Proud as a Peacock

The male peacock unfurls its feathered plume in a dazzling display of color. He does this as he parades pompously in front of the female peacock. Whether he is proud is undetermined but his dazzling display of color has given us the expression “proud as a peacock.” There is a morally legitimate use of the word proud as, for example, when we derive pleasure from a job well done. This is part of what it means to be made in the image of God (“and God saw that it was good,” Gen. 1). However, there is a pride that has made a home in every human heart. And it is not pretty. It is that attitude which views oneself as the center of the universe. Our culture has placed it on the pedestal of virtue. Embarrassingly, we find it everywhere. It thumps its chest in songs like “I did it my way.” Athletes flaunt it when they dance in the end zone (forgetting how they got there). We hear it in such statements as “We can define our own existence.” “You owe it to yourself.” “I deserve better than this.” “You must learn to love yourself.” Public radio airs a program entitled “the infinite mind” (without any disclaimer). Self-congratulatory pride has received revered status in certain psychological and educational schools of thought. Self-esteem, self-love, self-fulfillment, self-actualization have become the goal of the self-consumed. Cornelius Plantinga, Jr. has observed “that, in much of contemporary American culture aggressive self-regard is no longer viewed with alarm.” Feeling good about oneself has replaced the discipline of personal achievement through hard work.

It was Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who being full of himself boastfully said, “Is this not Babylon the great, which I have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?” Babylon, indeed, was a magnificent city, but Nebuchadnezzar was taking credit where credit was not due. He had a lesson to learn in humility. God is absolutely sovereign. After seven years of divinely imposed insanity, Nebuchadnezzar immerged with a different view of himself and God. He acknowledged God as “the Most High” and the one who deserves praise (Dan. 4:34). Sinful pride afflicts not only kings, but all of us. It has a home in every human heart. It entered the human race through Adam and Eve’s foolish choice to listen to Satan rather than God. Satan, himself a pathological liar, deceived Eve into thinking that independence from God is the way to happiness. She preferred her own ideas, thoughts and opinions over God’s truth. Pride is unbelief. It is the refusal to listen to God. It loves oneself more than God. Adam, Eve, and Nebuchadnezzar committed the sin of displacing God with themselves. Each of us, sinners that we are, is infected with a virus of the heart that distorts the world of spiritual realities. We are inclined by nature to replace the infinite mind of God and His wisdom with our own finite, sin-blinded thinking. That is why pride is a “species of unbelief.” The proud person disregards the authority of the Word of God and in so doing tells God to go away. Such arrogance is the root of every act of distrust toward God which is the mother of all self-deception.

Pride, like a Pandora’s box, unleashes armies of human ills (Pandora is Greek mythology’s distorted memory of Eve’s deception). It is the source of strife and wars (Prov. 28:25). It refuses to take advice and submit to authority. It abuses people, ignites anger, is ungrateful, boasts, is self-righteous, and leads to self-destruction (Prov. 16:5; 18:12). Pride is intoxication with one’s self-importance. Haman built the scaffold for his own execution out of pride (Esther 5-7). Satan doomed himself to eternal torment through pride (Isa. 14:12-15; 1 Tim. 3:6; Rev. 20:10).

God hates pride and resists proud people (Prov. 8:13; 16:5; Jas. 4:6). The dragon of pride must be slain if we are to live as humble people. When we boast in our wisdom and despise the sin-forgiving cross-work of Christ, eternal life will remain unattainable. That is why the sword of the Spirit, God’s holy Word as the instrument of the gospel message, is the only weapon that can kill Christ-rejecting pride. Repentance and faith in Jesus Christ through the enabling power of the Holy Spirit is the gate to everlasting life. In the new birth the heart kneels before a holy, righteous, and loving God and casts away all confidence in self for salvation.

As the Christian journeys on toward heaven there is a battle to be fought with pride every step of the way. Pride will carry on its insurgency mission in the heart. It no longer rules, but it remains a formidable foe. Our sense of self-sufficiency, our prayerlessness, and desire to be served rather than to serve tell us that sinful pride dies a slow death. Pride is the fuel of spiritual lukewarmness. The Laodicean church is a prime example (Rev. 3:16-18). Laodicea was a self-reliant, wealthy city and, as so often happens, the sins of the culture become the sins of the church. Spiritual indifference, a spiritual malaise, was sapping the zeal and spiritual energy of the Laodicean believers. They were proud of their wealth and comforts. We too can become self-satisfied because our church parking lots are full, the offerings are good, and our pastor’s books are selling well. Christian leaders can marquee their titles and academic credentials. Personality cults, tolerance of immorality and false teaching are the marks of vain-glory, not humility before God (1 Cor. 1:10-4:21). The male peacock displays his colors because that is his nature to do so. He is only a bird. But God has made us to worship Him. Let us make much of Him and less of ourselves.

Dr. Howard E. Dial
Berachah Bible Church