Last week, in part two of this series of articles, we looked at Acts 8, which highlighted some characteristics of Phillip and Simon, believers in Jesus Christ. If we wanted to capture their overall attributes in one word each, we could say that Simon was proud and Phillip was humble.
Pride isn’t just limited to bragging. It is an attitude that says:
1. I am or should be the centre of things.
2. I can manage everything on my own.
Bragging is a symptom of pride, but pride itself is much deeper and manifests itself in various ways. Even very insecure people who would never be caught dead bragging can demonstrate an amazing amount of pride.
Humility is the opposite of this attitude. Contrary to popular opinion, it’s not self-deprecating. Humility is simply living in the truth about ourselves, and the truth is that I am not God. I’m not the centre. I have needs. I have things I can’t control, and I am dependent on God. That’s humility.
The Bible states: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 1 Peter 5:5. That’s exactly what occurs in Acts 8. There is clear indication that God’s hand was on Phillip and that He was dissatisfied with Simon’s arrogance. Our attitudes reveal our heart. We should ask ourselves, Where’s my heart? Is God opposing me because of pride, or is He accepting me as I come to Him in humility?
The sin of pride can also keep us in captivity. We see that even after his conversion, Simon was still in bondage to this sin. Verse 23 says: “I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.” When a sin has us captive, if that area of our life goes unsurrendered, we can end up outside of the blessings of God. We must, therefore, continually check the condition of our hearts before God.
Our motive as well as our method of receiving from God needs to be right. In verses 18 - 19, it says: When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money and said: “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” This was Peter’s response to Simon’s request: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money!” (Acts 8:20).
“This is expressive of the horror and indignation of Peter at the base offer of Simon. It is not to be understood as an imprecation (curse) on Simon. The main idea is the apostle’s contempt for the ‘money,’ as if he regarded it as of no value.” (Barnes)
Simon seems to default to the way he used to conduct business in the ‘sorcery trade’, which was, if you want something, you buy it. We could say, how could Simon do such a thing? Offer to pay a “price” to God? All that “he” could give - the silver, and the gold, and the cattle on a thousand hills - already belonged to God. Furthermore, the abilities of God and the things that He empowers us to do come from His hand as free gifts.
Are we any different from Simon? Is what he did unique to him or only very few others? There are various ways that we may attempt to do what Simon did, especially in an age where there are many.