Today we begin a look at the 7 Deadly Sins. The first Deadly Sin is pride. It is commonly recognized as the root of all sin. Pride is too much belief in you and not enough belief in God. It is not having an accurate view of your self. We are told in Romans 12:3 that we are to think of ourselves with sober judgment. The opposite of soberness is to be drunk. And when we are drunk our minds are impaired. We don’t see things as they are.
Opposite the sin of pride is the virtue of humility. If pride is having an inaccurate view of self, then humility is having an accurate view of self. We see ourselves in the proper context. We see ourselves as God sees us. We see ourselves in our true relation to him.
Pride can go two ways. It involves thinking more highly of myself than I ought and being boastful. The other side of pride is thinking of myself more lowly than I ought. This is to think that I am beyond the point of God’s redemption. This is to be so caught up in despair and to think there is no hope. It is to forget I am a redeemed child of God, precious and prized by him.
There are consequences when it comes to pride. Pride will isolate us from others. We tend to avoid the people we consider to be braggarts. No one likes to be around a know-it-all. Pride also isolates us from God. In James 4:6 it says God resists the proud. In other words God contends against the proud. At the same time it says in James 4:10 he gives grace and lifts up the humble.
Another thing pride does is lead to disillusionment and despair. We are told from a young age that if we put our mind to it that we can accomplish anything we want. While that sounds good, it is a lie. We have our limitations and shortcomings. Their failings in life. Sometimes we are tested beyond what we can bear. We are left disillusioned when we put our confidence in our own ability and fail to attain the heights we expected. Our ability is limited, but while we may not be able to do all things, Christ is more than able. Humility is to recognize that we can’t but he can.
A third consequence is lack of breakthrough. You may seemingly have all the pieces in place. You have the right education. You have the right experience. You got all the right people on your side. You got everything planned out. You are disciplined. You are dedicated. But for whatever reason you continue to lag along and fail to experience breakthrough in your life.
This happens to me as a pastor. I focus in on building a great ministry. I get all the pieces in place to build a better church. Unfortunately, I take God out of the equation. God doesn’t want a capable pastor. God doesn’t want a visionary pastor. God doesn’t want a multi-talented pastor. God wants a dependent pastor. He wants a pastor who looks to him and trusts in him. It’s not about building my kingdom. It’s about building God’s kingdom.
But I like it when it’s all dependent upon me because then I can brag about my ministry on Facebook. Then I can hear church members complement me and how good of a pastor I am. Maybe we fail to experience breakthrough because God is waiting to do his thing when we get to a point where we will give him credit rather than claiming the glory for ourselves.
So how do we move to humility? Humility is not natural. It is not something we are born with. It will not come by itself. Everything with in us will resist humility. Yet it is only through humility where we will have a true relationship with God the father.
Jesus is the only one who is ever truly humble. Jesus teaches us what humility is. Humility is born out of a relationship with him. A person full of self will be prideful while a person full of Jesus will be humble. Humility comes from knowing him. It comes through understanding his value and worthiness when it comes to my standing before God the Father.
Jesus gave up all honor. He gave up the riches of heaven. He humbled himself and became human. He became obedient even to death on a cross why would anyone do such a thing for us? It is astounding. When we begin to grasp how greatly Jesus humbled himself there is no other response we can have other than to bow in humility ourselves. Humility starts by allowing him to open the eyes of our hearts and see things as they truly are. It is the revelation of God in his holiness which gives us a perspective to see clearly.
Humility will never come by dwelling on our lowliness and our sin. Humility is found in experiencing the greatness of God. Think about all the people who encountered God in the fullness of his glory. Moses, Isaiah, John are just a few examples. They were humbled by being overwhelmed with his presence. The invitation is there for you as well. Come into his presence today and let his love overwhelm you!
Joan Warwick says
Why are there 7 deadly sins? I was taught a sin is a sin whether it be murder or a lie or whatever small sin all sins are the same to God so what makes sin such as Pride a “deadly” sin?
Phil says
That is a great question Joan. You are right in that a sin is sin. All sin separates us from God. Therefore all sin is deadly. How I see the 7 deadly sins is that they are categories of sin. They are challenges and struggles that are common to the human experience. In many ways all sin goes back to the 7 deadly sins. You had mentioned murder. If someone commits the sin of murder, it likely goes back to one of the 7 deadly sins. Maybe they were envious of the person they murdered. Take for example Cain killing Abel in the book of Genesis. Cain murdered Abel because of envy. Or maybe it is wrath that leads a person to murder another person.
The 7 deadly sins go back to conditions of the heart. When my heart is not right, it will lead me astray. It will give rise to many other manifestations of evil.
Robert Baker says
What are the other six?
Phil Ressler says
Hi Robert- Thanks for the question. Here is the a link to the list: http://philressler.com/the-7-deadly-sins/