Warned by Grace

BEGIN AGAIN!
Terry R. Baughman

“God has given me grace to speak a warning about pride. I would ask each of you to be emptied of self-promotion and not create a false image of your importance” (Romans 12:3a TPT).

How do you speak against pride without being prideful? To condemn sin in someone else assumes that we have overcome its grip in our lives. Perhaps this is why Paul recognized that it was through God’s grace that he could warn others against the temptation of pride. Only by grace can we condemn sin and only in humility can we teach others to avoid its snare. 

Pride is a destructive force. An ancient proverb warned that, “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18 NIV). Most of us have experienced the humiliation that always comes after we have given in to prideful thoughts or actions. It’s better to learn the lessons of humility than to suffer the consequences of arrogance and pride. 

The Passion Translation stated, “Your boast becomes a prophecy of a future failure. The higher you lift yourself up in pride, the harder you’ll fall in disgrace” (Proverbs 16:18 TPT). An attitude of overconfidence will surely result in the reality of humiliation, if allowed to advance unchecked. Paul’s warning was that we should avoid self-promotion and be aware of our own faults thus avoiding an overinflated perception of our importance. It is noteworthy that this warning comes immediately after the call for transformation by the Spirit of God working in our lives. 

Pride is indiscriminate and will subtly sneak in when we least expect it. In the aftermath of God’s spiritual work in our lives and the wonderful wholeness He produces, we may be tempted to think that somehow we achieved this spiritual status on our own merit. That is the temptation of pride. Paul warned that we should not think of ourselves more highly than we should. The reality is that we were nothing without God and totally, hopelessly lost. Without God, we would fall right back into the pit we were dug out of, and we are constantly in need of His grace. 

Let us heed the warning and share that grace with others. Resist the temptation of pride and embrace with humility the work of the Savior in our lives! 

Theme passage:
“Be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think” (Romans 12:2 TPT).