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Pride is everywhere. In fact, pride is so prevalent across humanity and within the human condition that a large swath of our culture decided at one point that they would even label June as “Pride Month” as though it were something to be celebrated. As Pastor brought us through James 4:7-12, however, we saw that James paints a far more sinister picture of pride than what our culture would have us believe about it.

Rather than being something to celebrate, James links pride directly to those passions that are at war within a person (4:1). In sinful pride, we vault these passions up to a greater status than the wants and needs of those around us and we give into sinful quarreling to get what we feel we’re owed. It should come as no surprise then that those in our world who demand that everyone see gender and sexuality in a way that is directly opposed to God’s design are also generally among the most quarrelsome.

Lest we give into the temptation to believe that this is primarily an “out there” problem though, let’s be quick to remember that James is addressing a shared, sinful tendency in the human condition–and remember that his audience is mostly made up of believers. The application for us this week is simple enough to say, but can be incredibly difficult to implement:

Identify areas in our lives where we’ve allowed our own pride to vault our passions above God’s will and others’ needs and “Submit [ourselves] therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you,” (4:7).

Some helpful diagnostic questions I’m asking myself this week are:

  • Over what things am I allowing myself to fight and argue?
  • Are there things that I am sinfully believing I am owed/entitled to (time, activities, ideal circumstances)?
  • In what situations have I let myself believe that the stuff of my life is of greater importance than the stuff of people’s lives around me?
  • What practical steps of repentance do I need to take to turn from these sins?

Praise God He has given us His Spirit to actually gain ground against this sin in the pursuit of humility and submission to Him. Praise God that James doesn’t just leave us here, but gives this promise in 4:8 as well: “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.”