Good correction is an instruction that advises you that you’re doing something wrong. It’s an instruction designed to get you back on the right track when you’ve inadvertently stepped in the wrong direction with wrong analysis.
Pride, however, perceives and thus receives correction as a suggestion that “I’m bad”. Our pride turns correction into a ‘good and bad’ scenario, when it should be a ‘right and wrong’ issue.
Why does it do this?
Because pride is only interested in position, position, position. That’s all it ultimately cares about. You can camouflage your pride with as much exterior niceness as you like but underneath it all is the love of position, and this is the thing that Jesus came to save you from … the love of position. All pride is concerned about is … “I want to be above you”. Pride pretends to love its neighbour but in the depths of its heart it hates it when one’s neighbour gets an advantage over it.
Pride hates exposure, so it does anything it can to hide itself. The consequence of this hidden evil in us, is the solidifying of this evil by lying to ourselves that we are good, and thus the Evil One traps us in his web and manipulates us to unwittingly serve his will against God. Then, instead of breaking free from our sin at the point of correction, we reinforce the lie that we are good.
Lie to escape exposure
If correction is bad, why do we routinely lie to escape exposure of our wrong, and why do we routinely fear the embarrassment of the exposure? Obviously, because we’re too proud and selfish to let others think we are wrong. We don’t want to look bad, so we work our butt-off to show we are good, but our real objective is to avoid exposure of any bad, at all costs. We argue within ourselves that the more good we are the more the correction must be wrong. The ‘good-er’ we are the further from salvation we unknowingly wander, believing our own lie that our goodness is evidence of God in us. But, it’s all our own deception fuelled by our own evil pride.
Don’t tell me what to do
When you argue ‘good vs bad’ it’s simply an indicator of your pride. This means that the real underlying issue is the selfish belief … “I’m good, so don’t tell me I’m bad”. But, what this really means is … “you won’t tell me what’s right or wrong, I’ll decide, and you won’t tell me what to do; I’ll fix the issue myself, my way. Mind your own business”. It’s only at the point of correction that this spirit is exposed, and it’s at that point that one’s pride can be loosed from the demonic. Sadly, few surrender; most defend their pride. They still serve and worship God their way, but they’re not saved.
Pride doesn’t think it’s proud
Because pride can’t see its pride, it needs correction to expose it. The problem is, it’s so focussed on looking good, it sees any correction as rejection and a put-down, thus it constantly misses the door of salvation that God places before it.
Fake Goodness is Satanism
Pride won’t be told it’s wrong. In fact, pride won’t be told. Thus, pride is the practice of disrespect of authority, and the practice of incorrigibility. Thus, your pride protects you from being correctible, and thus pride is the root cause of fakeness and de-salvation.
Pride is always trying to show and re-affirm its goodness. Pride thinks it’s good, so it can’t handle any suggestion that it’s done anything wrong, because it hates feeling bad and looking bad. What pride doesn’t realise is that the more good you think you are, or the more you act that you are good, the more demonic influence Satan has over you. It’s really the spirit of Satan operating through you. The practice of pride is really the practice of Satanism. That’s why God hates it. That’s why it’s so hard to eliminate it from your spirit. This lying deception was inherited from Satan via Eve’s and Adam’s sin and refusal to repent. Pride is a direct inheritance from Satan. Retain your pride and serve God as much as you like. It will all be a waste of time and effort, just like Judas.
Fake Goodness (F.G.) retaliates
Fake goodness retaliates with blame for not letting them explain why they did what they did. F.G. shifts the responsibility so its own bad is not exposed. F.G. is focussed on what you think of me and can’t handle being thought less of. F.G. is just camouflaged pride. As I’ve already said, the more good you think you are, the more proud you are, and the more fake you are.
Only God is good, Luke 18:19
The rich young ruler indirectly asked Jesus to confirm to him that he was good. Doing good was his recipe for looking good in the eyes of his peers. Jesus made it clear; the answer is give up your position. Like most people it was too much to ask. So, if you think you are good then the truth is you’re just full of yourself, not God, and that’s what pride is. Consequently, pride judges others’ badness in the light of one’s own assumed goodness. This judgment actually verifies that you are not good (James 4:11), but pride can’t see it, so it bacterially flourishes and continues to be practiced indiscriminately.
Like the rich young ruler, once you find something that gives you value and supports your position in the eyes of others, it’s even more difficult to let your pride go and find God. The support becomes too valuable to you.
Feelings
Pride makes its judgments on its feelings. Pride believes if you make me feel bad, then you’re the baddie. Pride is always trying to show its goodness. Position by any means is all it cares about.
Do
The real reason we do things is to prove our self-worth in the eyes of others, and that’s why we can’t give up what’s of value to us, because these skills, or money, or successes, or popularity are the proof of our value. Instead of sacrificing them, we compromise to keep them and unwittingly instead, sacrifice the precious gift of salvation.
It’s not DO. It’s not FIX. Rather, it’s DIE to your pride. That means, openly expose you’re wrong and face the fear and the temptation to lie and blame. That’s the only way to free yourself from Satan’s evil spirits.
Good doesn’t cut it
The woman caught in adultery wasn’t good. Rahab wasn’t good. Samson wasn’t good. The thief on the cross wasn’t good. David wasn’t good; he murdered. Prostitutes are not good. The five foolish virgins were good. Good is not the requirement; exposing your pride is the requirement.
Jesus didn’t write-off the thief on the cross for being bad; He invited him into His kingdom at the point of his confession of wrong to a loving Saviour. He knew he was bad. He couldn’t fix the bad or the wrong, but he could face his embarrassment and give up his charade of toughness and lower his resistant position.
Pharisee and Tax Collector
In Luke 18:9, Jesus shares a parable about those who trust in their own goodness, yet at the same time, hate. The Pharisee spoke to his own mind about how good he was, whereas, the publican simply exposed his wrong and was saved. The Pharisee proved his goodness was a lie by passing judgment on the publican, in the light of his own goodness, and immediately confirmed his arrogant pride.
Good is always in your own mind
Good is never in the mind of a Christian. Like Christ, a Christian’s focus is serving the will of his Master, not in justifying why the Master should love him or do his bidding. The Holy Spirit doesn’t pride Himself in His own goodness; He serves the will of the Father. The goodness that flows from a Christian should be Christ, not one’s own self-manufactured ability and fake purity. Fake purity is just piety, not love.
Pride vs. Humility
In simplicity, pride is calling someone a fool; whereas, humility comes via repentance, and repentance is seeing that you’re the fool. If you’ve never really seen your own folly, then your salvation is in vain. “Sorry” is an arrangement of convenient escape, but “repentance” is when you see your own folly, and without that revelation your pride is not broken. All that’s happened is, like Eve, you’ve talked yourself into believing in your own wisdom being right. But, clearly Eve’s wisdom wasn’t right, or she would’ve seen she was wrong.
Why does God advise against pride?
Pride is the fruit of the tree in the middle of the Garden. Pride tastes good, and pride looks good. It never looks bad. That’s so Satan can use it to manipulate you into thinking that you’re right (Genesis 3:5,6). But, the reason God advises against it is because pride will always end up hurting you. That’s why Satan sells it to you; to hurt you.
Everyone is either a Pharisee or a Publican or a Publican Pharisee
This parable is not just a story; it’s an evaluation of the human spirit. You can have different levels of Pharisee or Publican, but everyone exists in these two categories at some level. Everyone is born arrogant. Everyone is born fearful. Everyone is born a liar. You can either protect these qualities and reinforce you link your Satan, or you can expose them. What you choose to do at the point of correction will either lead you to salvation or to hell.
Salvation is simple
All you have to do is expose yourself. All you have to do is own up that you were wrong. All you have to do is face the fear of looking bad in the eyes of others. God does the rest. The problem is, almost everyone resists their conscience by explaining away their sin by blaming the other person, or justifying why they really didn’t do anything that bad, and so the opportunity for salvation is lost and sacrificed to protect one’s pride. You have to sacrifice your pride to be saved. You have to sacrifice your pride to be freed from Satan.
Conclusion
Ultimately, it’s not an issue of right or wrong, or good or bad. It’s an issue of … will you stop your pride and take the correction and admit you were wrong, no blame and no excuses.
No exposure, no salvation
Behold I stand at the door and knock (Rev.3:20). When Jesus is knocking on your door, Satan is also standing there whispering fears and lies into your mind. If you truly want to be saved you will always have to face the fear of embarrassment or the fear of persecution, and the temptation to lie, and the temptation to blame to protect yourself. It’s actually the temptation from Satan to fear and lie, that confirms that Christ is the one addressing your conscience. The fear is the sign of Christ’s presence, not from Him, but from the enemy trying to manipulate you away from Him. In fact, if you don’t face fear at a point of salvation, then it’s not Jesus that’s knocking. Yes, like Samuel, you can be saved as a child, and like Peter, you can walk with Christ and think you’re saved, but, somewhere along the walk you will have to face the fear of your convictions in order to seal your salvation (Luke 22:32). All you have to do is open the door and let your sin be exposed and you’ll realize that the fear was a Satanic inhibitor to block you from being free.
Pastor Rick McCauley
