How do we destroy pride?
We can fight against it with direct commands such as, “Hear and give ear; be not proud” (Jeremiah 13:15). Or we can remind ourselves of pride’s danger, quoting James and Peter who both write, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5). Or we can take more positive action, using God’s word to remind us of the call to be humble: “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3). Or we can even use the verses which promise reward for humility, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you” (James 4:10).
These are admirable and often successful routes to take in the battle against pride. But what if there was an even deeper truth which, if we really believed it, has such radical implications that it begins to destroy pride?
Such a truth exists, and it’s explained succinctly in Philippians 2. Paul writes,
“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12-13)
What’s the pride-destroying truth? “It is God who works in you, both to will and to work.” If we understand and actually believe this—and I mean believe as much as you believe in the existence of your very breath right now—then it will necessarily begin to destroy our pride.
John Calvin made this point. On this verse he wrote,
“[It is God who works in you, both to will and to work…] This is the true engine for bringing down all haughtiness—this is the sword for putting an end to all pride, when we are taught that we are utterly nothing, and can do nothing, except through the grace of God alone…
Let us observe how much [Paul] ascribes to God, and how much he leaves to us. There are, in any action, two principal departments—the inclination, and the power to carry it into effect. Both of these [Paul] ascribes wholly to God; what more remains as a ground of glorying [in ourselves]?…We depend entirely on God alone.” (John Calvin, Epistle to the Philippians, 67).
Some Christians agree that God is in us and works through us, but logic leads them to conclude that there still must be an area in us where God isn’t completely controlling. Usually this area is our will, our choices, our decisions, our inclinations. But in Philippians 2:13, Paul says that God not only “works” in us, but, amazingly, he “wills” in us. He’s behind our actions and doings, and he’s behind our willings and decisions and inclinations, too.
In other words, if we do a good action, God gets the praise, for he worked it in us. But not only that. If we have even a good desire or inclination, then God gets the praise, for he willed it in us.
Therefore, whether we’re talking about our feelings or actions, we can know that it ultimately is God in us. And in this our pride is necessarily severed. For the Actor in any good action is ultimately him, not us. Sure, we might work hard. We may accomplish much. But this only is by his grace in us: “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10).
And so, there is no area where pride fits. (This doesn’t mean if we start to believe this then right away we’ll no longer be prideful. Our hearts don’t align perfectly with our heads. Still, this truth is the root of the thought-process which will destroy pride’s appealing power of me-accomplishment. We need to not only say we believe Philippians 2:12-13, but then take this truth and apply it in those prideful moments.)
Let us, then, fight pride with this simple Bible sentence, “It is God who works in you, both to will and to work…” We as total selves, with our willings and workings, have no reason to boast.* But we do get the privilege of being vessels of his willing and working grace.
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*Let’s heed Isaiah’s inspired sarcasm: “Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it, or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it? As if a rod should wield him who lifts it, or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood!” (Isaiah 10:15).
