Proverbs 11:2 - Homiletics

The shame of pride and the wisdom of humility

I. THE SHAME OF PRIDE . Pride claims honour, and thinks itself secure of obtaining it. It would dread disgrace above all things, would rather starve and perish than suffer from contempt. Yet a true insight into life shows that pride is the direct precursor of shame, of the very thing it would most wish to keep off. Thus, like ambition, pride "o'erleaps itself."

1 . Pride claims too high a place. The proud man, thinking highly of himself, thrusts himself into positions where he is unable to meet what is required of him. If he took the lower place, no one would think ill of him; he might then be respected. But he makes himself ridiculous by aiming too high. The greatest of men have found out the folly of this ambition of pride. Others besides Shakespeare's Wolsey can say—

"I have ventured,

Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders,

This many summers in a sea of glory;

But far beyond my depth: my high-blown pride

At length broke under me; and now has left me,

Weary, and old with service, to the mercy

Of a rude stream, that must forever hide me."

2. Pride refuses to receive correction. It will not stoop to confess itself in error. Satisfied with its own condition, it will not listen to advice, nor try for any improvement. Thus it remains stationary. The flecks and flaws of character which a humble man would allow his neighbour to point out and help him to remove become stereotyped in the proud man. Thus faults which would be forgiven and forgotten if they were only transitory in the growth of character bring disgrace by becoming permanent and characteristic.

3 . Pride provokes criticism. No man is wise in being proud until he knows he is without reproach. For the very attitude of pride challenges attacks. It offends the pride of others, and in sheer self-defence they will set to work to discover the faults which charity or a happy indifference would otherwise leave undisturbed.

II. THE WISDOM OF HUMILITY . Humility is not only right and beautiful; it is also wise. Both the Old and the New Testaments insist upon this truth. It was the mistake of Stoicism—the highest effort of secular morality—that it failed to see this. Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius—in other respects so near to the Christian ideal—are here severed from it by an impassable chasm. They were both Pharisees. The shame which pride brings, of course, suggests the wisdom of its opposite. But this wisdom has its positive recommendations. Humility, choosing lowly places, finds refuge in safe ones; admitting imperfection, confessing sin, it is ready to repent, and therefore capable of beginning a better life and of rising to perfection. Winning the hearts of men by its unassuming character, it escapes jealous criticism, and finds that faults are covered by love. Humility need not be the confession of unworthiness. Christ the Sinless One, Christ the Son of God, was the humblest and meekest of men. The Christian is called to walk in the steps of his Master, and to seek his joy in renouncing himself. Ultimately he will find his honour in the same course. "For every one that humbleth himself shall be exalted."