Latest / Reformed Thinking / Spiritual Pride vs. True Humility | Jonathan Edwards

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Spiritual Pride vs. True Humility | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reformed thinking. So imagine you are scrolling
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through your social media feed right now.
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Oh, we all know that feeling. Right.
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And a prominent church leader, you know, someone with a large
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platform, just made a highly controversial pastoral decision.
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Maybe it was a nuanced theological statement.
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Or perhaps they chose to partner with an organization that some
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people find questionable. Yeah, and within seconds, the
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comments section turns into an absolute war zone.
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You see paragraphs of furious texts flying and.
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He's a wild to watch. It really is.
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People are using words like heretic, compromiser, coward,
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and agent of hell. Now ask yourself a crucial
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question as you watch this unfold.
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Is the person typing those furious, blistering comments
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acting out of a pure, righteous zeal to protect the truth of the
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Gospel? Or, and this is the scary
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alternative, are they infected with a spiritual disease so
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deceptive, so perfectly camouflaged, that it mimics
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absolute holiness while actually destroying the soul?
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Wow, that is a heavy thought. It is.
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The terrifying reality is that from the outside, righteous zeal
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and demonic pride often look virtually identical.
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I mean, they both care about truth.
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They both use scripture. They both seem highly motivated.
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So for you, living in an era of intense religious observation
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and frankly, absolute information overload, discerning
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your own internal motives is a vital ongoing task.
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Absolutely. We live in a culture that
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incentivizes outrage. We see people constantly
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evaluating the faith of others online, in local congregations
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and in public forum. But we rarely have the tools to
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evaluate the unseen engine driving our own actions.
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That is the real issue. The danger is not usually that
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you will suddenly abandoned your faith.
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The danger is that your faith becomes a weapon used to elevate
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yourself while tearing down the bride of Christ.
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OK, let's unpack this. To figure out how to diagnose
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the human heart, we are looking at a highly detailed historical
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text today. Yes, we have a document written
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by Jonathan Edwards. He lived from seventeen O 3 to
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1758, and he wrote this specific text, which is a fourth part of
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his account, during a massive religious revival.
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Right, The Great Awakening in New England and the mission for
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today's Deep Dive is to examine this specific text to see how
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Edwards distinguishes between spiritual pride and pure
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Christian humility. And we are going to find that
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the differences require a spiritual MRI to detect.
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But before we get into the text itself, we really need to
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understand the world Edwards was living in.
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Yeah, why did he feel compelled to write a diagnostic manual for
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the soul in the first place? Well, you have to picture the
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sheer chaos and the overwhelming emotional weight of the 1740s in
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New England. Edwards was watching a massive,
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unprecedented religious movement unfold right in front of him.
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It was. Huge.
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You had itinerant preachers like George Whitefield speaking to
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crowds of thousands in open fields.
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People were having intense physical reactions to the
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preaching of the gospel. I mean, they were weeping,
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crying out in anguish over their sin and experiencing moments of
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absolute ecstatic joy. Churches were completely full
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and religious talk was happening in the Taverns, in the streets
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and in the homes. It was a true awakening.
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But Edwards, with his incredibly sharp pastoral eye, noticed a
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fatal problem emerging within the ranks of the most zealous
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converts. Alongside genuine spirit wrought
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faith, a counterfeit was growing rapidly.
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He started seeing people who had these massive emotional
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experiences suddenly acting incredibly arrogant, right?
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They thought they had reached some elevated plane of
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existence. Precisely.
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You had a group of people often referred to as the New Lights
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who were fully on board of the revival, but some of them took
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their new found zeal and turned it into a bludgeon.
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Oh wow, so they used it against others?
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Yeah, they started looking at the established ministers, the
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older folks in the pews or anyone who was not weeping and
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crying out, and they labeled them as cold, dead or
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unconverted. So Edwards realized that the
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greatest threat to the revival was not the secular critics
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outside the church. It was the spiritual pride
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masquerading as advanced holiness inside the church.
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Spot on. He wrote this text to give you a
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diagnostic tool. He wants you to be able to tell
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whether your religious seal is actually pure heaven born
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humility or if it is just your own ego wearing a very
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convincing disguise. Edwards begins this diagnosis by
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looking at the inward focus of humility versus the outward
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fixation of pride. He points out that spiritual
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pride causes a person to speak frequently about the faults of
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others. And the defining characteristic
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is not just that they point out the faults, it is the specific
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tone they used to do it right. Edwards says the proud person
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speaks of the sins of others with bitterness, or with a
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strange levity and lightness, or with an air of contempt.
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Pure Christian humility, on the other hand, makes a person
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entirely silent about the faults of others, or if they are
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absolutely required to speak, they do so with grief and pity.
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It is a completely different orientation of the heart.
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Think about the psychological mechanics happening here.
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Pride is, by its very nature, suspicious of everyone else.
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The proud person feels a constant need to validate their
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own standing by proving that others are failing.
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They become self appointed inspectors of everyone else's
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spiritual temperature. Well, precisely.
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They observe how cold and dead other Christians seem, and they
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cry out against them, sharply reproving them.
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They scan the horizon looking for theological errors or
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behavioral missteps. But the humble St. operates in
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the exact opposite manner. The humble person is jealous or
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highly suspicious of their own heart.
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They are so busy looking at their own mess that they do not
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have time to police the neighborhood.
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Yeah, absolutely. The humble Christian is
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constantly looking inward at the radical corruption of their own
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nature. They are aware that apart from
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the intervening grace of God, their heart is an active factory
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of idolatry. This is the reality of total
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human depravity. Because they are so occupied
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with sweeping the floor of their own house, they simply lack the
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time, the energy, or the inclination to stare out the
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window and critique how their neighbor is sweeping theirs.
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That brings up a crucial question about human nature in
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our default settings. Edwards makes a statement that
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feels completely backward to modern psychology.
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Oh, I know the one you mean. He says that in a person's
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clearest discoveries of God's glory and in their most
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rapturous, elevated spiritual frames, they are actually most
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overwhelmed with a sense of their own vileness.
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Yes, they feel the absolute lowest self abasement I want.
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To linger on this because it is fascinating, you might expect
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that a massive spiritual high, a true mountaintop experience with
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God, would make someone feel invincible, angelic, or
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supremely confident in their own righteousness.
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To understand why Edwards says this, you have to look at the
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mechanism of how grace actually operates on the human mind.
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Think of it like coming in from the dark.
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OK, I am tracking with you. If you have been sitting in a
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dimly lit, dusty room for days, your white shirt probably looks
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fairly clean to you. Your baseline for cleanliness is
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skewed by the darkness. Right, because you cannot see
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the details. But if you suddenly step outside
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into absolute blinding, pure high noon sunlight, what
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happens? You do not suddenly feel
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cleaner. The sunlight reveals every
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single stain, every speck of dust, and every terrifying flaw
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on that shirt. The light does not create the
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dirt, it just exposes what was already there, hidden by the
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shadows. Yes, God's glory is that pure,
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blinding sunlight. Without God's grace, our hearts
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are completely bent away from Him.
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Every single faculty of our nature, our mind, our will, our
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emotions is infected by rebellion.
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This is the reality of our condition.
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We are entirely incapable of generating pure righteousness on
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our own. So when a believer actually
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catches A genuine glimpse of the absolute purity, majesty and
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holiness of God, the only logical response is a crushing
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awareness of their own stark contrast to that purity.
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This brings to mind the prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament.
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He sees the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up with
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the angels crying. Holy, holy, holy.
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And Isaiah does not say, wow, look at me, I made it into the
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throne room. Right.
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His immediate reaction is Woe is me for I am lost, for I am a man
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of unclean lips. That is the universal pattern of
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true encounters with the divine. The closer you get to the light,
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the larger your own shadow appears to you.
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And that changes how you view other people.
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The humble person who sees their own massive flaws clearly in the
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light of God's holiness naturally esteems others better
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than themselves. They easily take notice of what
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is good in others and they hyper focus on what is wrong in
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themselves. The proud person does the
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reverse. Because they are standing in the
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shadows of their own ego, they ignore their own flaws and use a
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magnifying glass to examine the flaws of the people around them.
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It is a terrifying mirror to hold up to ourselves.
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I have to push back here, though, or at least I need to
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voice the objection that I know many listeners are thinking
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right now. Isn't calling out sin a clear
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biblical mandate? That is a very fairpoint to
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raise. I read Edwards saying that
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humility causes a person to be silent or speak with grief, and
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it sounds like he is advocating for total passivity.
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If a church leader is genuinely misleading people, or if someone
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is acting in a way that destroys the community, how do we handle
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that? It is a delicate balance for
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sure. Because if I use strong
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language, I am diagnosed as proud, but if I say nothing and
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let wolves devour the sheep, I am negligent.
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I look at this and I think about how spiritual pride operates
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like a medical phenomenon, specifically a spiritual
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autoimmune disease. Break that medical analogy down
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a bit further. How does it apply to the Church?
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Well, in the human body, an autoimmune disorder happens when
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your immune system loses its ability to distinguish between
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foreign dangerous cells and your own healthy cells.
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Right, the body gets confused about what the actual threat is.
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The body creates auto antibodies that attack normal healthy
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organs. The body attacks itself thinking
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it is fighting off a legal infection, but is actually
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destroying healthy tissue. And in a church context, the
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proud person has this hyperactive immune response.
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Spot on. They think they're defending the
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Bride of Christ by attacking everyone else's faults, by
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calling out every minor theological discrepancy, but
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they're actually tearing the congregation apart from the
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inside. They are rogue white blood
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cells. Exactly.
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Well, absolutely. But the body does need a
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functioning immune system. We do need to fight off actual
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viruses, so how do we reconcile Edward's call for silence with
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the need to address actual fatal error?
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You reconcile it by examining the underlying motivation
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driving the immune response. Edwards is absolutely not
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forbidding church discipline. He is not saying you should
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ignore false teaching. So he is not asking for
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passivity. Not at all.
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He is giving you a tool to diagnose the disposition of your
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heart while you are engaging in that necessary correction.
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When the proud person corrects someone, they do it with a
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distinct sense of superiority. They often find a sick kind of
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joy or satisfaction in pointing out the failure.
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They act as if they are entirely immune to the same temptations.
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They're the rogue white blood cell destroying the organ
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because they view the organ as an enemy.
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They feel victorious when they expose a flaw.
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That is the perfect way to phrase it.
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But when the eminently humble person is forced by duty and
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love to correct a fault, they do it with a shattered heart.
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They approach the situation knowing their own capacity for
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the same sin or even worse sins. They speak with tears, not with
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a sneer. They esteem the other person
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better than themselves, recognizing that any theological
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accuracy or behavioral obedience they possess is entirely
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unmerited favor from God. If you are going to amputate a
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limb to save a life, you do not do it laughing, you do it
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weeping. That is a brilliant way to
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summarize it. Here's where it gets really
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interesting. Edwards moves from the inward
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disposition to the actual words we use.
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He looks at the specific vocabulary of condemnation.
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This is where it gets very practical.
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He says it is a glaring mark of spiritual pride to speak of what
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you see a miss in others. Using the most harsh, severe and
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terrible language. The proud person will look at
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the opinions, the conduct, the caution, the moderation or the
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prudence of others and declare that those things are from the
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devil or from hell. They use words like devilish,
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hellish, or cursed so frequently that these words become the
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standard vocabulary in their mouths.
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They label anyone who disagrees with them, or anyone who moves
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at a slower, more careful pace as a literal agent of the enemy.
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We see this constantly today. The use of extreme apocalyptic
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language for every disagreement is a telltale sign of a heart
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that has elevated itself to the position of the supreme judge.
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When you use the word hellish to describe a fellow believers
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genuine attempt to figure out a tricky situation, you are not
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engaging in correction, you are engaging in condemnation.
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And Edwards notes that this venom is especially grievous
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when it is directed at ministers of the gospel or elders whose
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age and station require a baseline of respect.
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Why does pride feel so comfortable bypassing that
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respect? Because the proud person
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believes their own zeal gives them special authorization to
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ignore the normal rules of Christian conduct, they mistake
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their own fiery, aggressive temperament for righteous
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indignation. They convince themselves that
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because the stakes are so high, they are allowed to verbally
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destroy a leader. But notice what Edwards points
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out here. The proud person often attacks
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others specifically for their caution and moderation.
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Yes, that stood out to me. Why are caution and moderation
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such offensive concepts to the spiritually proud?
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Because pride demands immediate action and immediate validation,
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the proud person views their own perspective as infallible.
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So any delay feels like a betrayal to them.
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Precisely therefore, if a leader says let's pause, pray, and
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consider the long term implications of this decision,
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the proud person views that caution as cowardice.
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Zeal without knowledge consistently attacks Wisdom.
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The proud person mistakes a leader's careful prudence for
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spiritual coldness. They want a revolution today,
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and anyone standing in the way of that revolution is labeled as
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a compromiser. I want you, the listener, to
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pause and evaluate your own internal monologue or better
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yet, your habits when interacting online.
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It is a tough thing to look at honestly.
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When you see a fault in a leader, or when someone
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exercises caution instead of jumping immediately onto your
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theological bandwagon, what is your visceral reaction?
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Is your first instinct to post a comment labeling their action as
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a compromise with the devil? Do you assume the worst possible
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motive for their moderation? Or do you react with grief,
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praying for them and taking that moment to examine your own
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heart? Look at the biblical alternative
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Edwards provides. He points directly to how Christ
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treated the apostle Peter after Peter shamefully denied him.
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We need to look closely at the psychological weight of this
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narrative. Peter had committed a massive,
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public, catastrophic failure. He denied even knowing Jesus
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with curses right before the crucifixion.
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He abandoned his Lord in the most agonizing hour of history.
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If anyone ever deserved harsh, severe, terrible language, it
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was Peter. In that moment.
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If a modern leader failed that spectacularly, the Internet
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would demand their immediate, permanent exile.
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The gap in holiness between Christ and Peter is infinite.
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Jesus is the sinless Son of God. Peter is a broken, failing
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fisherman. Yet how does humility Incarnate
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handle this? Humility leads the Christian to
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treat others who are in fault with meekness and gentleness,
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just as Christ did. In John 21, Jesus restores
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Peter. He does not some enlightening.
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He does not publicly humiliate him.
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He condescends to Peter's extreme weakness.
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He meets him by a charcoal fire on the beach, makes him
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breakfast and gently asks him three times, do you love me?
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He restores him gently. He did not scream in him.
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He did not label his betrayal as devilish, even though it was
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influenced by the enemy. He showed immense, unfathomable
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patience. That condescension of Christ is
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staggering. Condescension is not a word we
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use often in a positive light today.
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No, we usually think of a condescending person as someone
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who talks down to us with a snobby attitude.
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But theologically, condescension means that the sovereign
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infinite God willingly lowers himself to interact with finite,
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broken humans on our level out of pure love.
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He had every right to bring the hammer of justice down on Peter,
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but he chose the path. Path of gentle restoration.
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And that leads into the next major concept.
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Edwards addresses the performative nature of spiritual
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pride versus the unseen, quiet reality of the humble follower.
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This is where Edwards dismantles the visual aesthetic of extreme
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religion. He writes that spiritual pride
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disposes a person to affect singularity in their manner and
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appearance. The proud person wants to stand
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out. Their whole goal, whether they
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admit it to themselves or not, is to attract observation.
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They want people to look at them and think, wow, what a
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dedicated, radical, uncompromising believer.
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They adopt A specific vocabulary, a specific tone of
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voice, or a specific set of highly visible behaviors that
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broadcast their intense devotion.
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It is performative Christianity. It is treating the church like a
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stage that. Is a great way to put it, but
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pure humility disposes the Christian to avoid anything that
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is likely to draw observation to themselves.
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They do not want the spotlight. They're only singular or
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different from the crowd when neglecting a positive duty would
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be an actual sin. They do not try look different
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just for the sake of looking different.
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What's fascinating here is how Edwards completely takes apart
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the concept of the lone wolf super Christian.
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You see this dynamic a lot today.
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There is a specific kind of pride that loves to stand at a
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distance from the rest of the body.
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They become separatists. Why do you think that separatist
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urge is so strong? What is the psychology behind
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wanting to pull away from the visible church?
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I think it comes down to a desire to be part of the the
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pure remnant. The proud person separates from
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the visible, ordinary body of believers because they view
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everyone else as contaminated or inferior.
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They look at the local congregation, which is always
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messy, always flawed and always full of hypocrites in progress,
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and they think I am too pure to associate with this.
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They want to start their own ultra pure group or they just
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retreat into isolation, getting their theology strictly from
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audio programs and books where they never have to interact with
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a real annoying human. That is a brilliant diagnosis.
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Pride stands on a balcony looking down, but the humble
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Christian looks upon themselves as far more unworthy than anyone
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else in the room. They carefully shun any
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appearance of an open separation from visible Christians.
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They actively avoid trying to distinguish themselves as
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humbler or better. True grace binds you to the
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ordinary, messy, frustrating local church.
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It does not pull you away into a sterile isolation.
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The humble person knows that they need the body, flaws and
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all, because they are acutely aware of the massive flaws they
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bring to the table. It makes me think of an
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orchestra. Let's imagine a massive Symphony
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playing a complex piece of music.
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Every instrument needs to be tuned to a standard pitch,
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usually a 440. The humble person comes in,
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listens to the tuning note, and adjust their instrument to blend
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in with the hole. They want the Symphony to sound
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beautiful. But the proud person is like a
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badly tuned instrument played by an arrogant musician.
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They refuse to blend in. They bring their own pitch pipe.
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They decide their tuning is the only correct.
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One, and instead of adjusting to the rest of the Symphony, they
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just play louder and louder to prove that they are the only one
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playing the right notes. They look down on the woodwind
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section for being too quiet, they get angry at the brass
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section for being off tempo, and they entirely ignore the
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conductor. That conductor being the
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Providence of God who orchestrates the pacing of the
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church. The proud musician creates
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Discord because they're obsessed with their own solo.
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Edwards describes this exact dynamic using the word stiffness
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and inflexibility. He says that spiritual pride
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commonly occasions a certain stiffness in a person's
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judgement and their ways. They become completely rigid.
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I know people like this. Every single issue is a hill to
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die on. There are no secondary issues.
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Because for the proud person, yielding on a minor practical
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preference feels like a massive compromise of absolute truth.
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But Edwards says that humility inclines a person to a yielding,
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pliable disposition. The eminently humble Christian
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is clothed with loneliness, mildness, meekness, and
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gentleness of spirit. They have a soft, sweet,
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condescending, winning air and deportment.
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They are disposed to yield to others, to conform to them, and
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to please them in absolutely everything except sin.
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That caveat is vital. Except sin.
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We are not talking about abandoning biblical truth to
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please people. Of course not.
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But outside of clear biblical commands, the humble person is
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incredibly flexible. They do not need to win every
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argument about the color of the church carpet, the order of the
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service, or the exact phrasing of a secondary theological
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concept. They like the roughness, the
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contempt, the fierceness, and the bitterness that marks
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spiritual pride. They know they are not the
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center of the universe. And this difference in
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disposition becomes undeniably obvious when opposition arrives.
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The Crucible of opposition and reproach is where the true
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nature of the heart is completely revealed.
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It is easy to act humble when everyone agrees with you, but
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what happens when someone attacks you?
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Edwards says that spiritual pride takes great notice of
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opposition and injuries. The proud person remembers every
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slight. They keep a mental Ledger of
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every wrong done to them. They.
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Speak of these injuries often broadcasting to everyone how
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persecuted they are. And they use that opposition as
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fuel. The proud person uses the
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reproach of enemies to become bolder, more confident and to go
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to even greater lengths and whatever they were blamed for.
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If someone criticizes them for being too harsh, they decide to
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become twice as harsh just to prove they will not be
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intimidated. They use opposition to stoke the
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fires of their own self righteousness.
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If we connect this to the bigger picture, we have to look at the
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theology behind how we handle suffering.
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We have to look at the absolute, complete sovereignty of God over
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all events, including the painful ones.
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This is a massive theological pivot point.
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If God is completely sovereign over the universe, then nothing
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happens to you by accident. When injuries, unjust
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criticisms, and fierce opposition come into your life,
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the humble person recognizes that God is actively ruling over
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those specific circumstances. Even the unjust repurchase of
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bitter enemies are ordained tools meant for your
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sanctification. God allows the attack to chip
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away your remaining pride. That is incredibly hard to
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swallow when you are the one being attacked online or
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gossiped about in your community.
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It requires supernatural grace. But look at the pattern.
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Humility responds like our Lord when He was reviled, when Jesus
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stood before his accusers facing entirely false, malicious
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charges, what did he do? He was silent.
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He did not open his mouth to launch a counter attack.
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Edwards notes a fascinating correlation.
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The more clamorous and furious the world is against the humble
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Christian, the more silent and still that Christian will
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become. They do not feel a frantic,
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desperate need to vindicate themselves because they fully
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trust the sovereign judge to handle their reputation.
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I have to admit, I struggle with this concept vastly.
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This is so completely counterintuitive to everything
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in our current culture, and frankly, everything in my own
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human nature. Human nature screams at you to
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double down when you're attacked.
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If someone calls you out on social media, the biological
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instinct is the fight or flight response.
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You want to fight back harder, Deploy A flawless argument,
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launch a counter attack and prove to everyone watching that
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you are right and the other person is a fool.
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But what does grace dictate in that moment?
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Grace says stop and look inward. Humility leads us to make use of
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the reproaches of enemies as an occasion for serious self
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examination. Instead of immediately planning
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a defense strategy, the humble person actually pauses and asks,
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Is there any truth to this criticism?
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Even if the person delivering it is angry and unfair, what is God
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trying to teach me through this painful interaction?
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It takes a massive amount of restraint to stop and examine
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your own motives when someone is yelling in your face it.
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Requires A fundamental life altering shift in how you view
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yourself before God and before humanity.
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It changes your entire posture in the world.
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Spiritual pride leads to a certain unsuitable and self
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confident boldness. The proud person assumes the air
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of a master. They walk through life thinking
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it belongs to them to dictate to everyone else.
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They view themselves as the teacher in every scenario.
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I love the contrast Edward straws here.
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He says. The eminently humble Christian
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feels they want help from everybody, whereas the
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spiritually proud person thinks everybody wants their help.
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That dynamic changes the entire tone of a room.
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The proud person walks into a gathering, looks around and
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thinks, How can I fix all these people?
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How? Can I correct their flawed
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theology? How can I impart my superior
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wisdom to them? They speak with commands and
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warnings. They issue edicts.
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But the humble person walks into that exact same room and thinks,
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what can I learn from these Saints?
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How can their experiences help me see my own blind spots?
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The humble person entreats and besieges others under a sense of
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their misery. You plead with people out of
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genuine love. You do not command them out of a
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desire for control. Edwards applies this specific
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dynamic to generational relationships, which provides a
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fantastic, highly practical test case.
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He talks about young ministers who experience a lot of sudden
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success. We see this today with young
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guys who plant a church and suddenly they have a massive
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following. Edwards says that even if a
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sovereign God chooses to grant a young minister vastly greater
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visible success than the older, established ministers in the
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area, humility dictates that the young man must still treat the
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agent ministers with intense respect and reverence, viewing
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them as fathers. Because success does not equal
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superiority. That is right.
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This is where theology hits the pavement.
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Success in ministry or success in any spiritual endeavor is not
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a marker of your inherent brilliance.
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It is a pure, unadulterated display of God's unmerited
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favor. If God chooses to bless your
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efforts, that blessing does not rewrite the biblical command to
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honor your elders. The proud young minister looks
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at his large crowd, compares it to the older pastor small crowd,
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and assumes he is smarter, more faithful or more spiritual than
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the older generation. He dismisses their wisdom.
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The humble young minister looks at his large crowd, falls on his
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face and terror at the responsibility and runs to the
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older pastor begging for advice on how to handle it.
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So what does this all mean for how we interact with people
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completely outside the faith? Edwards has been focusing mostly
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on internal church dynamics, but he also addresses how we should
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handle skeptics, or, as he calls them in the language of his day,
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carnal men. This is perhaps one of the most
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convicting parts of his analysis.
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Edwards states that it is a mark of spiritual pride to refuse to
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enter into discourse or reasoning with people who make
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objections and inquiries. The proud person thinks they are
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too dignified to deal with the messy questions.
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Yes, the proud person views the repetitive, sometimes hostile or
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sometimes just plain foolish questions of skeptics as beneath
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them. They dismiss them.
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They might throw out a quick, highly intellectual argument,
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and if the skeptic does not immediately submit, the proud
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person walks away, shaking the dust off their feet, feeling
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superior. They refuse to stoop down to the
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level of the person asking the questions.
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But humility leads ministers and all believers to condescend to
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those outside the faith. We talked about Christ's
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condescension earlier with Peter.
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We are called to mirror that same action with the unbelieving
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world. We are called to bear with their
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unteachableness and their stubbornness.
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Think about a modern scenario. You are in the workplace and a
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Co worker finds out you are a Christian.
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They start asking you questions, but they are framing them in a
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hostile, mocking way. They are repeating arguments
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they heard on a late night comedy show.
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The proud reaction is to snap back, humiliate them with a
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logical fallacy point, and shut the conversation down.
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Winning the battle but losing the soul.
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Precisely. The humble believer takes a
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totally different path. They follow the skeptic with
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patient instruction, line upon line, precept upon precept,
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saying, come, let us reason together.
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You fulfill the biblical command to be ready always to give an
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answer to every man who asks you a reason for the hope that is in
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you, doing so with meekness and fear.
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This reframes the entire task of apologetics and defending the
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faith. If your goal in a conversation
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is to win a debate, to crush your opponent with your superior
28:37
historical knowledge, or to look smart in front of an audience,
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you are operating entirely in the flesh.
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You're operating in spiritual pride, but if your goal is to
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patiently walk alongside someone answering their objections with
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gentleness, you are operating in humility.
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You bear with the spiritual dullness of the skeptic for one
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massive, undeniable reason. You acutely remember your own
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spiritual dullness before God sovereignly opened your eyes.
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You are extending the exact same patience to them that Jesus
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extended to you when you were His enemy.
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Apologetics is not a battle to be won.
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It is a patient act of love. To recap this incredible
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diagnostic tool, we see a vast unbridgeable difference between
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these two dispositions. Spiritual pride is loud.
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It is rigid. It is highly suspicious of the
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motives of others, It focuses continually on the faults of
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everyone else, uses extreme language to condemn them, and is
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incredibly quick to separate and isolate.
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True humility is quiet. It is pliable and flexible on
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secondary issues. It is highly suspicious of its
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own motives. It is eager to maintain unity,
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it shrinks from the spotlight, and it is quick to examine
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itself and criticized. As we close, this raises A vital
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question for you to consider as you walk through your week.
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Edwards leaves us with a chilling reality.
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He suggests that pride hides itself best not in our moments
29:57
of obvious sin, but in our most zealous religious moments.
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It cloaks itself in our prayers, our theological debates, and our
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desire for purity. If our greatest danger isn't
30:07
secular rebellion or religious superiority, then our most
30:11
urgent daily prayer shouldn't just be for more theological
30:13
knowledge. Our most urgent prayer should be
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for the grace to suspect our own motives precisely when we feel
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the most righteous. Thank you for joining us for
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this deep dive on reformed thinking.
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Keep your heart under the microscope, evaluate your
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motives with grace, and we will see you next time.