Sin's Root: Pride

Pride is the root of almost all the sin in my life.

I'm willing to bet that pride is the root of almost all of your sin, too.

See, pride causes sin because it causes us to disregard the laws of God to serve ourself, it causes us to glorify ourselves rather than the Almighty.  Pride says, "I'm worth more than God" or "I can make the rules."  In fact, I'm having a hard time thinking of a time when I sinned that didn't involve me thinking, "Screw this rule, I'll do what I want."

In the book Killjoys: The Seven Deadly Sins, Jason Meyer says: "Pride is a cosmic crime... It is also 'the essence of all sin.'... What makes pride so singularly repulsive to God is the way that pride 'contends for supremacy' with God Himself.  Pride sets itself in opposition to God."  Later on the same page he says, "Other sins lead the sinner further away from God, but pride is particularly heinous in that it attempts to elevate the sinner above God."

Psalm 36 describes pride and the proud this way:

"There is no fear of God
before his eyes.
For in his own eyes he flatters himself
too much to detect or hate his sin.
The words of his mouth are wicked and deceitful;
he has ceased to be wise and to do good." Psalm 36:1b-3

Pride causes us to lose the fear of God, which is the beginning of all knowledge.  When pride overwhelms us we lose wisdom because pride keeps us from seeing things as they really are.  God is sovereign over all; if we think otherwise we are not seeing the world as it is.  Pride, in its worse state, believes that we have sovereignty over something that is clearly God's.

Pride causes us to lose the ability to even detect or hate sin.  Obviously our ability to hate sin goes first.  We don't hate sin because we see sin's ability to please us and pride says that we are worthy of that even if the sin is in direct opposition of God.  We lose the ability to detect sin because pride eventually fools us into believing that we deserve our prideful place in our own minds.  We begin to start espousing the virtues of "whatever makes you happy" or "whatever floats your boat" and "self-esteem" to the point where we don't even notice that some self-pleasure is sinful.

Eventually the treason of the prideful will end.  Will your prideful treason end now while forgiveness from God is still an option on the table?  Or will your prideful treason end when God's forgiveness is no longer an option?

Ask God to help you see more of Him until the idea of pride seems as foolish as it really is.  Ask God to magnify Himself in your eyes rather than yourself in your own eyes.  Attack pride in yourself wherever you see it and watch as other sins dissolve at the root, too.

Do battle with sin's root today.