Love as Brethren – Don’t be Proud (2)!

Hello everyone,

How are you doing on this day? I hope well and bubbling in the Lord.

Primary Text

“Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren …” 1 Peter 3v8 (KJV)

1 Corinthians 13v4 tells us that love is not proud! Proud is “having, proceeding from, or showing a high opinion of one’s own dignity, importance, or superiority… implies sensitiveness, lofty self-respect, or jealous preservation of one’s dignity, station, and the like.”  (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/proud?s=t). Love is not proud. The devil had a place in kingdom of God, but he allowed pride to come in. Isaiah 14v12-15 (KJV) says “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.” James 4v6-7 (AMP) tells us that “But He gives us more and more grace (power of the Holy Spirit, to meet this evil tendency and all others fully). That is why He says, God sets Himself against the proud and haughty, but gives grace [continually] to the lowly (those who are humble enough to receive it). So be subject to God. Resist the devil [stand firm against him], and he will flee from you.” Pride says I am all that, humility recognizes that apart from God, I am nothing. Check yourself. Are you beginning to think you are better than others, can do something more than others, and if you are not around, things would go astray? Are you thinking that you are doing God a favor and forgetting that all your ability is because of Him? Remember John 15v4 (NLT) says “Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in Me” and that Proverbs 16v18 (NLT) says “Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall.”

Supplementary Text

“But by the grace (the unmerited favor and blessing) of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not [found to be] for nothing (fruitless and without effect). In fact, I worked harder than all of them [the apostles], though it was not really I, but the grace (the unmerited favor and blessing) of God which was with me.” 1 Corinthians 15v10 (AMP)

Father, I thank You for Your Word. Please search me deeply and uproot everything of pride in me, in Jesus name, amen. Help me to walk in love and humility in Jesus name, amen.