The First Will Be Last: A Biblical Perspective On Narcissism (Counseling Series)

by D.C. Robertsson

Together these Hebrew words and their definitions describe a person with a prideful insolence and a presumptuousness that no one will rule over him and no one will tell him what to do. He tells others what to do - up to, and including, God. Failing to get his way results in an anger or wrath that overflows and spills over. It is an arrogance with fury - an underlying anger arising from not being in full control of what has happened or is happening – an underlying anger which might occasionally erupt.

In their pride, they felt that their choice should be everyone’s choice, and that their agenda should be everyone’s agenda. This is a classic narcissistic maneuver.

Jesus implies that vows had morphed from the original intent of making promises directly to God into making statements and using the “things of God” as the weight behind those statements. Vows to God had devolved into the equivalent of “I swear on my mother’s grave.” The point is that in their obsession with money, the Pharisees had gone from simple personal promises to God which would be seriously kept because of God’s personal majesty, to using merely things of God to validate the truth of a statement, which focused on the monetary value of the things of God.

The problem with narcissists wielding the powerful tool of lying is that even if you develop a good “deception” filter, narcissists are still able to use the tool in manipulating others as part of their fight to dominate you.