The Simple Answers… To Life’s Most Important Questions.
Bible Study Course Lesson 4 – 3
As you’re beginning to see, not all of our “I’s” have the same problems, or are equally prone to the same sins. In fact, most of the faults we have break down to being almost purely the fault of one or the other of our selves. And on the flip side of that, certain parts of us must acquire unique virtues that aren’t really relevant to the other parts. Today’s case in point is humility.
How does God feel about horses? Psalms 32:8-10. The world adores horses as among the most noble of all creatures, loves their strength, their pride, their grace; how does God feel about them? Psalms 147:7-10. What does God like? Psalms 147:11. Don’t get me wrong, horses do have their place; but it’s no accident that the very thing the world loves about them is the thing God hates about them! (Luke 16:15).
What does God compare horses to? Proverbs 26:3. Horses have many fine qualities, but their strength is also their weakness; their pride. The horses most prized by men today are the perfect examples of “a proud look”, or “a high look”. And horses do have great value to a man… if those very things are broken! If you’ve ever worked around horses, you’ve seen them toss their heads in response to a command from the rider. In response to this, God says you need “a whip for the horse”. Because the horses toss their heads in rebellion against the rider’s command!
You can see where I’m going with this – horses are beasts, and like all beasts, they hate being told what to do! Because of their pride! Where does pride come from? Obadiah 1:3. Where does that high look come from? Psalms 101:5, Proverbs 21:4, etc. What causes pride? Daniel 5:20. So making a beast – in this case, a horse – a poster child for pride makes perfect sense. Read through the entire Bible, and there is no example of the soul being proud. That’s because pride is a sin of the heart, not of the soul! Proverbs 18:12.
Of course, just because pride begins in the heart, it doesn’t mean it stays there. It sometimes bleeds over into the other parts of the self, such as the spirit (Ecclesiastes 7:8), which then needs humbling as well (Isaiah 57:15). But if the soul is doing its job, it will keep the beast’s pride under control, and out of the spirit. If it’s not… well, go anywhere, talk to anyone, and you’ll see what happens.
RESULT OF PRIDE
Is pride connected with not listening to God? Jeremiah 13:15-17. Notice that if you DON’T listen to God, He will bring punishment (“a whip for the horse… a rod for the fool’s back”), and when he saw the destruction Jeremiah would “weep in secret places for your pride”! What do the proud do? Psalms 119:21. What does Peter tell us pride is? 1 Peter 5:5. That isn’t exactly a clear statement “pride is…” but it is easy to show what pride is from that verse. First, he says “submit yourselves… be subject one to another…”.
Remember, that submission to someone else’s will is the opposite of what the horses who needed a whip (and the wicked who needed a rod) did! And thus, the opposite of PRIDE! And then Peter equates “being subject…” with “being clothed with humility”. And finally concludes “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” – showing that putting the will of others above your own is humility, and resisting their will to do your own is PRIDE! So pride means “not submitting your will to the commands of your master”. How did Jesus avoid pride? John 5:30. Since your soul should be the “lord” of your body, then your beast is prideful anytime it “talks back” against your soul’s judgments. When the soul says “you’ve had enough cake”, and the beast voice says “oh, but just a little bit, just one more piece!” – that’s a proud beast, who isn’t ready to obey the soul without an argument. Which is, again, pretty much everyone in the world today.
HUMILITY
What is the opposite of pride? Proverbs 29:23, James 4:6. Do the humble keep God’s commandments? Deuteronomy 8:2-3. When Ahab (a very wicked king of Israel) was given a proclamation of doom, how did he respond? 1 Kings 21:27. And how did God respond?1 Kings 21:28-29. Think of how a proud horse would have tossed his head against God’s command, and raged and snorted! But Ahab humbled himself, and “went softly”. He accepted God’s judgment and quietly tried to change God’s mind by submitting. And despite Ahab’s wickedness, God noticed and softened the judgment!
What is humility equated with? Proverbs 22:4. What should people who humble themselves do? Jeremiah 44:10. What exactly is it about man that must be humbled? Isaiah 2:11-12. A humble beast obeys its soul – and by extension, God. Therefore, a humble man listens to God. How do men humble themselves? 2 Chronicles 7:14. Notice that humbling is directly connected to “turning from their wicked ways” – that is, to hear and obey God is humility! Hezekiah gives us an example of both pride and humility in 2 Chronicles 32:24-26. God healed Hezekiah, and Hezekiah was lifted up by pride in his possessions and accomplishments and showed off to the messengers from Babylon (2 Kings 20:12-13), which made God very angry (2 Kings 20:14-18).
He forgot he had nothing which had not been given to him by God (1 Corinthians 4:7). It was as if your horse was glorying because he had discovered a new land – when you had led your horse there, and mostly against his will at that! God had led Hezekiah to where he was, and usually against his will – so what right did Hezekiah have to be proud of his accomplishments, as if he had built this kingdom himself? But Hezekiah’s humility in accepting the judgment of God saved him and Jerusalem from punishment in his lifetime (2 Kings 20:19).
THE BASEST OF MEN
Since the story is very similar, it’s natural turn to Nebuchadnezzar here. In Daniel 4, Nebuchadnezzar writes in the first person of the events which happened to him. This is unique in that it is the only portion of the Bible written by a pagan and a non-Israelite. (Ruth later became an Israelite, so she doesn’t count.) In Daniel 4:17, Nebuchadnezzar quotes the angel in his dream saying that “the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men”. The impact of this statement on Nebuchadnezzar is not obvious from the Bible alone; but when you study the archeology of Babylon, you realize Nebuchadnezzar was not of royal birth!
Nebuchadnezzar’s father was Nabopolassar, who was the first king of the New Babylonian Empire. And according to the “Clay Cylinder of Nabopolassar” discovered in 1921, Nabopolassar was by his own admission a “Shepherd… the son of a nobody… anonymous among the people”. And so, unlike the rulers of most empires, Nebuchadnezzar was truly “the basest of men”, son of a mere shepherd, one of the least respected professions (Genesis 46:34). The reason I mention this is Nebuchadnezzar’s family had no right to the throne, and he knew it. So when Nebuchadnezzar was wandering in his palace one day and said, “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?” (Daniel 4:30), it is no wonder that God felt it was time to teach him a lesson!
What was the decree against Nebuchadnezzar? Daniel 4:31-33. And when the seven years of humbling were finished? Daniel 4:34-36. And what did Nebuchadnezzar learn from all this? Daniel 4:37. That was the point of all this! To show him (and us) that “those who walk in pride, He is able to abase”! Much like Hezekiah, Nebuchadnezzar had been installed, blessed, and sustained by God (Jeremiah 25:9, Jeremiah 27:6, Ezekiel 29:18). And, like Hezekiah, instead of remembering that and obeying God, Nebuchadnezzar frequently rebelled – with things like the golden statue of Daniel 3 and surely many other things which were not recorded.
This pride, this “high look” and tossing of the head against God, led them both to believe their own might had created this great empire – when both should have known full well that “the most high rules in the kingdoms of men”. Nebuchadnezzar seems to have learned that lesson, for after his trial he officially changed his name from Nebuchadnezzar (“God save my firstborn son”; as a name given by his father, the meaning is clearly “God save Nebuchadnezzar”) to Nabonidus (“God is praised”). Unfortunately, he failed to pass the lesson on to his children, for his son needed the same lesson taught to him in Daniel 5. Belshazzar was feasting with the holy vessels from God’s temple, and in Daniel 5:18-23 Daniel recaps what God did for/to “the basest of men”, Nebuchadnezzar.
This tells us something very important: Nebuchadnezzar being ruler of the known world wasn’t the problem! It wasn’t exercising absolute power or all the normal honor of a king that was the problem; it was only when his heart was “lifted up”, and when his mind was “hardened in pride”, and he stopped listening to God’s correction that God humbled him. Belshazzar knew all of this, but tossed his head at God in pride anyway, and died that same night ( Daniel 5:30).
LITTLE IN YOUR OWN SIGHT
Another good example is King Saul. While the Bible does not specifically call him proud, it does do so indirectly in Psalms 52:1. This Psalm was written by David, and the subject is clearly about Saul as you can see in the first verse. The words in your Bible that precede some Psalms are inspired parts of the original text, not added by the translators of our Bible. In the KJV, this “inspired comment” is in << brackets >>, and it shows this was written about Saul during the events of 1 Samuel 21, 1 Samuel 22. And in this Psalm, Saul is accused of “boasting himself in mischief” (verse 1), and it is easy to connect “boasting” to “pride”.
Samuel also indirectly called Saul proud in 1 Samuel 15. Saul had been ordered to kill every man, woman, child, and beast of the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15:1-3). And Saul went to war, and didn’t obey God’s command; he had a better idea (1 Samuel 15:4-9). This made God furious (1 Samuel 15:10-12). But notice he didn’t think he had rebelled! (1 Samuel 15:13-15).
Saul believed by saving “the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God”, that he was doing BETTER than God commanded – by doing the OPPOSITE of what God commanded! But how did Saul dare to do differently than God had said? What made him think he had the right to improve on God’s commands?1 Samuel 15:16-19.
It was when he stopped “trembling at God’s word” (Isaiah 66:2)! Back when Saul was “little in his own sight” he would NEVER have done that! But when Saul began to think he was a great man, then his pride lifted him up and then he started “improving” on God’s commands! How many BILLIONS of deceived Christians have done that! All while believing they are humble!
Proud people NEVER think they’re rebelling! They never think they’re proud! They think they’re HONORING God by going beyond His word and disobeying His law! When someone is sinning in ignorance, that doesn’t count (Romans 5:13). But when you tell them and they immediately begin spouting excuses, arguments, and justifications… that’s pride.
For example, when you tell someone Christmas is pagan “well, we should honor Jesus’ birthday SOMEHOW! Why not on Christmas?? We’re not keeping it to celebrate the sun-God, after all!” There is a difference between an honest objection based on a desire for truth, and an endless series of objections however flimsy to defend your position! I’m not saying you shouldn’t defend what you believe in, and just listen to anyone who tells you something (Ephesians 4:14). But you can defend what you think to be truth without being defensive of your position!
Where does contention – argumentativeness – come from? Proverbs 13:10. When two people argue about the truth, one of them is proud. That’s a guaranteed fact. The reality is, most of the time, both of them are. It is only pride that prevents people from understanding the truth; it is pride, which hardens men’s hearts so they cannot accept a new idea or admit they might have been wrong.
So when you watch men argue about whose overpaid sports figure/team is better, or women argue over whose child is the best, you should think of goats butting heads or penguins fighting over shiny pebbles – because it is the exact, and I mean literally the exact, same thing. Should you engage in those petty squabbles over who is hotter, who is right, who is better, who is faster? Proverbs 16:19. With whom is God close? Psalms 34:18.
WHAT ISN’T PRIDE
Christians today try to avoid using the word pride today at all, in any sense; they won’t say they’re “proud” of their son’s achievements, because “God hates pride”. So they do their best to express the emotion of pride, without actually using the word. This is ridiculous, of course, but it’s what everyone does. As you’ve seen many times in these lessons, just because a word is translated into your language, doesn’t mean you know what it means. What the world believes pride is – admitting you understand something, know something, are good at something, or have done something well – is never condemned in the Bible.
Bragging and boasting about it is (Proverbs 27:2); but when you are the world champion at something, you are; it is not a sin to say you are. Does God hate pride? Proverbs 6:16-17. Don’t be so sure you know the answer! God didn’t say he hated pride. He said he hated a proud look. This is not just a point of semantics, details like this matter. Paying attention to them is one of the keys to understanding the truth, because God put every word there for a REASON!
Is the pride God hates intimately connected with a LOOK? Proverbs 21:4. This condemns “a proud look”, not necessarily a proud parent or pride in one’s achievements. The Bible refers to “proud” as someone who refuses correction. But our modern word “proud” is closer to the Biblical word “glory”. So is glorying a sin? 1 Corinthians 5:6 Should Paul have gloried? 2 Corinthians 12:1. Was Herod’s glorying good? Acts 12:21-23. Does glorying make sense? 1 Corinthians 4:7. These are the verses always quoted to condemn pride; and they do indeed condemn glorying… but not necessarily ALL glorying.
Remember, to find the truth you have to merge and harmonize ALL the verses on a subject, not just cherry-pick the ones that agree with you! Quoting just these verses, and ignoring the other dozens of verses that mention glorying, is deceptive and unethical. Did Paul glory in the people he’d helped to convert? 1 Thessalonians 2:20 . Did Jesus ask His Father for glory? John 17:5. Did Jesus give us that same glory?John 17:22. Did Jesus tell us how to be exalted and receive glory (wrongly translated “worship” in the KJV)? Luke 14:7-11. Does God glory? Deuteronomy 5:24, Psalms 4:2, etc. Did God command US to glory? Jeremiah 9:24.
So clearly, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with glorying – which the world today would call being proud. But clearly, it can be wrong under some circumstances. What are those circumstances? Proverbs 27:2. Did Jesus SEEK His own glory? John 8:50. What did He seek? John 7:18. How should we glory? 2 Corinthians 10:17. Did Paul seek glory? 1 Thessalonians 2:6. What did God have against the Laodiceans? Revelation 3:14-22. Most people think it was pride that was Laodicea’s problem… and it was, sort of. This does clearly describe that attitude of glorying, of saying “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing”. But that wasn’t wrong! Because God does the same thing! Read Psalms 50:7-12.
God plainly says, “I AM GOD”. He doesn’t “let someone else’s lips praise Him”! He scoffs at sacrifices, saying in effect that He is rich and increased with goods and HAS NEED OF NOTHING! Different words, but the same attitude as the Laodiceans were condemned for having. But the difference is, GOD ACTUALLY IS RICH! He actually HAS NEED OF NOTHING! So it’s not a sin for Him to say so! So it wasn’t saying they were “rich and increased with goods” and “had need of nothing” that was Laodicea’s problem! It was acting that way WHEN THEY WERE NOT! It was acting as if they were better than everyone else, when in fact they were “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked”!
GLORYING IN THEIR SHAME
What does the world glory in? Philippians 3:19. They glory in their SHAME! In other words, they are proud of those things of which they should be most ASHAMED! Just as they should be ashamed of loving the pride of the horse, they glory in the horse’s pride! They should be ashamed of obsessing over “their” ball team, not proud because “they” won the big game! They should be ashamed of their lazy, rebellious children – not proud of them. They should be ashamed of their religion that follows the doctrines of men, not be proud that they belong to “God’s one and only true church”! is a perfect example of how they should be ashamed of their beliefs.
In1 Corinthians 5:2, Paul says they should have MOURNED and put this man out of the church, but instead they were PUFFED UP – they were proud! Like so many modern churches, they were GLORYING in their tolerance of sin (1 Corinthians 5:6); because they are MORE tolerant than other people, because THEY were “spiritual” and THEY could “love” this rebellious sinner so much that THEY could tolerate him being in their church until hopefully, their “love” could convince him to change his ways!
As a matter of fact, they’re more tolerant than God Himself would be! And so they can toss their head at the God of the Bible and say, “why aren’t YOU this loving? Why don’t YOU tolerate sin like we do!” And in that way, they say, “stand thou afar off… for we are holier than thou”! (paraphrased from Isaiah 65:5). Of course, like most Christians, they probably didn’t actually SAY that! But their actions said it for them when they chose to do things their way instead of God’s! Luke 6:45-46, Mark 7:6.
There is a simple solution to all of this: Speak the truth. God IS exalted. God DOES own all the cattle on a thousand hills. If God were hungry, He would NOT ask you or me! And that is God’s GLORYING – His PRIDE and there is nothing wrong with that! Likewise, I know the Bible pretty well. That’s not pride; it’s a simple fact. But should I glory about that fact – walk around telling people how many times I’ve read the Bible? I’m sure many people know their Bibles better than I do. I’m pretty sure God has it memorized. For that matter, so does Satan. So what right have I to boast of what little I know – particularly when God gave me the understanding anyway?
On the other hand, I DID put forth quite a bit of effort to understand my Bible. Is it wrong to say so? John 8:55. Of course not! To pretend like I haven’t worked for what I have would make me a liar like those who pretend to be modest in the world! But if I use the fact that God has given me knowledge in the past to try and prove I’m right this time, especially to justify rebellion against God’s commandments, that becomes true pride, for it would be a heart that tosses its head against the commands of its rider!
TRUTH
When in doubt, tell the truth. It’s very hard to sin while being truthful (Proverbs 16:6). I have nothing that I was not given; yet what I was given, I welcomed and worked on to build into something even better! Is it wrong to say so? 1 Corinthians 15:8-10. I am proud of what I have accomplished with it – I know that I played a relatively small part in the process, yet for that part I did play I have a right to “glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me” (Jeremiah 9:24).
This is what God meant, when He told us to study to be “a workman who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15 RSV) – today, instead of saying, “has no need to be ashamed”, we would say we “should be proud” of the work we’ve done. The meaning is identical. Likewise, God was “well pleased” by His son (Luke 3:22), which is just another say of saying “proud of His son”! We should also be proud of the accomplishments of our children, students, relatives, etc… When they do well!
Because God loves truth. And if they did well, then they did well! God hates glorying when you have no right to glory; and hates it even more when you SHOULD be ashamed of what you’re proud of (like the Corinthians). But it’s truth, not pride, to call someone a fool, hypocrite, son of the devil, or anything else if it’s true and we do it for their good, not for ours (Matthew 23, John 8, Ephesians 4:29). Most anything the world calls “bad pride” is in fact not pride at all. An interesting example is that even David was falsely condemned for pride in 1 Samuel 17:28.
If you read the context, that wasn’t the case at all; David had been sent by his father (1 Samuel 17:17-18). And David was righteously indignant that none of the men in the Israelite army had the faith to stand against this “uncircumcised Philistine” (1 Samuel 17:24-28). For this, his brother accused him of pride – just like modern false Christians; when we condemn their lack of faith they bitterly respond by calling us proud! How did David respond to his brother’s false accusation?1 Samuel 17:29. There was a CAUSE for David’s condemnation! Israel had a shameful lack of faith, and David had a RIGHT to point it out because he WAS faithful! He was able to judge them because he was not guilty of the same sin! (Matthew 7:5).
THE MISUNDERSTOOD JOB
With this background, you can begin to understand the book of Job. No man in the Bible is more misunderstood, slandered, and generally maligned than Job. Paul’s writings are more abused than Job’s, but no one’s character is more misrepresented. Men have called him proud, self-righteous, arrogant, and many other names – yet as Job said, his critics are not worthy to be in charge of his dogs (Job 30:1). This is the clear opinion of God Himself, as you’ll soon see.
First, forget everything you’ve heard about Job – every word was wrong, all of it. Start at the first rule of Bible study: what does the Bible actually say? What did God think of Job? Job 1:1. Did God brag about Job to Satan? Job 1:8. Was God proud of Job after Satan tormented him the first time? Job 2:3. Did God say Job was tormented without a cause? (Same verse).
God considered Job to be SO righteous, and SO perfect, that He brought him up to Satan, implying “if Job can be righteous, why can’t you, Satan?” – that’s an impressive fact. God never mentioned Job’s pride! On the contrary, God was proud of HIM! He held Job up as a PERFECT example of righteousness! So before someone says, “Job was proud”, they should make sure they know what God said about him! After the trial was over, did God feel the same way about Job AND the things Job had said about Him? Job 42:7-8. In fact, a thousand years later, what did God say about Job? Ezekiel 14:13-20.
No one questions the incredible righteousness of Noah and Daniel, nor God’s love for them. And of all the hundreds of righteous men in the Bible, God chose Job to stand with them as examples of superb righteousness! Not Abraham, David, Moses, Joseph, or Elijah; Job. Think about that! But what did Satan think of Job’s alleged righteousness? Job 1:9-11. Satan said “Well yeah! Job obeys You because You’ve BRIBED him to do so!” So God allowed Satan to test this theory. And who did Job prove was right? Job 1:21-22. Job proved God right, not Satan! Was Satan convinced? Was he ready to accept that Job was righteous? Job 2:4-5. Did Job again prove God right?Job 2:6-10. Yes he did! …At first. Job handled the loss of all his possessions and his children admirably (Job 2:10). But as time went on, that changed and in Job 3:1, Job “sinned with his lips”.
WAS JOB PROUD?
If Job were proud, he surely would not have listened to a youth criticize him so harshly, and without using his flattering titles (Job 32:22, Job 33:1), for what must have taken at least an hour in Job 32-37! Most Christians would have indignantly responded “how dare you judge me!”, “you sin too!”, “when you’re MY age, you’ll understand!”, “don’t you know who I am” and “who do you think you are??”, or any of the other common phrases people use when they’re judged! And you can be sure God wouldn’t have shown up in the whirlwind if Job had done that! If he hadn’t listened to “the foolishness of preaching”, God would NEVER have given Job an opportunity to work out their problems face-to-face!
Those who call Job proud point to God’s belittling of Job in Job 38 Job 41, and to the statement in Job 32:1-2. What is CRITICAL to the understanding of this entire book is that Job’s friends and Elihu were mad at Job for different reasons! Job’s friends gave up arguing with Job “because he was righteous in his own eyes”. They thought Job was self-righteous, but also unrighteous. They thought he was proud. This was not God’s opinion, as you’ve read! It was Satan’s!
But Elihu was angry with Job “because he justified himself rather than God”. This is not the same thing at all! Job’s problem was that, when looking for reasons for his trial he sought to justify himself, and did not look for reasons to justify God! On the other hand, God was very angry with Job’s friends (Job 42:7-8), and Elihu was also angry with them “because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job” (Job 32:3). In the entire book, with all of the criticism of Job by his three friends not one specific sin was condemned!
They never found ONE SINGLE SIN in Job to condemn; so they condemned him with generalities, saying things like “sin is bad; sinners are cursed; stop sinning!” And Elihu – and God – were furious at them for that. This is only half the story of Job, the half that proves he wasn’t proud. What was actually wrong with Job – specifically, what was actually wrong with Job’s beast – we’ll cover soon.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
As I’ve said many, many times in these lessons, God could easily force everyone on Earth to obey Him. But God is looking for people who will obey Him WITHOUT being forced! For the same reason you don’t go kidnap a spouse (even if it were legal!), because you want someone who has a choice, but CHOOSES to love you! Pride and humility are very simple to explain; God gave commands to the people in the OC, and they either obeyed or disobeyed; those who obeyed were obedient, and those who disobeyed were disobedient. Those who surrendered quickly, without arguing and stalling, were humble. Those who obeyed only after the fight, after negotiating and dragging their feet as much as they could… they were proud.
In the NC, God’s spirit gives us promptings; it condemns us for our sins and shows us what we should do. But the beast, being carnal, doesn’t like to listen to that spirit; that’s why there is a “war in our members” (Romans 7:14-25). So it’s a fight, and a series of choices that our soul must make throughout our lives. And which choice and how quickly we make it determines whether we are proud or humble!
Let’s return to our horse analogy; if you’re riding a horse and at the lightest touch of the rein the horse responds, eager to obey your command, that horse is humble and a credit to his trainer. On the other hand, if you have to wear spurs, carry a whip, and fight a bucking, rearing, head-tossing horse across the prairie, you would quickly decide to ride a different horse on your next trip. That horse is proud, and refuses to accept instructions from anyone. Sure, with enough pain and willpower on your part, you can FORCE him to obey you – but who wants a constant struggle like that? God feels the same way. He will not struggle against man’s carnality forever (Genesis 6:3).
When His spirit prompts us to do something, if we respond at the lightest suggestion of that spirit with immediate compliance, we are perfectly humble. If, on the other hand, it requires God cursing us with plagues to get us to mend our ways… we are quite proud. It is a simple spectrum, not of obedience but of how easily we obey. The more God has to do to get you to obey Him, the more proud you are.
So if you want to be more humble and less proud, listen for those promptings; be sensitive to the commands of God. Recognize the “head-tossing” attitude within your nature and silence the argumentative nature of your carnal nature, the self-justifying voice that says, “oh, He didn’t mean that, and it’s not such a big deal anyway” – and instead when God says something, simply do it! That is how you achieve humility.
When God says to do something, if you do it without a fight, then you’re humble. Humility is obeying the commands of your master without a fight. When you put His will above your own, and to a lesser extent, when you put the will of other humans above your own, you’re humble (Philippians 2:3). The more you justify, drag your feet, and argue against the truth – however it comes to you – the less humble you are. It’s that simple. If you argue with God about every word He says, you’re proud. Pride is refusal to submit your will to God or anyone else.
And while you can argue with God a lot and still receive salvation (fortunately for all of us!), your reward will be inversely commensurate with the amount of force required to get you to obey God from the heart. In other words, the more God has to beat you to make you righteous, the smaller your reward will be. Which, naturally, is exactly how you’d reward your own servants – and means that once again, the golden rule told us all this from the very beginning! And of course, the less God has to say for you to accept the truth the greater will be your reward. And that’s something to be proud of!