From D. Kelly Ogden’s book “8 Mighty Changes God Wants for You Before You Get to Heaven”:
The renowned Christian philosopher and writer wrote, C. S. Lewis, gave one of the most brilliant descriptions of pride ever penned. While you read his words, look for how he defines it, how he labels its destructive nature, and how it manifests itself:
“There is one vice of which no one in the world is free; which every one in the world loathes when they see it in someone else; and of which hardly any people . . . ever imagine that they are guilty themselves. I have heard people admit that they are bad tempered, or they cannot keep their heads about girls or drink, or even that they are cowards. I do not think I have heard anyone . . . accuse them-self of this vice. And at the same time I have very seldom met anyone . . . who showed the slightest mercy of it in others. There is no fault that makes one more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious in ourselves. And the more we have it in ourselves, the more we dislike it in others.
“The vice I am talking about is Pride or Self-Conceit: and the virtue opposite to it is called Humility. You may remember, when I was talking about sexual morality, I warned you that the center of Christian morals did not lie there. Well, now we have come to the center. According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, greed, anger, drunkenness. and all that are merely fleabites 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.
“Does this seem to you exaggerated? If so, think it over. I pointed out a moment ago that the more pride one had, the more one disliked pride in others. In fact, if you want to find out how proud you are the easiest way is to ask yourself, ‘How much do I dislike when other people snub me, or refuse to take notice of me . . . or patronize, or show off?’ The point is that each person’s pride is in competition with every one else’s pride. It is because I wanted to be the big noise at the party that I am so annoyed at someone else’s being the big noise. Two of a trade never agree. Now, what you want to get clear is that Pride is essentially competitive—it is competitive by its by its very nature—while the other vices are competitive, so to speak, by accident. Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only in having more of it than the next person. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, of better-looking than others. If everyone else became equally rich or clever or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that make you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone. . . .Nearly all those evils in the world which people put down to greed, or selfishness are really far more the result of Pride.” 1
~ D. Kelly Ogden, Eight Mighty Changes God Wants for You Before You Get to Heaven,#7 (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2004), 120-23
