Lessons From Mere Christianity: Pride

This is a post from my series called Lessons From Mere Christianity.

If you asked people their biggest weakness, you would get a variety of answers. However, one you probably would not hear very often is pride. CS Lewis, however, feels it is a much greater sin and greater problem than most people believe. He writes:

"Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-state of mind." (122)

On the next page he says:

"Nearly all those evils in the world which people put down to greed or selfishness are really far more the result of Pride." (123)

Deep within people, there tends to be a desire to be better than everyone else. In itself, I don't think this is bad, to be the best you can be. But when you measure yourself in any way solely as against another person, the tendency for pride to sink in is enormous. As Lewis writes in another passage, pride takes pleasure not in having something, but in having more of it than others.

For example, if everyone was equally rich smart, or equally good looking, or an equal amount of anything, then you would not have pride in it. It would simply be another characteristic, another part of yourself. There is pride in being better than someone else, and that pride can cause you to look down on them, and make them your enemy.

If drawn to its logical conclusion, a prideful person wants to be better than everyone else at everything. That hits a bit of a snag when it comes to God, and indeed can place us in direct opposition of God. Lewis writes:

"In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that - and, therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison - you do not know God at all." (124)

The flip side is humility. The ability to see yourself as nothing, to forget about self and live for God and for others. A humble person knows that God is the master of his life, and that he is nothing without God. All of his graces, talents, knowledge, it all comes from God. No work is beneath him, nobody is too inconsequential to help.

Lewis describes such a person in this way:

"Probably all you will think about him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him. If you do dislike him it will be because you feel a little envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily. He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all." (128)

That is the type of person I strive to be, and I believe everyone should strive to be. I am far from there (not even close, really)... but imagine what a world we would live in if we were not so afflicted by pride.