Mark 3:5 He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored.
Stubbornness deeply distressed Jesus. The Pharisees and teachers were filled with conceit that made their hearts callous to the truth. They believed in a twisted truth that suited their convenience. The Pharisees stringently believed and followed the “oral law” which was over and above the Law of Moses going beyond what was explicitly stated in the Torah. They insisted on maintaining ritualistic purity but failed to love and serve the Lord faithfully from their heart. The law was to make them loving and kind but made them legalistic and arrogant. Legalism hardened their hearts.
Pride displeases God. “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5). Pride and conceit stopped them from accepting that their ‘oral laws’ were erroneous and self-gratifying. Even when they were proved wrong they did not repent but rather resisted. Every time Jesus proved them wrong they were filled with envy and connived and plotted to kill Jesus.
Pride spirals from insecurity and envy. Jealousy is an insecure feeling that others will take what you have, whereas envy is a greedy vice that wants what someone else has. The Pharisees were not just insecure, they were envious and prideful.
Pride displeases Him:
1. Pulse: It is important to check our pulse to self-examine our reactions to difficult circumstances. We must step outside the situation and look at the actions and reactions of the complainant and the defender. Step away and take a deep breath. Check the pulse of your soul.
2. Patience: The level of patience is a good measuring gauge of a person’s level of egotism. Ego is a polished word for pride. The more patient we are and the more level headed we will be in difficult circumstances. Egotism normally makes people despiteful and short tempered.
3. Pride: Pride pushes a person to the opposite side of God’s army. “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). The proud earn the enmity of God.
Pride and egotism displeases God.
Prayer: Father God, may I never think too much about myself, but help me put on the garment of humility every day. Amen.
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