Thursday, April 12, 2007

Pride and Self Deception

What is it about the sin of pride that is so offensive to God? It gives us the credit that is due him! We are too unworthy to be prideful about anything. Here lies the nature of the sin of pride; it is a complement given to us by us. It is based on self deception--there is no legitimate grounds for being prideful. It is the original original sin committed by Satan.
Can you honestly say that you have something to be proud of in light of your standing compared to the holiness of God? What makes us feel prideful other than the fact the we have fallen prey to the self deception of it that has its true origin in the father of all lies? He has convinced us of the lie that we have something to boast of. And even if he does not aid us in this, we are quite capable of deluding ourselves without him.
It is a prideful thing to believe that you are not prideful! It comes natural to us. I remember how in my early days as a Christian, I used to brag about how unprideful I was. What irony! I was proud of the "fact" that I was not prideful. The most humble of men have at times been prideful. We could be paupers and still be prideful. Indeed this is the point. We really have nothing to be prideful about. Pride is the most elusive sin that there is and the hold pride has on us through self deception can only be broken by the Holy Spirit of God.
Pride is like the person that believed he was dead but in reality he wasn't. He said to his doctor that he was dead and the doctor in turn assured him that he wasn't. The doctor checked his vitals but the man was still unconvinced. As a last resort the doctor posed the question "does a dead man bleed?" He agreed that they don't. The doctor then pricked his finger--blood came out. In response the man said, "what do you know dead men do bleed!"
My hair is falling out or perhaps it just started growing out of my back--I'm not really sure what is going on with that! But when the fact that my hair was falling out was pointed out to me, I was faced with these options: The person that was so kind to notify me of the fact was wrong or it was indeed falling out. I had two choices if the latter was true: I could not believe it or I could not let my self be deluded about the matter and deal with it. Well I tried both options!
The point is there is always going to be the temptation to rationalize when a hair is brought to our attention. We can say but that is just one example and it is not really relevant to the whole scheme of things. But eventually we have to face our selves in the mirror and say I am indeed as such.
It is not that we would fix the problem if we knew about it. It is that if you are not aware of it you have it nevertheless. One contemporary theologian said that he knows that he is not right about everything. Problem is he doesn't know where he is wrong or he would fix it. I am not to sure about that. Fact is we know the truth about a lot of deficiencies in our lives, and do we fix them? Let us have this attitude Luke 18:9-14. And if we boast let us boast in Christ not in our moral aptitude or good works.

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