There is a crucial thing about God’s character: He is highly merciful. He forgives. He understands our flawed condition. He understands why human beings betray and commit crimes. But there is one thing that God does not accept in the human condition: pride and hypocrisy.

“But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6).

The proud only receives resistance from God. Heaven is shut to them, because they commit the same sin as Lucifer, pride; the first in history. In fact, Lucifer’s pride made him think he was better than God, and this sin had no forgiveness. So he became Satan because of this sin. Jesus said that Satan was a murderer from the beginning; that is, he comes to destroy, and there is no truth in him (John 8:44). Lies are the mother of hypocrisy and makes the proud have an appearance of one thing, whilst being another.

Jesus had to deal with an emperor, beggars, foreigners, that is, all kinds of people, but He only resisted one type: the religious ones in His time. And He condemned them in advance because He knew they could not be saved from their hypocrisy.

“Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the Lord, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:7).

This merciful God had no way to forgive the hypocrites. The religious thought they were better than Jesus. They looked down their nose at Him. This is important because we are not exempt from this sin. Every human being has this root of pride within themselves. In the case of the Pharisees, the type of pride was religious. But there are several types of pride (for example: social, appearance, or intellectual). And those who say they are not proud are already proud.

But of course, being aware of your human condition, you will fight these poisons so they never grow. Don’t be a hypocrite, don’t be a pretender. If you allow these roots of evil to sprout and bear fruit, there will probably be no chance for you. Thus, you need to humble yourself before God.

“Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up” (James 4:9:10).

Check out the entire message in the video above.