It is often leveled against the God of the Bible that He is petty and prideful since He requires of His creation that they worship and praise Him. Apparently God needs His ego tickled with the praises and adoration of those that have been created in His image. It is true, that God demands worship and praise. Surely, as the creator of all things, and the giver and sustainer of life He is worthy of such praise, worship and adoration. But is God prideful for demanding such response from His creation?
I think we can answer that question with an emphatic NO! Pride is usually associated with an inflated view of oneself. Pride often involves thinking of oneself to be greater than they actually are, to have a distorted and false impression of one’s own worth. However, such a description cannot be applied to God since when God declares His greatness to all creation, He is correct in His estimation of Himself. God does not have an inaccurate view of who He is and what He is worthy of. As the author and giver of life, He is worthy of worship and praise since every breath we breath is from His loving and sovereign hand. For that, mankind should give thanks. When God declares His power and might, this is not a prideful and self inflated description of Himself, but rather, it is an expression of God’s great power and majesty. To not acknowledge that God is worthy of worship is a great sin upon which God reveals His wrath towards. Just as the book of Romans proclaims:
“For the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So that they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” -Romans 1:18-23
Indeed, God is rightly angered when His creation worships the creation instead of the Creator who is blessed forever. Men are more willing to exchange the truth for a lie so as to indulge in their own unrighteousness. No, God is not “prideful” to demand worship since He knows who He is. It is sinful for man to not worship God, but rather worship that which is less than God; for to do so is to live a lie. Indeed it is an exemplification of pride when man has a false and lofty perception of the created order and himself, and then proceeds to worship that which is not God.
