The Bible tells us not to think more highly of ourselves than we should (Ro 12:3). What it doesn’t say is, make sure others don’t think more highly of themselves than they should. God has the humbling department all sewed up. He doesn’t need you there. Besides, we have more than enough work to do on ourselves. There’s no need to pile any more onto our workloads. Our opinions of self -and certainly of others- are to be taken with sober judgment. They’re to be moderate, not leaning towards extremes.
The problem with being a pride policeman is the risk of falling into hypocrisy. One might argue that the preoccupation with checking on another’s pride is a prideful stance itself. You can find fault without being a fault finder, but a fault finder always finds fault. One can’t properly discern what’s prideful in another if they are prideful themselves (Mt 7:5). As long as we’re human, and Jesus has yet to make his second advent, we’ll remain imperfect.
A person, however, who fearlessly recognizes, addresses, and makes a sincere effort toward correcting their own short comings (as opposed to projecting them on others) is fit to appropriately asses sinful behavior, such as pride (1Co 11:31; 2Tim 3:16). We’re obligated to correct, in love, not fault find (Lev 19:17; Eph 4:15). Loving correction, according to God’s word is sometimes necessary. We may need to accept the wise counsel of someone being led by the Spirit to correct, rebuke, or teach us what is right (Pr 11:14; 15:22; 27:6; Jas 1:5; 1Co 11:31). And our response to biblical correction will show whether we’re truly caught up in pride or not (Pr 12:15).
Whether intentional or not, perception of others is always effected by perception of self (Ge 4:1-12). What is often mislabeled as pride is not pride at all. It’s often the result of a person thinking lowlier of themselves (their abilities, accomplishments, gifts, physical characteristics, etc.) than they ought to, that makes rich soil for planting seeds of jealousy and resentment of others. Distorted perception of self will cause one to misjudge another’s motives or intent. It will lead them to call a person who is striving for perfection, someone who thinks they’re perfect. It’ll lead them to search for another’s wrongs, instead of appreciating what’s right. It’ll hinder them, and prevent them to serve God freely as they’ve been called to do (2Co 3:17).
It’s not unusual for children of Cain to throw their own insecurity on others; especially others who are apparently enjoying the benefits they don’t believe they can have for themselves (or even someone they love). To fittingly bind this evil, divisive spirit, we must identify it, and call it by its name: jealously (jealous- adj. 2. Hostile toward a rival or one believed to enjoy an advantage [m-w.com]). Don’t buy into the Tempter’s lie of jealousy! God is not a respecter of person. What He’ll do for another, He’ll surely do for you (Ro 2:11; Mt 25:14-30; 1Co 3:3; 2Co 12:20; Gal 5:20). If we are to live lives pleasing to the Lord, these seeds of envy and jealousy must be uprooted before we become murderous descendants of Cain, whether in thought, speech or deed.
