Man Code entries are designed for parents or adults seeking to mold young boys into strong Christian men. Previous entries can be found here.

“God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” James 4:6

Have you ever played a sports game against someone who was undeniably better than you in every way? How frustrating was that? What if you were a 6th grader and you had to compete against 12th graders in everything? How often do you think you would win? Or maybe you grew up with a dad and you played a lot with him. Sooner or later hopefully you’ve realized that your dad let you win most of the time when you were young because he loves you, but he could have probably beaten you every time.

Well, as discouraging as it might be to have to compete against an opponent that is bigger and stronger than you, I guarantee you it’s not as discouraging and defeating as it would be if you ever had God as an opponent. As strange as that possibility sounds, it’s exactly what James 4:6 warns against. Son, one of the deep truths about God that you need to understand is that God hates pride. He HATES it. Pride is thinking we’re better than we really are or that we’re more important than we really are. One of the reasons pride is so dangerous is because we can begin to think that we’re better than God, that somehow we are bigger or smarter or more important than He is. Another reason pride is so dangerous is because we can begin to think we are more important than other people, which causes us to mistreat other people.

If you have siblings, then you understand this. How often does an older sibling pick on a younger sibling? How often are they mean to them? Why do they think they can get away with that? Because they’re bigger and stronger and they think that makes them more important. Their pride causes them to mistreat other people. And when a parent sees brothers and sisters mistreating each other, they step in and put an end to it, because they’re bigger and stronger than everyone.

Pride gets us in big trouble with God, because God hates pride and how pride causes us to mistreat other people. But it’s more than just God getting angry at us when we’re prideful towards other people. The Bible says that God will actively work against you when you’re prideful. When you’re prideful, James 4:6 says that God is actively planning your downfall. That’s not good. In fact, that should scare you, because you never ever want God as an enemy. Let me spell it out really clearly: when God is your opponent, God wins. Every time.

So don’t be prideful. You have to intentionally root out pride in your own life. When you feel the temptation to pick on someone or be mean to someone because you’re bigger than them, don’t. If you do, if your pride ever causes you to mistreat someone, then God, who is bigger and stronger than you, just might start picking on you. And He wins, every time.

QUESTION: How does it make you feel when someone picks on you or mistreats you because they are bigger and stronger than you? Would you ever want God to treat you that way?