Pride produces an attitude that God hates and will not tolerate in His people. This attitude arises in the Laodicean era from feeling rich and increased with goods and in need of nothing. Pride affects both the rich and the poor and leads individuals to reject authority over their lives. It fosters self-sufficiency and a subconscious sense that God is no longer needed. People with this attitude choose their own ways rather than God's ways and approach worship with formality rather than a humble heart. Such an attitude turns sacrifices and services into lifeless external forms that God rejects. Pride is sin and finds its origin with satan who regarded himself as supreme. It resides in the heart and fights to defend itself against correction from family members or God. Pride expresses itself in an attitude of superiority toward others and leads to unfair judgments and contempt. It resists submission in marriage and causes individuals to disobey God's instructions on how to live. Pride also prompts some to focus on technical proofs of new teachings while neglecting the weightier matters of overcoming and conversion. Two tests reveal the presence of pride. The first is how a person views and treats others. The second is how well a person obeys the commandments of God. Humility is the opposite of pride and requires esteeming others better than oneself while receiving instruction with a teachable mind. God dwells with the one who is poor and of a contrite spirit and who trembles at His word. Fasting helps subdue pride by reminding a person of human limitations and the need for God. Through humility a person can submit to God and allow conversion to produce a new being fit for the God family.

When pride comes, then comes shame, but with the humble is wisdom. Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honor is humility. At the very top of the list of things the Lord hates is a proud look, suggesting haughtiness, arrogance, and a feeling of superiority. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. God's displeasure with the Laodicean church stems from their arrogant, self-satisfied assumption that they are rich and have need of nothing. The key to regeneration of this mindset lies in acknowledgment of neediness, helplessness, dependency, and an admission of having failed. The interrelationship between humility and wisdom on the one hand and pride and stupidity or foolishness on the other is a recurring theme throughout the Bible.

Wisdom and genuine humility go hand in hand but so do pride and shame. This connection is similar to what happens when the proper fear of God is neglected. What will inevitably be produced by pride will always be damaging perhaps not immediately but certainly down the road. Humility comes from a clear though painful recognition of who and what we are in relation to the sovereign God. The greater the respect for God's sovereignty the humbler the responses become both toward Him and toward fellow man. As humility grows realization comes of just how much every word and deed matter and this creates a desire to navigate life like Christ who was the epitome of wisdom. The flip side is that when too high a view of self is taken God's sovereignty loses its gravity and choices are made based on personal wisdom rather than God's. Consequences may be skirted for a while but the fruit of pride is always shame. Admonition is given not to be wise in one's own eyes. There is more hope for a fool than for a man who is wise in his own eyes. By pride comes nothing but strife but with the well advised is wisdom.