Dan Kent introduces the problem of pride and how it is rooted in hierarchical systems where we measure ourselves against others. We are unable to love others when we are constantly evaluating them and ourselves. We must opt out of this system and learn to see all as equals, all equally loved.
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Love Is Not Proud
• Dan Kent
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In this sermon, Dan Kent shows us a different way of thinking about how pride undermines love. He begins by identifying an internal civil war that many of us experience. On the one hand we are told that we are special, that we have value and that we matter. On the other hand, there is a standard teaching in the church about the inherent sinfulness of all humanity. One side claims that we are fundamentally good. The other side argues that we all are fundamentally bad.
However, this is only what we see transpiring on the surface. Actually, there is a far deeper issue, which is illustrated by some research performed on baboons. This research has concluded that there is a strict hierarchy within a troop of baboons. There is an alpha who gets whatever he wants, the masses who try to appease the alpha and the runt who is the weakest and lives in fear. There is an inherent ranking system within the social construct of how baboons live. Even the disciples assumed that this was a normal way of living. The book of Luke cites two times that they were arguing about who would be at the top of the kingdom food chain with Jesus. They were looking for a ranking system where the superior oppressed the inferior.
The systems of this world assume a structure based in hierarchy, which produces pride, thinking of self as superior to others. Therefore, pride has been a primary enemy to being a Christ follower. Often the antidote to pride is seen as humility, as it is viewed as pride’s opposite. Like the civil war analogy above where there is a battle between thinking of ourselves
as fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, pride is thinking of ourselves as being more that we should, and, supposedly, humility would be thinking of ourselves as less than we should. But that is not actually humility. That is what psychologists call shame. Therefore shame is the opposite of pride.
The antidote to pride is to opt out of the ranking system. Instead of ranking ourselves on a scale of hierarchy, we must shift our way of thinking to view all as equal. Instead of evaluating ourselves as either fundamentally good or bad, we must see everyone as fundamentally loved. Thus we are opting out of the hierarchy worldview where we are constantly judging ourselves and others.
Hide Extended SummarySermon Series: Love Is, Wholehearted
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The MuseCast: September 30
Focus Scripture:
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1 Corinthians 13:1-7
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
