What is so bad about pride? In our language, pride is often viewed as negative. Something to avoid. When asking this question, Microsoft Copilot answers:
Pride becomes harmful when it turns into arrogance, blinds us to our faults, and damages relationships. Healthy pride motivates growth, but unchecked pride can isolate and corrupt.
An overview of the Greek terms for pride, proud, and boasting provides a clear understanding of this human characteristic. Take for instance boasting. One Greek term is alazoneia and refers to bragging. It only occurs twice in the New Testament. However, another term, kauchaomai, is also translated as boasting. It occurs 37 times, with two instances in James. The rest occur in Paul’s epistles:
But as it is, you boast (kauchaomai) in your arrogance; all such boasting (kauchaomai) is evil. (Jas 4:16-1)
God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are, that no man should boast (kauchaomai) before God. But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts (kauchaomai), boast (kauchaomai) in the Lord.” (1 Cor 1:28-31)
Paul was quoting from Jeremiah 9:
Thus says the Lord, “Let not a wise man boast (halal) of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast (halal) of his might, let not a rich man boast (halal) of his riches; but let him who boasts (halal) boast (halal) of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things, “declares the Lord. (Jer 9:23-24)
The Hebrew term translated boast is halal. It occurs 168 times in 148 verses in the Old Testament. Halal is often translated as praise, or glory.
A second Hebrew term is barak. The term, barak, occurs 330 times in 289 verses in the Old Testament. Most often it is translated to bless or praise. However, the first occurrence where it is translated boast in the NASB is Deut 29:19-20:
And it shall be when he hears the words of this curse, that he will boast (barak), saying, ‘I have peace though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart in order to destroy the watered land with the dry.‘ (Deut 29:19-20)
Moses warns Israel of the blessings and curses they will receive once they enter the land, depending on their obedience to God. He warns that those who say that they have conquered the land, taking credit when they should be giving the glory to God, will be cursed. This warning occurs repeatedly.
David wrote:
Some boast (barak) in chariots, and some in horses; But we will boast (barak) in the name of the Lord, our God.
(Ps 20:7)
As sons of God, we need to be a proud people. The object of our pride must be God and not self. Regardless of how we attain our station in life, we must give God the glory.
November 12, 2025 @ 10:35 pm
The person with pride is extremely interested in how their image looks both to themselves and to others. This person contemplates, How important they are–or–How insignificant they are. Either view of the self is pride. It is excessive self-regard, whether a positive or negative opinion.
A way of picturing this excessive self-regard is to see toxic pride as a coin with the coin’s two sides commonly called heads and tails. The heads side of the coin is arrogance. The tails side of the coin is self-pity. The coin goes everywhere with the person in a pocket, frequently fingered. Instead of a coin, let a photograph of something a person is proud of represent pride. The person decides to put the photo through an enlarger. It is magnified, it is made much of. This may be derserved or not deserved viewed objectively, but is valid in the opinion of the person in our illustraion. Good pride or bad pride magnifies what it beholds along corresponding positive or negative lines. You can cheer for a hero and it’s healthy. You magnify them with praise. You can cheer or jeer at yourself, proclaiming that you are a wonderful person or a dirty rat. It’s usually wrong either side, but it would be a matter of excessive pride, magnifying arrogance or self-pity.
So, pride can be good. It can be more often harmful.
November 25, 2025 @ 2:11 pm
Thanks, Paul. I was focusing on the Term, pride, in the positive and biblical sense of the term. You are correct that self-pride is almost always negative. This would be the pride of the soul (psyche) absence of the spirit. While spiritual pride is focused on what God has done through us and others, hence, pride in God.