Pride, the deadly sin.

Pride is known as “Superbia” in Latin and is said to be the Father of all mortal sin. Scratch any sin you know, any that can be committed in this world, and beneath it, you will find Pride. This is the possessing an esteemed sense of importance. Having a strong sense of entitlement that forgets Gratitude and more importantly, God’s Grace. It focuses on the product of the journey of life and not the journey itself. It is a sin of self-importance that makes one think that they even have the right to question Supreme authority. Not just the laws of the land but also, the Laws of God.

Why is Pride a deadly sin?

It is the sin of rebellion that gives one the right to rebel against God’s way for us to live. Ultimately resulting in the committing of various sins. From the previous articles, we have learned that deadly sins are gateways that result in the committing of several other sins. Moreover, Pride soils the soul so much that the Holy Spirit will want nothing to do with the committer of this sin. It is a deadly sin because you need two things to sin in this world, one of them being Pride. The other is ignorance but that is only excusable to so few sane minds, like children.
It is only pride that can give you the necessary nerve to put your needs and desires before anyone else and before God. Allow Me to digress here for a minute and opine that God probably hates this sin most of all, most specifically, God the Father. It is an opinion, but I base my argument on this fact. I have never read anywhere in the Bible, anywhere at all, where God the Father punishes Angel or man, more harshly than when having committed a sin rooted in pride. In most cases, when He destroyed man for obvious disobedience, he always destroyed the body, giving the soul a chance to be saved. But for pride, He banished many from Heaven. Meaning that even if these committers of this sin were to be left alive and breathing on earth, their souls were already decidedly lost and banished to the abyss. They were already dead while alive…and I see no worse punishment, in my opinion.

So why is it a dangerous sin to possess in your life?

1.) God hates it, and you should too.

[Proverbs 8:13-To fear the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.]

Wise men become wise because they fear the Supreme body of knowledge and power, it is also written in the Bible that this is so. And if He detests pride, the wise will also have to do the same. It is not a matter of asking “why” to some of these things in life. Because His word is Supreme without question. And for true believers, that is that and it should be enough.

2.) Because it breaks Jesus’ commandments of Love.

[1 Corinthians 13:4-“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.”]

Love is basically how we will all live in heaven. I am pretty sure you have an idea of how the experience of hell will be. Whatever version you have in your mind, one thing is for sure, there is no Love there. But heaven is full of it. How do I know? Because the physical manifestation of it lives there. Jesus. Now, my opinion regarding His commandment was that He intended that we bring heaven on earth through Love. But it takes hard work to do. Work only very few are ready to put in. In this world, it’s far much easier to Love selfishly without having to drain yourself selflessly with Love. Isolating oneself like that opens doors of all kinds of sin to one’s Spirit. Pride is one of them. This only makes sense…. where there is pride, there is no Love. And Jesus is Love…also He is God. Living in Pride means living without Jesus, consequently living without God.

3.) Because it blocks you from your blessings.

[James 4:6-7- But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
“God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”]
God blesses those He chooses, and He chooses them according to His standards, not the standards you set for Him. He isn’t a fan of raising the proud.

4.) It’s a general rule in life, the proud must always be humbled.

[Proverbs 16:18-Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.]
The Proud fall easily. People will be against them and will take advantage of their haughty nature. It never ends well for the proud.

[5.) Because it is a deadly sin.]

All deadly sins are gateways to more sin. Once one has pride, it is very easy to commit every other sin in the book. Because, as mentioned before, pride is the Father of all sin. If you have Pride, rules, commandments, and laws do not matter. You do whatever you want. This means that sinning will not be out of the question if it is what you want to do.
As St. Augustine once said, “It was Pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men, angels.”

So how do I get out of Pride?

By following these 5 steps of redemption.

1.) Know God.

You have to build your relationship with God to Know Him. Like really Know Him. Understand that it has been His Grace upon your life that has given you whatever you think you possess and should be Proud of. Because I guarantee that whatever it is, you wouldn’t have achieved it if he never allowed it, unless it wasn’t from Him but from somewhere else.
The more you know God, the more you understand His Omniscience, Omnipresence, and Omnipotence. How can a meager man be any more perfect than a perfect God? Acknowledging Him in your successes is the sure first step in killing off pride within you.

2.) Know yourself.

I’m going to go less spiritual, and more psychological here. It is from research and observation that I noticed that the proud are the most insecure. Either they came from a trauma they have never been able to get over or they never received enough Love and/or attention when younger and would like people to be in awe of them in their later stages of life. With this realization, it was so clear why this sin, in particular, crept into such people in the first place. It is a necessary coping mechanism to feel enough when before you didn’t feel like it.

That said, there is much more to this story, but this is the general gist of it. Being so, therefore, it only makes sense for you to meditate in a quiet place alone and be brave enough to dig deep into your subconscious. Face your traumas in both childhood and adulthood alike. Write them all down and deal with them. Get Above them, learn, and grow from them and you will notice that your emotional and spiritual awareness of both yourself and people comes easily. You will notice you start” seeing” people as if it was the first time. You see their Spirit, what they stand for, what they fight for, why they do what they do, and who they are when they talk to you. It is like having the ability to see people in the first, second, and third person. Seeing them like this makes it easier for you to be kind to them. A sign of true humility.

3.) Think less of yourself and more of the world.

Walk around your neighborhood, just looking, and observing people. Seeing their struggle, their hidden stories of suffering, watching them hustle. Being openly aware of seeing this will create empathy in you. This is the most natural way of understanding people. Understanding their lives and different point of view without judgment will bring about humility. Helping such people, being kind to these people without expectation, and spreading Love unconditionally will be an act of humility. But it cannot happen organically if you never saw the soul in a man and saw just the man.

Galatians 6:3- If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important.

Think of yourself less. Pride starts creeping in, the moment all you think about is yourself, your problems, and your life. Thinking of yourself as a person worthy of attention only gives room to someone thinking that all that matters are things happening in their lives. Besides it being a turn-off in every new encounter with anyone, it is also a gateway to pride. Once you can kill off by habitual, intentional thought of others and their problems.

4.) Give more than you take.

The more you give, the more you think of others and less of yourself, and the more you grow the right kind of humility (not timidness, as timidity is distasteful to God. He requires the bravery stemming from the faith that we have in Him always).

5.) Pray! Pray! Pray!

Pray to avoid temptations that will lead you to pride. Pray that you beat your inner demons of Pride. Pray that you can notice spiritual attacks that may make you fall. Pray that you conquer this sin.
The more you pray and feed your soul, the more the devil will flee from you, and man will you grow. Prayer not only connects you to God but it feeds your spirit with His spirit. Something that you will need in the battle against Lucifer. The father of all pride.

6 ) Remember to give Glory to God for everything.

Jeremiah 9:23-24, “…Let not the mighty man boast of his might…but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me…”.

The only thing to be Proud of is being God’s son and daughter and being covered in His Grace.

Understanding the true meaning of this will be the end of the Pride within you.

By the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. (Romans 12:3 NIV)