Pride is a most deadly spiritual sin, and humility is a most under-valued and yet essential virtue. I was going to say “especially in our contemporary culture,” but I’m not sure that’s true. Human beings have always been tripped up, led astray, enslaved and undone by excessive pride. What makes pride so bad? Think about it –

When we talk about sinful lifestyles or about pastors falling into grievous and heinous sin, our minds usually race toward an assumption of sexual immorality. Sadly, this is too often the case. Even more sadly, a more common grievous and heinous sin plagues the lives of, not just pastors, but ordinary Christians, too: pride. Pride is, in fact, the most dangerous, core, deadly sin in the life of any believer.

Carnal sins are enslaving, for sure – sexual immorality, gluttony, laziness. As we indulge our flesh, we become distracted from kingdom priorities, sidelined by lesser allurements of food, pleasure, self-indulgence and sexual desire. But spiritual sins are even more deadly, in part because they are easier to hide, more socially acceptable and easier to justify and rationalize.

Pride is a most deadly spiritual sin, and humility is a most under-valued and yet essential virtue. I was going to say “especially in our contemporary culture,” but I’m not sure that’s true. Human beings have always been tripped up, led astray, enslaved and undone by excessive pride. What makes pride so bad? Think about it –

Jesus told us that the greatest command is to love – to love the Lord with all our heart, mind, soul and strength and our neighbor as ourselves. Pride exalts self to the level of being a god and short-circuits our ability to love God or our neighbor. But that’s not all . . .

1. Pride claims God’s good gifts as belonging to ourselves by right or coming from ourselves by nature, and so pride short-circuits gratitude.
2. Pride sees others as lesser than self and so pride removes our ability too encourage and bless others.
3. Pride sees others as a tool to advance our own cause, our own ego and agenda, and so pride de-humanizes and enslaves others to do our will.
4. Pride resents inconvenience. After all, why should I not have my way? So pride sabotages patience.
5. Pride is never satisfied because someone else always has more than we do and we can always think of ways we’re being wronged or slighted, so pride steals our peace and our joy.
6. Pride causes us to rationalize a hundred other sins committed out of a desire to protect or advance self.
7. Pride directs our ambition toward advancing our cause, our agenda and our fame, and thus causes us to neglect or steal God’s glory for ourselves.
8. Pride fools us into an attitude of self-reliance and leads to prayerlessness.
9. Pride blinds us to the legitimate needs of others and leads to a lack of compassion.
10. Pride causes us to get angry and lash out at those who get in our way, leading to bullying and abuse.

Pride is indeed an ugly monster, a hideous beast, the tyrant of self unleashed on those closest to us. If it sounds like I understand pride well, it’s because I do, sadly, recognize this beast all too well.

Thankfully, Jesus died for my pride as surely as He died for my other sins. When I look to the cross by faith, my pride is the first of my sinful burdens to slip off of my back. How?

1. The cross tells me in vivid, unmistakable terms that I have sinned and fallen short, that I need to be saved from my sin.
2. The cross also shows me with no uncertainty that I cannot save myself. If I could rescue myself, why would Jesus have shed His blood for me?
3. The cross shows me the Person who is of infinite value – not me, but the Lord Jesus, whose blood alone was sufficient to ransom all of God’s people from all of their sin.
4. The cross shows me that it is Christ who is to be lifted up, not myself.
5. The cross shows me that all people need to be drawn to Christ, not to me.
6. The cross shows me that love and compassion for others are possible even in the face of great suffering and injustice. (While pride, on the other hand, sees any bit of suffering or perceived injustice as an excuse to be impatient, unloving and callous toward others.)
7. The cross shows me that the essence of love is selfless sacrifice for the good of others.
8. The cross shows me that my kingdom and glory are not central but must be nailed to the cross.
9. The cross shows me that I am crucified to the world and the world to me.
10. The cross shows me that Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Only one thing will be central in my heart and my life, either my pride or the cross, either self or Jesus. Jesus died to save me from my pride, and I need saving- from pride as surely as from my other sins.

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” – Galatians 2:20, ESV

“If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ.” – Colossians 3:4-9, ESV

Jason A. Van Bemmel is a Teaching Elder in the Presbyterian Church in America. This article appeared on his blog Ponderings of a Pilgrim Pastor and is used with permission.