we supposed to do to prevent that? Let’s check out verse 2 again: while pride leads to a great fall, humility gives us wisdom! When we humble ourselves and recognize that God knows better than we do, we can make wiser decisions, care for others more than ourselves, and leave wickedness behind!

THINK ABOUT IT:

1. What does pride look like in your life? When do you tend to think you know better than others or even God?

2. Who is someone in your life that you would call humble? What makes them a humble person?

 

TRY THIS:

A big mistake that we can make when it comes to pride is making a decision without asking God first. The next time you need to make a tough decision this week, take a second to ask God for His advice before you go with your own plan!