The same desire that caused Satan to be cast out of heaven shows up in the garden of Eden in Genesis 3 . What Satan offers Eve is not a briefcase full of money or unlimited pleasure ; it is the opportunity to be just like God . Satan , from the very beginning of humanity , has used pride to tempt people to want to be like God . It is a consistent story arc throughout the Old Testament : God instructs his people to do something , they decide they know better , they do whatever they want , and then they have to deal with the repercussions of their sin . They loved the idea of playing God . And we do too .
This same theme plays out in the New Testament . In 1 Peter 5:5 , Peter writes ,
In the same way , you who are younger , submit yourselves to your elders . All of you , clothe yourselves with humility toward one another , because ,
“ God opposes the proud , but shows favor to the humble .”
Here , Peter is quoting Proverbs 3:34 to drive a message home to his audience : God doesn ’ t just turn a blind eye to the prideful . He opposes them . A few years ago , I wrote this verse on my bathroom mirror and read it every morning to remind me of what is true ( more on that later ). The clothing metaphor Peter uses here is really easy for us to understand too : we are either wearing pride or we are wearing humility .
When we wear pride , we open ourselves up to sin . Our temptation is to read that sentence , nod our heads , and keep going about our days . But stop and think about that : when we wear pride , we open ourselves to sin .
Wearing pride leads to us being devoured by sin . Do you remember when Lady Gaga wore a dress made out of meat to the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards ? If you are unfamiliar , it was not a dress that looked like meat . She was basically wearing a rib eye . Now imagine placing Lady Gaga in her meat dress in a cage with a lion . How is that going to go ? That is what happens when we wear pride .
We have an enemy , Satan , who is not of this world and wants nothing more than for our sin to devour us and destroy our lives . Proverbs 16:18 says , “ Pride goes before destruction , a haughty spirit before a fall .” Pride is always the predecessor to destruction .
“ When we wear pride , we open ourselves up to sin .”
Satan is like a hungry lion . That ’ s interesting to me , because then we have options . So what can we do ? We can refuse to feed him . Think of Satan like a stray cat ( or stray lion , for the sake of this illustration ). What happens when you feed a stray cat ? It finds a home . You become a cat owner !
But if you starve him and say , “ No , no , no . There ’ s nothing to eat here . I ’ m not doing that . I ’ m not looking at that . I ’ m not going there . I ’ m not thinking about that ,” everything shifts . Satan says , “ All right . I guess I ’ ll find someone else to feed me . I ’ ve got to eat .” When he doesn ’ t eat he becomes weak , and when he ’ s weak you can resist him . So don ’ t feed him . You have a choice to feed him or not .
How do you know if you are wearing pride ? 51