Proverbs 13:10 - Meaning and Application

Foolish pride is the main maker of trouble. If you want to know where fights and quarrels come from, they spring from this bitter root. Other sinful desires may help cause conflict, such as anger, envy, and greed, but pride has the biggest part in it. Pride is bold enough to stir up division on its own and does not need much help.

Pride makes people unable to bear disagreement, whether in what they think or in what they want. It also makes them resent rivalry, dislike being ignored, and take offense at anything that seems like disrespect. Pride makes people unwilling to give way, because they imagine they are surely right. That is why there are quarrels among relatives and neighbors, between nations and kingdoms, and even in churches and Christian groups. People refuse to forgive because they are proud.

But those who are humble and peaceable are wise and sensible. Those who are willing to ask for advice and listen to it, and who consult their own consciences, their Bibles, their ministers, and their friends, act wisely. They do not rush ahead carelessly. In this, as in everything else, they are wise when they lower themselves, yield, and give way in order to keep peace and prevent quarrels.