Pride and Praise

4:8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

Pride makes it very hard for us to admire others, and even if we do admire others, pride makes it very hard to express that admiration. Calling something excellent (that we aren’t responsible for) is humbling. To honor someone means lifting him above yourself, which is a repudiation of pride. To give someone praise is the opposite of pride, which longs to elevate oneself above others.

So, one of the great reasons we fail to dwell on whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, excellent and worthy of praise, is because of our pride. We would rather dwell on our own accomplishments and virtues, and upon the weaknesses and failures of others.

Here’s a litmus test to discern pride (not that you have no pride if you pass this test, but you certainly do have pride if you don’t pass): List on a piece of paper 20 people (or groups) you know personally that you think are worthy of praise. (If you can’t do this, that’s a bad sign.) Now write beside these names the approximate number of times you have expressed to those people your admiration of them, and how long it’s been since you last did so. If it is few or if it’s been a long time, ask yourself why that is. In most cases, you can assume that pride had a lot to do with it.

How slow am I to say to someone, "That was excellent!" How foreign it is to my natural mind to shower praise on my fellow men. My fleshly mind is focused on how to advance my own cause, how to gratify my own cravings, how to attract praise, not how to give it. What a proud man I am!

CS Lewis helps us understand why pride makes it hard to praise: "Pride is essentially competitive - is competitive by its very nature - while the other vices are competitive only, so to speak, by accident. Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. If everyone else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud; the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone. That is why I say that Pride is essentially competitive in a way that the other vices are not." ( Mere Christianity , Book III, chapter 8)

The great news in all of this is that God is in the business of moving people from pride to praise. As the Holy Spirit does His work in our souls, He makes us into people that see His glory all around, and have the humility to call it excellent.

Forgive me again, Father, for my failure to lift up what is worthy of praise. In my flesh I want to be the one being praised. I am such a proud person! Forgive me for my lust for human esteem and admiration. Help me to lose myself in Jesus. Help me to stop pursuing my own glory and pursue His. Help me to exalt what is excellent and worthy of praise. Help me to rejoice in what is good and Christ-honoring instead of rejoicing in what advances my earthly position. May He increase and may I decrease.