According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind...
The point is that each person's pride is in competition with everyone else's pride... Two of a trade never agree... Pride is essential competitive--is competitive by its very nature--while the other vices are competitive only, so to speak, by accident. Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others... It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest...
Take it with money. Greed will certainly make a man want money, for the sake of a better house, better holidays, better things to eat and drink. But only up to a point. What is it that makes a man with [$500,000] a year anxious to get [$1,000,000] a year? It is not the greed for more pleasure. [$500,000] will give all the luxuries that any man can really enjoy. It is Pride--the wish to be richer than some other rich man, and (still more) the wish for power. For, of course, power is what Pride really enjoys...
The Christians are right: it is Pride which has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began...
A proud man is always looking down on things and people...
It is purely spiritual: consequently it is far more subtle and deadly... For pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense.
- C. S. Lewis
The point is that each person's pride is in competition with everyone else's pride... Two of a trade never agree... Pride is essential competitive--is competitive by its very nature--while the other vices are competitive only, so to speak, by accident. Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others... It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest...
Take it with money. Greed will certainly make a man want money, for the sake of a better house, better holidays, better things to eat and drink. But only up to a point. What is it that makes a man with [$500,000] a year anxious to get [$1,000,000] a year? It is not the greed for more pleasure. [$500,000] will give all the luxuries that any man can really enjoy. It is Pride--the wish to be richer than some other rich man, and (still more) the wish for power. For, of course, power is what Pride really enjoys...
The Christians are right: it is Pride which has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began...
A proud man is always looking down on things and people...
It is purely spiritual: consequently it is far more subtle and deadly... For pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense.
- C. S. Lewis
3 comments:
If pride is in all of us, then all have the sin nature of the devil. There is no self-cure for this pride of life. The only solution God has for this nature is to have it burn continually in the lake of fire which he hath prepared for the devil and his angels.
God hath made provision for humanity to escape from the lake of fire by sending his only begotten Son into the world to save all that can be saved if they put their trust in his Son, Jesus Christ.
Friends, God doesn't condemn you & don't want to condemn you to hell. Hell is for the devil & his angels. But if you reject God's only salvation (Yeshua), you condemn yourself to hell, not God. If you think you like hell fire just step on hot coal & see how long you can stand the heat. Simple scientific test anyone can do.
Preacher
The Pride of Satan vs Humility of Jesus
Pride of Satan
Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. (Isaiah 14:11) [This is symbolic language saying Satan has lost the battle with God]
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! (Isaiah 14:12) [Lucifer is light, but after he fell he became the devil. It is Satan who weaken the nations. By deceiving people to worship him, they incur God's wrath]
For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: (Isaiah 14:13) [here we see his Pride, he wanted to be above God who had created him for specific purpose]
>Jesus and his humility<
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2: 5-11)
In this passage, believers are admonished to have the mind of Christ. Jesus obeyed his Father's will even unto death as the passage tells us. In dying he was afterwards exalted & given a name that is above every name that every knee should bow & every tongue should confess to him as being worthy of praise.
I praise you Yeshua for being lord of my life. Fore defeating the works of darkness in my life. You are worthy of all honor & glory.
Preacher
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