Pride Is a Vice Not a Virtue
Currently it is the month of June and this month is now considered Pride Month. I thought that was interesting considering one of the darkest vices in this world is Pride. The bible does say the root of all evil is the love of money. Yet there is another very present evil with so much great strength that lurched from this world and it is called, Pride.
Pride you ask? I thought that was a good word? There are too many scriptures in the bible for me to that describes this evil monster known as Pride. I truly believe it to be the center of all evil. It is the one thing I despise the most.
I will tell you about the history of Pride month. It all started one day, with a beautiful angel dressed with all sorts of precious jewels, a angel full of wisdom and beauty. God created this angel in the image of perfection. This angel walked blameless in the garden of Eden. Until one day, the first month of Pride changed everything.
Moreover the word of the LORD came to me: Mortal, raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Lord GOD: You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, carnelian, chrysolite, and moonstone, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald; and worked in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created they were prepared. With an anointed cherub as guardian I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; you walked among the stones of fire. You were blameless in your ways from the day that you were created, until iniquity was found in you. In the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned; so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God, and the guardian cherub drove you out from among the stones of fire. Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I exposed you before kings, to feast their eyes on you. By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your trade, you profaned your sanctuaries. So I brought out fire from within you; it consumed you, and I turned you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all who saw you. All who know you among the peoples are appalled at you; you have come to a dreadful end and shall be no more forever" (Ezekiel 28:11-19
This is the beginning of the very first Pride month first started by the Angel know as Lucifer. Lucifer was proud because of his beauty.
How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit on the mount of assembly on the heights of Zaphon; I will ascend to the tops of the clouds, I will make myself like the Most High’" (Isaiah 14:12-14).
Lucifer was proud and was SO proud that he wanted to make himself greater than God. St.Augustine said it best when he said, "It was Pride that changed angels into devils, It is humility that makes men as Angels."
Pride is an excessive belief in one's own abilities, that interferes with the individual's recognition of the grace of God. It has been called the sin from which all others arise. You know how people say, Marijuana is the gateway drug to harder drugs. I believe Pride is the gateway through which all other sin enters the soul. It is the mother to all sins.
Do you have pet peeves? God does too. In the bible it mentions 6 things God hates and of that list Pride is the number one thing on his list. My pet peeve is also pride. I have worked with co-workers full of pride. People that puff themselves up and have a know-it-all-attitude. They are full of arrogance and usually do not want to take much input from others and be a team player. They are bossy and take credit from other's work and never admit making a mistake and look down on others.
Proverbs 6:16-19
These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him, A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.
As Solomon says there is nothing new under the sun, there was Pride Parades since the beginning of times.
The look on their faces bears witness against them;
they proclaim their sin like Sodom,
they do not hide it.
Woe to them!
For they have brought evil on themselves.
Isaiah 3:9
Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed by God and even to this day you can go to the land of Sodom and Gomorrah and see the sulfur balls of brimstone that rained down and destroyed the land. If you have never read the full story about Sodom and Gomorrah, I would put that on my to my to-do list a.s.a.p. You can find in the chapters 18 and 19 of the Bible.
Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
The funny thing about Pride is that it that is actually does the opposite of what is promised to deliver. Folks when you buy pride you actually have gotten bamboozled. It's like when your watching the shopping channel and they have sold you on some concealer to cover the bags under your eyes. You will look more beautiful and youthful and glowing! You buy the product but the concealer on your eye bags instead of concealing them, actually look more pronounced and wrinkly! Now you look even older then before and your eye bags are more noticeable! That is actually what the Bottle of Pride delivers as well. It sells you and claims that it will give the appearance of much Confidence, glory, people will want to admire you, befriend you, and give you praise. You buy the bottle immediately! You try it on and even though you look in the mirror and know something is wrong you still wear it believing that it will do what is promised. You think it is working and people are admiring you and think you are the best thing since sliced bread, but it was all a hoax darling. You have been scammed. People do not want to be your friend, and if they are it's probably not a real friend, you actually look disgusting when you have pride smeared all over your face and your eye bags are SO pronounced. You look very old and tired. All the glow is out of you. You look stale and dull, but it is like the emperors new clothes, you keep wearing it and everyone one says your great but everyone knows the truth. 
Proverbs 29:23 Pride brings a person low, but the lowly in spirit gain honor.
Proverbs 11:2 When pride comes, then comes shame; but with the humble is wisdom.
Proverbs 18:12 Before destruction the heart of a man is haughty, and before honor is humility.
Luke 14:11 For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Jesus was the opposite of being prideful he was humble and this was an honor. He didn't ride on an expensive chariot with servants attending him but on a donkey.
Mathew 11:29
"Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Zechariah 9:9
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Mathew 20:16 So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.
Set apart as God's chosen people we need to be displaying the spirit of humility to be set apart from the world.
Colossians 3:12
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
Some people say say Love is Love. I don't know about all that but I do know what the bible says what love is and the bible says love is not prideful. Pride is the opposite of Love.
Let us not boast about ourselves. Let someone else praise you, not your own mouth. Let us boast in what God is doing in our lives and give him the glory and this will encourage and build others up.
Corinthians 2:1 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.” And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.
Jeremiah 9:24 But those who wish to boast should boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the Lord who demonstrates unfailing love and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth, and that I delight in these things. I, the Lord, have spoken!
Pride is a Vice and not a Virtue. My favorite author, C.S Lewis said, “The vice I am talking of is Pride or Self-Conceit: and the virtue opposite to it, in Christian morals, is called Humility...According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere flea bites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.”
I will end this blog with another quote by C.S. Lewis that sums up pride well.
Pride is Spiritual cancer; it eats up the the very possibility of love, or contentment or even common sense.
