What does God say about pride?

OPINION:

On June 10, President Biden took to the national stage to celebrate what he described as “the largest Pride celebration ever held at the White House” “Happy Pride Month,” he shouted. “Happy Pride Year. Happy Pride life! … God bless you all”

In keeping with our president’s passion for pride and his attendant prayer for God’s blessings, would it not be wise to reflect a bit on what God actually has to say about this newfound “virtue” that the whole nation now spends an entire month celebrating? Here’s just a sampling:

“Pride and arrogance and … I hate” (Proverbs 8:13).

“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6).

“Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished” (Proverbs 16:5).

“Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, are sin” (Proverbs 21:4).

“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you” (James 4:10).

“For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar” (Psalm 138:6).

“Love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant” (1 Corinthians 13:4).

“The Lord tears down the house of the proud” (Proverbs 15:25).

“The Lord preserves the faithful but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride” (Psalm 31:23).

“[T]his is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word” (Isaiah 66:2).

“He sees everything that is high; he is king over all the sons of pride” (Job 41:34).

“If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know” (1 Corinthians 8:2).

“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 14:11).

“Thus says the Lord: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom’” (Jeremiah 9:23).

“Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12).

“Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18).

“Whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart, I will not endure” (Psalm 101:5).

“One’s pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor” (Proverbs 29:23).

“Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him” (Proverbs 26:12).

“The haughty looks of man shall be brought low, and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day” (Isaiah 2:11).

“The Lord of hosts has purposed it, to defile the pompous pride of all glory, to dishonor all the honored of the earth” (Isaiah 23:9).

“For the Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up — and it shall be brought low” (Isaiah 2:12).

“I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless” (Isaiah 13:11).

“For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul, and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord. In the pride of his face, the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, ’There is no God’” (Psalm 10:3-4).

“It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor than to divide the spoil with the proud” (Proverbs 16:19).

“Do not be haughty… Never be wise in your own sight” (Romans 12:16).

“For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself” (Galatians 6:3).

“Whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart, I will not endure” (Psalm 101:5).

“Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5).

“If my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves, pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5).

Happy Pride Month, everyone.

“Pride is the complete anti-God state of mind. It is the sin that leads to all others.” — C.S. Lewis

• Everett Piper (dreverettpiper.com, @dreverettpiper), a columnist for The Washington Times, is a former university president and radio host.