We live in the age of the personal brand. LinkedIn profiles showcase our achievements in the most compelling language possible. Instagram stories curate our highlight reels. Even our bio sections have become miniature monuments to our accomplishments. We celebrate the “self-made” person, the one who climbs highest, speaks loudest, and demands recognition.
But what if everything we think we know about strength and success is backwards?
Proverbs 11.2 cuts through our cultural noise with surgical precision: “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.” The Hebrew word for “disgrace” here comes from a root meaning “to be light” or “lightly esteemed” – and there’s profound irony in this choice.
Pride puffs us up. It makes us feel substantial, important, weighty. We use words like “gravitas” to describe the presence we think we command. But according to God’s economy, pride actually makes us light – insubstantial, like chaff blown away by wind. Meanwhile, humility, which feels like becoming small, actually gives us wisdom’s true weight.
Think about that for a moment. In a world that equates loudness with leadership and self-promotion with success, God says the opposite is true. The humble person carries real substance while the proud person is essentially hollow.
This isn’t just ancient wisdom – it’s observable reality. Consider how many leaders, celebrities, and “successful” people we’ve watched fall spectacularly. Nebuchadnezzar, standing on his palace roof surveying Babylon, declared: “Is not this great Babylon that I myself have built?” Within the hour, he was living like an animal in the fields.
The pattern repeats throughout history with devastating consistency. Pride doesn’t just lead to a character problem – it leads to actual destruction. As Proverbs 16.18 warns, “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”
James 4.6 reveals why this happens: “God opposes the proud.” The Greek word used here is a military term meaning “to arrange battle against.” When we choose pride, we’re not just making a poor character choice – we’re declaring war on the Almighty.
But here’s what’s terrifying: pride blinds us to our own pride. Proverbs 21.2 says, “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the heart.” The proud person genuinely cannot see their arrogance. They’re like someone with a fatal disease who feels perfectly healthy while everyone else can see they’re dying.
The good news is that our proverb doesn’t leave us in despair. It offers hope: “with the humble is wisdom.”
Biblical humility isn’t self-hatred or false modesty. Timothy Keller describes it perfectly as “self-forgetfulness” – not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less. It’s knowing your proper size in the universe – neither inflated nor crushed, but rightly aligned with reality.
Why does humility lead to wisdom? Because humility creates capacity. Pride is already full – full of self, full of its own opinions, full of its own glory. There’s no room for God’s wisdom, for learning, for growth. But humility is empty, ready to receive.
Remember Solomon? When God offered him anything he wanted, he didn’t ask for wealth or military victory. He asked for wisdom to govern God’s people, recognizing his inadequacy for the task. That humility opened the floodgates of divine wisdom – and God gave him everything else besides.
The humble person understands what the proud cannot: we are creatures, not creators. Our breath comes from Another. Our existence is sustained moment by moment by grace. As Paul asks, “What do you have that you did not receive?”
But we haven’t reached the deepest level until we see Christ. Philippians 2.6-8 describes the most stunning reversal in history: “Though he was in the form of God, [he] did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself… he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
The One through whom all things were made became a carpenter. The One who owns everything had nowhere to lay his head. The One whom angels worship washed the disciples’ feet. This wasn’t passive resignation – it was active choice. At any moment, Christ could have summoned legions of angels, but He chose the path of humility.
And notice the result: “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.” The path of humility led to the highest glory – not stolen glory, but given glory, glory that lasts forever.
Every day, we face a choice. We can build our inflatable castles of pride – impressive on the outside but full of nothing but hot air. Or we can choose the way of humility, aligning ourselves with reality and opening ourselves to receive from God.
Pride promises height but delivers a fall. Humility feels like descent but leads to true glory. The question isn’t whether we’ll be humbled – we will. The question is whether we’ll humble ourselves under the gentle hand of grace, or wait for life to crush our pretenses.
In a world that celebrates self-promotion, choosing humility is countercultural. But it’s also choosing wisdom. It’s choosing strength. It’s choosing the way of Christ.
As John Stott wisely observed: “Pride is our greatest enemy, humility is our greatest friend.”
Which will you choose today?
~PW 🌮🛶
For more on this topic, including practical steps toward humility and freedom from pride, check out my full sermon on Proverbs 11.2.
Phillip W. Martin 
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