The first sin to have ever been committed is pride. This is the sin that resulted in the downfall of the archangel Lucifer. (Isaiah 14:12-15) Pride ruined him and turned him into the prince of demons. (Rev. 12:9; Eph. 2:2) Pride can also destroy each of us. We need to learn humility and meekness. Pride is the absence of humility and meekness.
In Ecclesiasticus, it says:
For pride is the beginning of sin, and he that hath it shall pour out abomination. (Ecclesiasticus 10:13)
And in Proverbs, it says:
Wherever pride enters, there will be also disgrace. (Prov. 11:2, LXX)
Pride goes before destruction, and folly before a fall. (Prov. 16:18, LXX)
Pride brings a man low. (Prov. 31:23, LXX)
So, pride leads to further sin since it is the beginning of sin. Proud people ultimately end up being disgraced and ruined. They are brought low.
St. John Cassian says that pride corrupts the whole soul.
Just as a deadly plague destroys not just one member of the body, but the whole of it, so pride corrupts the whole soul, not just part of it. (On the Eight Vices, "On Pride," by St. John Cassian, The Philokalia, vol. 1, p. 92)
Furthermore, God resists the proud. (James 4:6) To be proud is to set oneself up against God.
"Pride was not made for men." (Ecclesiasticus 10:18) To be proud is to be less than human. God never intended for anyone to be proud, nor does He wish for anyone to be so. Pride does not come from God. It comes from the world set against God. (I John 2:16) It is a sin that entered the world created for God. (Rom. 5:12; Col. 1:16)
Pride is a denial of God, an invention of the devil, contempt for men. It is the mother of condemnation, the offspring of praise, a sign of barrenness. ("Step 23: On Pride," The Ladder of Divine Ascent, by St. John Climacus, p. 207)
Pride is alien to every virtue. ("Step 23: On Pride," The Ladder of Divine Ascent, by St. John Climacus, p. 211)
Pride is an impediment to faith in God. Jesus told the Jews, "How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?" (St. John 5:44, NKJV)
We must do what Jesus the Son of Sirach admonished us to do:
Humble thy soul greatly: for the vengeance of the ungodly is fire and worms. (Ecclesiasticus 7:17)
Humility takes time and effort to master. The man who claims to be humble is not humble at all. St. John of the Ladder told about a man who claimed to be humble. A wise and very spiritual old man told him that he was not.
An old man, very experienced in these matters, once spiritually admonished a proud brother who said in his blindness: "Forgive me, Father, but I am not proud." "My son," said the wise old man, "what better proof of your pride could you have given than to claim that you were not proud?" ("Step 23: On Pride," The Ladder of Divine Ascent, by St. John Climacus, p. 208)
Humble people are not conscious of their humility.
It is God's will that we give thanks (I Thess. 5:18), but often pride draws its strength from the giving of thanks. Like the Pharisee in St. Luke's Gospel (St. Luke 18:11), it is easy to develop pride when one starts comparing oneself with others who are "less fortunate" or "less pious" and saying things like, "Oh God, I thank you that I am not like that thief. I thank you that I am not like that harlot. I thank you that I have a better home to live in than those poor people on the other side of town." St. John of the Ladder said, "I have seen people who speak aloud their thanks to God but who in their hearts are glorifying themselves, something demonstrated by that Pharisee with his 'Oh God, I thank you.'" ("Step 23: On Pride," The Ladder of Divine Ascent, by St. John Climacus, p. 207)
Like the publican (St. Luke 18:13), we need to humble ourselves before God and acknowledge our sins and imperfections. Repentance gives birth to humility. Jesus told the unbelieving Jews:
If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, "We see." Therefore your sin remains. (St. John 9:41, NKJV)
Failure to acknowledge one's spiritual blindness to God can hinder one from seeing one's sins. Failure to acknowledge one's sins can prevent one from acquiring humility.
Humility is important. Without humility, we cannot obtain victory over any sin. This is what St. John Cassian taught.
Humility of soul helps more than everything else, however, and without it no one can overcome unchastity or any other sin. (On the Eight Vices, "On the Demon of Unchastity and the Desire of the Flesh," by St. John Cassian, The Philokalia, vol. 1, p. 75)
Humility needs to become a way of life with us. Jesus said:
When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place, lest one more honorable than you be invited by him; and he who invited you and him come and say to you, "Give place to this man," and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes he may say to you, "Friend, go up higher." Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. (St. Luke 14:8-11, NKJV)
Letting others have that which is best and taking that which others do not want. That is one way to practice humility. St. Paul said:
Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another. (Rom. 12:10, NKJV)
Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. (Phil. 2:3,4, NKJV)
We should give preference to others and not esteem them as better than we are. Humility can be practiced in small ways, such as, standing at the end of a long line or letting someone else exit a door before you. It can be practiced in even bigger ways by deferring a job promotion to someone else or helping someone else achieve something more significant than you yourself would have achieved. Jesus told His disciples:
If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all. (St. Mark 9:35, NKJV)
Proud as a peacock. Pride is a secular virtue and a Christian vice. For attribute click here.
To practice humility is to live one's life contrary to the status-seeking ways of the world. It means to go against the grain of secular society and be different. Jesus told His disciples:
You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. (St. Mark 10:42-44, NKJV)
The more exalted we become in the eyes of others, the more humble should we be. In Ecclesiasticus, Jesus the Son of Sirach said:
The greater thou art, the more humble thyself, and thou shalt find favour before the Lord. (Ecclesiasticus 3:18)
It is a good practice to credit God with one's accomplishments rather than to credit oneself with them. Jesus said, "Without Me you can do nothing." (St. John 15:5, NKJV) St. John of the Ladder said:
While it is disgraceful to be puffed up over the adornments of others, it is sheer lunacy to imagine that one has deserved the gifts of God. You may be proud only of the achievements you had before the time of your birth. But anything after that, indeed the birth itself, is a gift from God. You may claim only those virtues in you that are there independently of your mind, for your mind was bestowed on you by God. And you may claim only those victories you achieved independently of the body, for the body too is not yours but a work of God. ("Step 23: On Pride," The Ladder of Divine Ascent, by St. John Climacus, pp. 208-209)
Banishing avarice, or greed, from one's soul is another task that must be undertaken in order to rid oneself of pride.
Nor will one escape pride, the first offspring of the devil, unless one has banished avarice, the root of all evil, since poverty makes a man humble, according to Solomon (cf. Prov. 10:4, LXX). ("Texts on Discrimination in respect of Passions and Thoughts," by St. Evagrios the Solitary, The Philokalia, vol. 1, p. 38)
It is foolish to love money and material things and spend one's life trying to acquire great wealth when God has already promised His children everything in the afterlife. (Rev. 21:7; I Cor. 3:21,22) Jesus taught, "One's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses." (St. Luke 12:15, NKJV) Even when we have everything, we will still see that we can only be truly satisfied in our souls with God.
Learning to live with less even though one can have more is one way to rid oneself of pride and restore one's soul to its humble state.
People who seek material prosperity have a difficult time practicing humility because they gloat too much over their possessions and feel that having more and better things than others makes them better people than those with less.
Jesus is our supreme example of humility. He humbled Himself to the point of death on the Cross. (Phil. 2:5-8)
With humility and meekness, comes knowledge of spiritual mysteries. Jesus the Son of Sirach said, "Mysteries are revealed unto the meek." (Ecclesiasticus 3:19) St. Symeon the Theologian said:
When he has spent time in contrition, in weeping, in prostrations, and in humbling himself, he begins little by little to know the things of God, and it is when he has reached this point that he learns "His will which is holy and acceptable and perfect." (Rom. 12:2) (On the Mystical Life: The Ethical Discourses, Vol. 2: On Virtue and Christian Life, by St. Symeon the New Theologian, pp. 54-55)
Meekness can be learned from Christ who is "meek and lowly in heart." (St. Matt. 11:29) "When He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously." (I Pet. 2:23, NKJV) He is our supreme example of meekness.
St. John of the Ladder defined meekness in this way.
Meekness is a permanent condition of that soul which remains unaffected by whether or not it is spoken well of, whether or not it is honored or praised. ("Step 8: On Placidity and Meekness," The Ladder of Divine Ascent, by St. John Climacus, p. 146)
To be a person who is not offended by the negative remarks of others is to be meek. A meek person will hear insults and not be affected. He will view himself as being less than others. So, praise as well as insult will not disturb him. St. John of the Ladder also says:
A sign of utter meekness is to have a heart peacefully and lovingly disposed toward someone who has been offensive, and a sure proof of a hot temper is that a man, even when he is alone, should with word and gesture continue to rage and fulminate against some absent person who has given offense. ("Step 8: On Placidity and Meekness," The Ladder of Divine Ascent, by St. John Climacus, p. 147)
Jesus said that it is the meek who shall inherit the earth. (St. Matt. 5:5) Inheriting the earth along with the rest of the renovated universe is one of the promises God has made to His children. [Rom. 4:13 — "World" in this verse is the Greek word, kosmos, which means universe. See also II Pet. 3:13 and Rev. 21:7.] It is important, therefore, that we learn to be meek.
Pride is the first sin — the sin that caused the archangel Lucifer to fall from Heaven. It produces disgrace and ruin. It corrupts the whole soul. It is the absence of humility and meekness. It hinders one from having faith in God. Gratitude is good, but it is possible to develop pride while thanking God. Humble people are unaware of their humility. Without humility we cannot overcome any sin. Pride must be overcome by banishing from ourselves the sin of avarice. We need to credit God with our achievements and not bask in the praises of others in order to become humble people. We need to develop a servant heart and esteem others better than ourselves. We need to reflect on our sins and weaknesses and repent in order to develop humility. We need to develop meekness and learn to be unaffected by praise or insult. Humble people acquire knowledge of spiritual mysteries.
Steve
Bibliography
The Philokalia, volumes 1 and 2, compiled by St. Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain and St. Makarios of Corinth, translated by G.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, and Kallistos Ware, Faber and Faber, London, UK, copyright 1979 The Eling Trust
The Ladder of Divine Ascent, by St. John Climacus, translated by Colm Luibheid and Norman Russell, Paulist Press, New York, copyright 1982 by the Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle
On the Mystical Life, volumes 1-3, by St. Symeon the New Theologian, tranlated by Alexander Golitzin, St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, Crestwood, New York 10707, copyright 1995
