Pride
Proud people are deceived people. The price that arrogance pays is deception. The proud heart is self-righteous, it does not need to bow down to God because it is self-sufficient.
We see pride as arrogance, superiority, presumption, and sense of entitlement. The proud person rejects the truth.
The Holman Bible Dictionary defines Pride as:
Undue confidence in and attention to one's own skills, accomplishments, state, possessions, or position. Pride is easier to recognize than to define, easier to recognize in others than in oneself. Many biblical words describe this concept, each with its own emphasis. Some of the synonyms for pride include arrogance, presumption, conceit, self-satisfaction, boasting, and high-mindedness. It is the opposite of humility, the proper attitude one should have in relation to God. Pride is rebellion against God because it attributes to self the honor and glory due to God alone. Proud persons do not think it necessary to ask forgiveness because they do not admit their sinful condition. This attitude toward God finds expression in one's attitude toward others, often causing people to have a low estimate of the ability and worth of others and therefore to treat them with either contempt or cruelty. Some have considered pride to be the root and essence of sin. Others consider it to be sin in its final form. In either case, it is a grievous sin.
The deceived person, the proud person, is tricked and starts living delusionally.
The proud person becomes deceived and out of touch with God.
Pride replaces God with self. The proud person may be very religious, but they treat God as an "add on", or convenience.
Pride, the proud person, is independent of God. Their ultimate confidence is in themselves, rather than God. God may be an addition or a convenience, and the proud person sees themselves as the center, the achiever, the producer, the author, the source, the creator, the destroyer, and the one worthy of praise.
From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible illustrates the destructiveness of pride. Pride seems to be at the center or core of every sin. We disobey God because of pride, we don't listen to God because of pride, and we hurt others because of pride. What is pride, simply put? It is over-esteeming self (inflated self-esteem). If that becomes our modus operandi, our controlling principle; then we are in for trouble, because we won't listen, won't repent, won't look after others.
Pride is mentioned in the love chapter of 1 Corinthians: "Love is not proud". That kind of sums it up.
The prophecy of judgement about pride in Obadiah illustrates and teaches us today about the toxic destruction awaiting the proud person who has set themselves against God. They are deceived and they will be humbled. The people of Edom were a people ensnared by pride. Their pride made them foolish. Their pride made them believe lies. They became bewitched and beguiled. Pride makes you insane. In their insanity, they came against God's people.
There are only two paths, two doors, two ways: The way of pride and the way of humility. God has always offered the way of humility from his dealings with Adam and Eve to The Incarnation of Jesus. Pride is not, "the other comfortable, perhaps more comfortable, option", instead of walking with God in humility. Pride is the path of destruction.
At the cross, we humble ourselves before The Savior who humbled himself. We humbly bow to The Savior and give our whole lives to him in humility. We then, walk humbly, living a life of love, with Christ, before God.
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