| MAY 1, 2025 -- Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:18
Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Romans 12:16
And your Lord says, Call upon Me, I will answer you, surely those who are too proud for My service shall soon enter hell abased. Quran 40:60
Pride is probably the sin that is most difficult for us to recognize as one of our defects, although we might more easily recognize it in others. One of the seven deadly sins in Christian Theology, it is defined as an excessive love of oneself and a refusal to acknowledge God’s sovereignty, leading to self- importance and a disregard for others.
Akin to Pride is Self- righteousness, a belief that one’s own beliefs, associations, and practices are morally or ethically better than those of others. The Bible, in many places, warns against such belief. In the Book of Proverbs we read: Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him. Indeed, it is all too easy to fall into the trap of believing in one’s own superiority.
It is generally true that all of us have faults, some of them more serious than others. It is also true that most of us are much better at detecting the faults in others than in realizing our own faults. Robert Burns summed this up nicely with his “o wad some pow’r the giftie gie us to see oursels as ithers see us! Yet there is a partial solution to this problem. It is called discernment, which can be used to find the solution to many problems. In the case of determining what we ourselves are really like, and how we may appear to others it means taking the time to analyze your feelings and to, as some people put it, find yourself. Be honest with yourself. If you find that you have been unduly proud or self-righteous confess your faults to God and ask him to give you humility. I’ll admit that this is not easy. Pride is perhaps the most difficult sin to bring yourself to recognize and one of the most difficult to correct once you have recognized its presence.
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