What is the meaning of diva in the Bible?
Introduction
The word diva originated from the Latin word divus, meaning god.
Diva is the feminine form of the word, meaning goddess.
Diva can also refer to a person or trait that is divine or godlike.
In modern usage, it typically refers to a highly talented and celebrated female singer or performer. However, diva has an arrogant, prideful, and self-glorification undertone.
A diva has an I-don’t-care attitude.
She dresses the way she wants in the name of freedom; she doesn’t submit to authority and feels she is better than others.
All these traits are the direct opposite of what being Christ-like is about.
The Bible encourages believers to be humble, surrender their will to God’s will and love others like they love others.
Here are some of the things a diva represents in this modern age according to the Bible:
The Meanings of Diva in the Bible – The Biblical Meaning of Diva
Pride and arrogance
A typical diva is proud. She is truly talented. However, she is puffed up and arrogant about her abilities.
She looks down on others and thinks less of them.
Pride and self-glorification are dangerous sins that attract great consequences.
Firstly, the Bible says God hates pride.
“Behold, I am against you, O most haughty one!” says the Lord God of hosts; “For your day has come, the time that I will punish you” (Jeremiah 50:31).
Pride attracts God’s wrath and punishment. Secondly, a proud person is brought down by God. “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6).
Two people that suffered instant judgment from God for their pride and arrogance were Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon in the Old Testament, and King Herod in the New Testament.
Both men ascribed God’s glory to themselves.
They neglected God and believed their achievements were due to their wisdom and power.
They both suffered the consequences.
While Nebuchadnezzar became like the beast of the field like the field for zero years, Herod was eaten alive by worms.
The Bible encourages believers to have a gentle spirit.
We must be humble and treat people with love, kindness, and respect, irrespective of our status, talent, or financial state.
We must acknowledge that even though we put in hard work to develop our skills and talents, God is the giver of all things.
We must appreciate God as the giver of gifts and grace to succeed and prosper.
Rebellious spirit
Divas have the boss-lady mentality.
They believe they are independent and queens of their kingdom.
They are in charge of their lives and cannot submit to authority.
This was the sin of Lucifer, now Satan, when he was still in heaven.
He believed he was too good to be under God. He felt he deserved the same level of worship and loyalty from angels like God.
Therefore, he organized a coup with other angels to topple God from His throne and install himself as the head.
That was a typical behavior of a diva in today’s world. But what was the result of Satan’s rebellion?
He was booted out of heaven and sent into the darkest abyss.
The danger of rebellion is it is rarely perpetrated by one person.
A person fills the head of simple-minded people with their idealogy, incites them against constituted authority, and makes them fall victim to their foolishness.
The Bible encourages the submission of authority on every level.
For example, Exodus 20:12 commands children to honor their parents, Ephesians 5:21 encourages couples to submit to one another, and Romans 13:1 commands us to be subject to the governing authorities.
As such, rebellion is not of the Lord and must be discarded.
Excessively self-focused
Self-centeredness and selfishness are also one of the traits of a diva.
Selfishness can degenerate into other more sinister evil, even death.
One of the people that exhibited this trait in the Bible was Jezebel and her husband, Ahab.
Ahab, who was king and had great wealth, including lands, cattle, precious stones, etc., typical of a king in Bible days, suddenly started eyeing Naboth’s vineyard.
He told Naboth he wanted to buy his vineyard and convert it into a vegetable garden. However, Naboth refused because it was a family inheritance.
Ahab became sad and reported the situation to Jezebel, his evil wife, who devised a plan that led to Naboth’s death, and they took over the poor man’s land.
Self-centeredness mixed with lust was also what made David take Bethsheba and kill her husband.
Here’s what the Bible says about selfish and self-focused people. “But to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.” (Romans 2:8)
However, the Bible encourages us to “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3).
The Bible emphasizes the need to regard others more than ourselves.
We must put others’ interests into consideration before doing anything. We must not be blinded by ambition, lust, and love for power, fame, and money to the extent that we can do anything to achieve them.
The serpent’s lie
The serpent told the greatest lie ever in the Graden of Eden.
God had forbidden Adam and Eve not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil, or they would die. However, the serpent deceived Eve, saying, “Your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God” (Genesis 3:5).
Eve ate and gave to Adam.
Their eyes were truly opened, but they never attained godhood. Instead, they fell.
They lost authority, God’s presence, and the Garden of Eden.
This same lie is the core of the diva ideology: the idea that one can be a god or a goddess on Earth.
That is the same lie the serpent told that led to the fall of man and the sufferings we are all partaking in today.
Therefore, the diva idealogy or mentality is not inspired by God because we know, according to scripture, that there is non like God.
He is supreme and sovereign.
No power can match Him; every power is under Him because He is the creator of all things and beings, seen and unseen.
Defining one’s journey and destiny
Because divas believe they are the bosses of their lives, they choose to define their paths, journeys, and destinies.
They believe they have the power to become who and what they want.
This sounds cool and motivating but is against God’s Word and plan.
We are not meant to choose our journeys or destinies but align to God’s will, plan, and purpose for our lives.
A diva might follow their desires and dreams and not God’s plan and still attain fame and fortune. However, not all blessings come with joy and peace of mind.
Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.” Some are haunted by their successes and depend heavily on drugs and other harmful habits to get by the day and steal some sleep at night.
It is crucial to know that it’s only God’s blessings that do not have sorrow because young girls take these divas as their role models.
They believe everything they say and act like them.
Unfortunately, they do not know what some of these divas put on social media is what they want people to think about them.
They usually do not know how they cry themselves to sleep everything or the price they pay for their fame.
Temperamental
A diva is known for being temperamental.
They usually have emotional outburst episodes.
They might appear sweet in one moment and explode the next minute, a behavior closely related to bipolar disorder.
To spot this behavior, pay close attention to when they are not on stage and when they are performing.
It seems like they are two different people.
Although it may look like perfect acting or being in character, it is not in most cases. It seems like a switch between two personalities.
This behavior cascades into their personal lives.
They easily lose control of their emotions, flaring up and hurling abusive words at people close to them while maintaining a different personality onscreen.
Outbursts of anger or wrath are one of the works of flesh evident in a sinner’s life, according to Galatians 5:19-21.
An entitled mentality and attitude
A diva has an entitled mentality.
This is quite difficult to point out because they are usually in the spotlight and enjoy the wealth of being creative, talented, and famous. But wealthy people can be entitled because humans are ravaged by greed and insatiable quest for more of what they have.
An example of someone who fits the description of a diva in the Bible is Jezebel.
She was the queen.
She had almost everything she wanted.
She was in the spotlight.
People bowed to her, but she was not satisfied.
She and her husband, King Ahab, were plagued by greed and an entitlement mentality.
Despite living in the palace and having one of the best and most fruitful vineyards, Ahab wanted to take the one that belonged to Naboth.
When Naboth refused Ahab’s proposition to sell his family land to him, he reported the matter to his entitled wife, Jezebel, who schemed a plan to eliminate Naboth, forcefully take the land from his family, and give it to her husband.
Divas believe they should be on top of the world and everyone should be under them.
Because they feel they are better than everyone else, no one deserves good things but them. So, they can do anything to get what belongs to someone else.
Pride alone was not Lucifer’s flaw. He felt entitled to God’s throne, worship, and glory.
That was why he attempted a forceful takeover but was disgraced and damned for life.
Those who decide to take this same route always end up in shame and demotion.
Attack on the marriage institution
Arrogance and pride in divas always seep into their views about relationships and marriages.
They do not understand the concept of submission in marriage as proposed in the Bible.
They cannot understand why a superstar and successful boss lady would be submissive to any man.
This mindset makes them have terrible relationships and unsuccessful marriages because God had fashioned a man to love a woman and a woman to submit to him.
That is a divine arrangement ingrained in the fabric of our being.
“Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:22). “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her” (Ephesians 5:25).
Because most of these divas cannot keep a man in their lives because of sheer stubbornness and arrogance, they attack and demonize the marriage institution.
They discourage young ladies from submitting to a man or entering into marriage by pushing the demonic agenda that they are enough and are complete by themselves.
This negates God’s plan that says it’s not good for man to be alone and the power in unity, especially between a married couple.
An attack against what God established is an attack on God Himself.
Therefore, a typical diva is against God and serves the devil, the chief antagonist of God’s ways on earth.
Can a Christian be a diva?
The original meaning of the word diva is a goddess.
A goddess is a deity and a supernatural being.
This is not far from what the Bible says about the children of God.
Psalm 82:6 says, “I said, “You are gods, And all of you are children of the Most High.”
We are gods and goddesses because we have a deposit of divinity in our DNA as sons and daughters of God. However, mixing this with arrogance and sinful behaviors makes being a diva ungodly.
As believers, we must be humble, kind, and loving.
These godly traits alienate a diva as she is a direct opposite.
Therefore, believers, especially young Christian women, are encouraged to choose godly women as their role models and not internet sensations or celebrities.
They should strive to become a Proverbs 31 woman.
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David Akeju is a Christian writer who believes in the transformational power of God’s Word. His articles and books have been published on global platforms, and thousands of lives have been touched. He works with pastors and ministers, churches and ministries, and brands.