Jesus repeatedly warned his disciples about the leaven (yeast) of the Pharisees. He
spells out in Luke 12:1 what He means: “Be on your guard against the yeast of
the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” By their teachings and example the
Pharisees encouraged others to do as they did – focus on outward religious
works and ignore the inner kingdom of the heart, where motives for our actions
are revealed.

Jesus described the religious leaders of His day as “blind leaders of the blind.” In
darkness themselves, they couldn’t show anyone else how to find God. In Mark
7:6 He said to them, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites
… ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.’”

In Luke 18:9-14 Jesus tells a story about a Pharisee and a publican who went to
the temple to pray. Luke says Jesus told this parable “to some who were
confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else” (v. 9).
In a surprising twist, it was the despicable and sinful publican who “went home
justified before God” because the attitude of his heart was right. He
recognized his sin and did not try to justify himself. Instead, he begged,
“God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” But the well respected Pharisee, who had
much to brag about with regard to his religious works, did not get God’s ear.                                                                                             Jesus tells us why: “Everyone who exalts himself
will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (v. 14).

Pride is a formidable enemy. Before we are Christians, it drives us to all sorts of
self-seeking behavior. It makes us unwilling to submit to the authority of anyone
else; it tells us we must run our own show and call the shots if we want to be
happy, fulfilled, and free. So it effectively keeps us from pursuing a
relationship with God, because that would require us to humble ourselves and
admit our need for His forgiveness and help.

Oh, sure, before new birth we may be quick to admit that we have messed things up,
especially when our lives are coming apart at the seams. But our prideful
hearts insist that we can get along just fine without God. Things may be messy
at the moment, but with just a little bit more effort, a few more avenues to
try, a couple of new gurus to consult, we will be able to get things back on
track. No need to consider something as radical as “new birth” to turn things
around.

Fortunately for us, God continues to love us and pursue us in spite of our prideful hearts.
Once we are willing to admit our need and, like the publican, cry out for His
mercy, we enter into a glorious relationship with Him. We’re transported into a
new realm, the kingdom of God, where we eagerly seek and find righteousness,
peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. We cheerfully embrace all those who love
Christ and are willing to help and encourage anyone who suffers for His name.
We live our lives in harmony with the Scriptures and serve God without
hypocrisy or resentment.

But some point we discover, to our horror, the pride we thought was gone has
reappeared. Maybe someone says something to us and we are immediately and
deeply offended by it. Our desire is to strike back in kind. Or maybe we aren’t
recognized or commended for something good we’ve done, and we feel angry about
the injustice. Perhaps it manifests as an unwillingness to forgive someone for
hurting us, or to admit that we are wrong and need to apologize to someone for
what we’ve done. Often, pride hinders us from saying “I’m sorry” and we engage
instead in elaborate self-justification. Whatever the situation may be, we find
ourselves – as followers of Christ – battling something in our hearts that we had
hoped and prayed was dead and buried.  We’re
shocked to see it rearing its head, seeking to dominate our hearts once again.

The other day my husband, Tony, who tends the shrubbery around our house, showed me
a new plant that had become intertwined with our bushes. We had to look hard to
find where it had taken root – in the shadows, behind the shrubs, in a far corner
of the porch. From that one spot it had spread in every direction, popping up
in the middle of some shrubs and weaving behind others. It looked a lot like
the plants it was invading but upon closer examination we were able to identify
what it was: poison oak.

This is how pride works in the Christian. It’s a noxious introduction into a life
that is flourishing in God’s kingdom. It masquerades itself and starts in the
hidden, dark places of the heart that we seldom see. But once it takes root and
begins to spread throughout our mind and heart, we quickly recognize that it is
foreign to our new life in Christ. It leads us into self-worship,
self-justification, and hypocrisy. Once we unknowingly touch it, its poisonous
effects (much like poison oak) can cause all kinds of problems. Unchecked,
pride will rob us of our fruitfulness and joy in Christ and alienate us from
other people, threatening our relationships.

C.S. Lewis wrote, “The devil is perfectly content to see you becoming chaste and
brave and self-controlled, provided all the time he is setting you up in the
Dictatorship of Pride.” Our spiritual enemy understands how to best defeat us
and render us ineffective against his purposes: reintroduce the power of pride
within our hearts. If it grows there undetected, it will infect us with the
leaven of the Pharisees and ruin our Christian testimony.

As soon as we see it, we must stop everything and immediately begin the process of
killing it before it takes any more territory. When Tony saw the poison oak, he
lost no time in spraying it at the root to stop its progress. If he ignored it,
its effects over time would grow and eventually choke out the life of our
beautiful shrubs.

How do we battle this formidable enemy? How do we dismantle the Dictatorship of Pride
and let Christ establish His throne in every part of our being? One thing is for
sure: We won’t defeat it by our own power or strength. When E. Stanley Jones
was serving as a missionary in India he watched the “holy men” who tried so
valiantly to overcome the hidden sins of the heart. They renounced the world
and willingly endured any humiliation that might free them from sin and self,
even to the point of walking around naked. But as Jones commented, “expelled
through the door, they [the secret sins] come back by the window.” One day he
noted how some of the holy men who were going to bathe in the sacred Ganges became
quite touchy about getting the proper place and prestige in the processions – a
sure sign that pride still resided in their hearts! Their self efforts had
failed.

Whenever I detect myself getting touchy, taking offense, vying for more recognition or a
better place to serve, putting someone else down so I can feel superior, insisting
on my rights and never admitting to being wrong, refusing to let God’s Word be
my final authority, or ignoring the clear leading of the Holy Spirit, I must
stop and immediately repent. Then I must call on my victorious Savior to defeat
what I am powerless to overcome in my own strength. Supreme Court Justice Louis
D. Brandeis once wrote, “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.” The
apostle John declared “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” The
antidote to pride is to bring it into the light and fearlessly declare what it
is… sin.

The good news is that God has a remedy for eradicating our sin: “If we walk in the
light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the
blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without
sin, we deceive ourselves … [but] if we confess our sins, he is faithful and
just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1
John 1:5, 7-8).

To defeat the Dictatorship of Pride will require us to face it, name it, confess
it, and ask for God’s help in overcoming its influence. I’m so glad that “God
is greater than our hearts” (1 John 3:20). He can overcome every dictatorship
and every “high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God” (2
Corinthians 10:5). All He needs is our permission and our cooperation in
dismantling it. In the same way that sunlight disinfects earthly disease, the
light of God’s Word and the power of His Spirit can cleanse us from the multifaceted
sin of pride.

In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul reminds the Corinthian Christians that sin (yeast)
affects not only the individual but also the whole community of believers.

“Don’t you know that a little yeast works
through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a
new batch without yeast – as you
really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let
us keep the festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and
wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth”
(vv. 6-8).

Joy replaces shame when we live honest and transparent lives before Him. So let’s
throw open the doors of our hearts and let Him expose and correct whatever is
there. As we walk in His truth He will set us free from all our enemies – even
the Dictatorship of Pride.

 ______________________________________________________________

“Search Me, O God”

Search me, O God, and know my heart today,

Try me, O Savior, know my thoughts, I pray;

See if there be some wicked way in me;

Cleanse me from every sin, and set me free.

I praise Thee, Lord, for cleansing me from sin;

Fulfill Thy word and make me pure within;

Fill me with fire, where once I burned with shame;

Grant my desire to magnify Thy name.

Lord, take my life, and make it wholly Thine;

Fill my poor heart with Thy great love divine;

Take all my will, my passion, self and pride;

I now surrender, Lord, in me abide.

Hymn by J. Edwin Orr, 1936