REFLECTIONS

Rooted in Pride

In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis writes: “There is one vice of which no man in the world is free.…everyone’s pride is in competition with everyone else’s pride… Pride is essentially competitive… Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man.”[1]

I plead guilty to his claims. But I find solace since I am not alone; then I realize that even my solace is rooted in pride. Pride causes us to be self-centered, self-righteous, and judgmental.

Comparisons of man versus man—one fallen creature against another—is indeed a vice to which addiction is almost certain. Apostle Paul wrote about it: “For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?”(1 Corinthians 4:7)

It is humbling to confess to such a vice and to see the way it shapes my life and influences the choices I make. I wonder how pride may have swayed the choice of neighborhood I live in, the kind of cars I drive, the friends I have, and the places I choose to eat. It also influences the sports I engage in and many other activities and relationships I choose to pursue. All matters rooted in pride.

Our Lord knows that our sinful nature won’t work its way out. Prideful acts can’t earn salvation. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

So it comes to this. All that we are and all that we have is a gift from God. “Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.’” (1 Corinthians 1:31)

You are the light of the world,

Richard +

www.reflectingthesavior.org

[1]C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, p 122-128 (Macmillan Publishers (US), 1952)

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