Defining Spiritual Pride⤒🔗

Spiritual pride ever appears in a despising attitude toward other brothers and sisters in Christ. It harbours the thought that we possess a superior vision. It is the rejection of any need for further learning from others. It does not show the humility of life that God requires from his servants.

Sinful human nature carries spiritual pride into the bosom of the Christian community in several ways. One tendency which has regularly appeared throughout the history of the church has been to go beyond the biblically established classification of persons. With respect to our position before our Creator, all mankind is subdivided as saved or lost, as believers or unbelievers. We are either the ones who have received faith as God's gift, or those without faith who march along the path to eternal condemnation. Spiritual pride has generated many movements within the churches and these often add another category of people, although this is not always openly stated. The additional category is made up of those who are supposedly graced with insight, abilities, or power out of the ordinary, differ­entiating them from other Christians. If we take a quick trip through the history of the church, we will see that this pretension is one of the most serious demonstrations of fallen human nature, subtly intro­duced in intermittent waves by Satan into the heart of the church, in order to disturb the relationship among the faithful ones. Inevitably it disrupts the true communion of saints.

The Gnostics and Spiritual Pride in the New Testament Church←⤒🔗

Even in the beginning of its New Testament history the church suffered a 'Christianization' of the Gnostic secular heresy, which affirmed that certain levels of knowledge were mysteriously the property of only a few. The proto-gnostic Christians of the first century grew up and became a destructive force within the churches.

In the second century of the Christian era the Gnostic movement was causing major problems in the churches and had already reached great size.¹These Gnostics divided the Christians, separating the ones that possessed only rudimentary spiritual knowledge from the ones that had the true knowledge (gnosis) which was hidden from everyone else. In Gnostic thought, we find the triple division:

1. Non-believers
2. Simple believers
3. 'Illuminated believers'

Such a classification is a sure evidence of spiritual pride.

The Allegorists and Spiritual Pride←⤒🔗

In the third century the Allegorists continued to divide believers between those supposedly able to understand the superior spiritual sense of a given passage of the Bible and the ones who could not go beyond the literal meaning of the text. Origen, the great scholar of the Alexandrian School, was a strong proponent of allegorical thought. He actually taught that the Word of God had three meanings: (1) the common meaning, which was the historical, intelligible to the ones of simple mind; (2) the spiritual sense, which constituted the soul of Scriptures; and (3) the perfect sense, the deeper spiritual meaning, which could be only expressed through allegories and was the privilege of a few. Once more, a subdivision foreign to biblical concepts was being introduced in the teachings of the church that contributed to the nurturing of spiritual pride.

The Quakers and Spiritual Pride←⤒🔗

In the Puritan era we have the appearance of the Quakers, who declared themselves possessors of an experience of the Holy Spirit which went beyond the ordinary. A constant theme in their preaching was the search for the 'inner light' which would reveal the will of the Spirit to anyone who would receive it. Differentiating themselves from the 'common believer', they represented a resurgence of that harmful triple division which engenders spiritual pride.

The Idea of the Carnal Christian and Spiritual Pride←⤒🔗

Turning to more recent years, right inside fundamentalist, conservative, evangelical circles, even before many embarked into Pentecostal practices, we witnessed the generation of a new and superior category of believer – the spiritual Christian. These were the ones who had taken a second step of acceptance. They had already accepted Christ as their Saviour, but, undergoing a second experience, they now accepted him as Lord. This acceptance of the Lordship of Christ caused them to dissociate themselves from the carnal Christians. Carnal Christians were those who remained in an inferior and primitive stage of spirituality, with behaviour virtually identical to that of the unbeliever. Here again we have the teaching that there are three categories of people, spiritually speaking: the unbelievers, the carnal Christians, and the spiritual Christians.

The 'Experiences' of Pentecostalism and Spiritual Pride←⤒🔗

Pentecostalism rescued and renewed these tendencies within the church, giving new labels to them, while postulating a hierarchy of believers which is foreign to the Word of God. Pentecostals brought to the evangelical scene the possession of the gifts of the supernatural, the extraordinary gifts, as if this were related not only to the existential and historic life of the Church, but also as an object of desire in the life of every individual Christian. The teachings of Pentecostalism presented the expectation that without these experiences something was missing in the life of the Christian. It was necessary to reach a superior level of spirituality, to receive a second blessing, to raise oneself above the level of the 'common Christian'. This produced a hierarchy of believers: the 'baptized' as against the 'non-baptized' by the Holy Ghost; or, the receivers as against the 'ones-yet-waiting-for-the-Second-Blessing'.

The Question of Divine Healing and Spiritual Pride←⤒🔗

The matter of divine healing, essential in Pentecostal preaching, which has spread itself throughout most of so-called 'Evangelical Christianity', follows along parallel lines. It places believers on a hierarchical scale, as far as the rating of their Christianity is concerned. It makes a dividing line between:

1. Those who have reached a level of faith which is sufficient to qualify them as recipients of miraculous healing.
2. Those whose faith is insufficient to receive these same blessings.

Experiences of healing are reserved for the ones more spiritually equipped. Often we have witnessed the formation of a 'spiritual caste', full of spiritual pride, who go around testifying of the blessings received as a result of their special faith.

The Danger of 'Reformed Gnosticism'←⤒🔗

Having witnessed the falling of so many from such different segments of the Christian Church into the same problem of forming a 'special caste of Christians', my point is that we Calvinists need to strive to keep ourselves from pursuing this over-travelled path in the history of the Church.

We cannot consider ourselves immune from the development of an attitude that states, 'We, Reformed Christians, are illuminated; we are the only ones to understand divine truths which are hidden from the majority of common Christians, unless they receive the logical and unquestionably correct explanation which can only come from our side.' Many Calvinists display the most obvious spiritual pride in their relationship with Christian brethren, so damaging the testimony to the Reformed Faith by their considering themselves the discoverers and sole possessors of truth.

One Example of How Pride Can Take Control←⤒🔗

I am going to quote what was said to me by a friend of mine whom I am not accusing of spiritual pride. My reference serves only as an example of the attitude from which we must refrain. If we come unconsciously to consider ourselves as specially illuminated people the result will be the development of a dangerous spiritual pride from which we ought to flee. This friend of mine, after having read extensively in several books on the doctrine of justification, and after having heard a brilliant lecture about this blessed doctrine, told me:

I am impressed, and I have arrived at the conclusion that few know properly what is actually the doctrine of justification.' And he kept on, saying, 'These people don't have the slightest idea what it means to be justified.

These words were said in humility and profound admiration for the work of Christ, but I want to call attention to the fact that this doctrinal appreciation has the latent germ of destruction which can blossom, without much effort, into spiritual pride. My comment on that occasion was: 'They know, brother, they know! If someone has been truly rescued by the precious blood of Christ he knows experientially what justification is.'

The Experience of the Grace of God←⤒🔗

I am not placing experience above scriptural revelation, but I am making a distinction between knowing a doctrine and being able to give a logical, systematic and detailed exposition of a doctrine. We must never fall into the trap of thinking that spiritual ignorance is something that we will be able to enlighten if we only transmit that which we know about God's Sovereignty. We must never demean the faith of every believer who has been redeemed by Christ Jesus, by the Sovereign Lord whom we all love, and who has also been predestined before the foundation of the World and separated unto the glory of the Almighty God. He knows what justification is, even if he has never heard of Luther and Calvin, even if he cannot recite the five points of Calvinism, even if he may not be able to explain what justification is all about. The powerful God who saves, does so sovereignly; he does not depend on the cleverness, logic or intelligence of his people.

The Example of the Blind Man of Jericho←⤒🔗

We should emulate the example of the blind man who was healed by Jesus, as shown to us in John 9. He didn't know many things. He had, however, discerned authority in the words of Jesus. For this reason he called our Lord a prophet, and he did what he was told to do (verse 17). Furthermore, he knew neither the reason for his healing nor the origin and destiny of the One who had cured him (verses 12, 25). Aside from the mud, with which he had been smeared, he did not know, obviously, how he had been cured (verses 15, 26-27). One thing, though, he knew (verse 25), and that was sufficient for him at that time: 'One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.'

Reasons for Fellowship←⤒🔗

Why can we have genuine fellowship with those who are not Calvinists? For one thing, if they are truly saved, we are brothers, children of the same sovereign God. Also even though we perceive inconsistencies in their theological structure; even though they may be proclaiming that salvation is the result of the supposed 'free will' of man; even though, in their statements, they may infer a subordination of God's action to this proclaimed 'free will' of man; in spite of all that, when they are on their knees to pray, when they are truly troubled and seeking for God, they forget their theology and pray to a sovereign Almighty God, who accomplishes his will; they pray to a God who is everything, acknowledging that they themselves are nothing.

Human Inconsistencies←⤒🔗

We must recognize that we ourselves, as fallible human beings, are never totally consistent with our premises. Do you want an example? We all know the importance of the Lord's Day, Sunday. We all have the conviction that on this day we should gather together and worship our God. The majority of us would never think of leaving our Sunday worship service to get busy with, let us say, a football match! Nevertheless, many of us cheer for this or that team. Secretly we support both entertainment and 'bread winning' on that day, or, at least, we close our eyes and establish a double-standard of conduct: one for us and our children, and the other one, excusable, for the ones for whom we cheer. We have even invented a new category of Christians, the Athletes for Christ,² which sanctifies, Christianizes and justifies this activity on Sunday. That is, ask our opinion and we will condemn sports on Sunday. Observe our practice and our looking the other way, and you will observe a meek acceptance of sports practised on the Lord's Day. What is this? Human inconsistency, to be very kind, yet God suffers us, being what we are!

Do we for any reason think that we can find total coherence between teaching and practice, in all Christians? I am reinforcing this point because it is very probable that we may find genuine Reformed Faith in certain persons, even when the external declarations of these may be somewhat inconsistent with our Reformed view. We should never be proud and belittle those who make up the true Church of Christ, for whom he gave his own blood. The Rev. Ian Hamilton once exhorted Calvinists to have a humble and agreeable spirit, saying: 'God's grace should sweeten our disagreements. There is a great danger of being too absolute in our way of saying things. We should cling to the ones that cling to Christ.' ³

Love That Quenches Pride←⤒🔗

The apostle Peter, writing in his first letter (1 Pet.1:22-23) tells us about Christian love, which quenches pride. In this passage we read: Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

The basis of this love is the common regeneration (verse 23) which all Christians have in Christ Jesus: we have all 'been born again'. He is also our example, for we read, in verse 17, that he judges 'without respect of persons', that is, treating all with equity. The love which he commissions us to have in verse 22 has three characteristics:

1. It is a matter of obedience ('obeying the truth').
2. It has to be sincere ('unfeigned').
3. It has to be intense ('fervently').

Having been regenerated by the living God and by the living Word, we can be proud of nothing, most assuredly not of the comprehension that we have of God and of his majesty, for our illumination and our understanding of spiritual truths proceed from him alone; and he desires that we exercise charity and patience in the instruction of his Word. May he deliver us from the sin of spiritual pride.