PRIDE, THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL

Out of the seven capital sins: pride, avarice, lust, anger, gluttony, envy and sloth, pride is one of the most profound of human weaknesses which takes the focus off of God and puts it on self. It is an attitude of self-worship and a self-important superiority of our mind that tells us we are better than, greater than, smarter than, wiser than, more knowledgeable than, more qualified than, more important than, more deserving than anyone else.

Pride hardens the mind and refuses to hear the wisdom of anyone. It is an acid that turns the finest fruit bitter. It is a superficial weed that grows in all soils, without need of water or care. It consumes and destroys every living thing that it overshadows. It is a swelling of the heart filled with ego and self-importance and raises us above others until we look down upon them. It is a cancer that rots the soul and blackens the soul, making it an ugly thing to behold even to the owner of that soul. A man infected with pride needs nothing, not even God. It throws up a wall between God and us, and rejects His help and guidance. It is the total inability to see beyond ourselves. It is a very ungodly and unholy attribute for a Christian to have and especially for a religious. 

Another major portion of this very prevalent sin of pride is enmity toward our fellowmen. It constantly brings contention, division and strife. The mind of a proud man seeks to construct everything in his internal world to offer up continual adoration and praise to the self, to the ego. He makes every man his enemy by opposing their intellects, opinions, works, wealth, talents and elevating himself above others and diminishing them. If others seem to excel more, he can find a way to depreciate that person or find fault. 

He is easily offended and holds grudges. He withholds forgiveness to keep another in his debt and to justify his injured feelings. He is not easily taught and he won’t change his mind to accept truths, because to do so imply he has been wrong. He does not receive advice or correction easily and always says, “My way is right, no other way is right.”

God hates pride because it separates us from Him. It quenches His Spirit in us and prevents His Life in our hearts from flowing out into our lives. It builds walls between God and us, and that is the reason Satan revels in the proud. He will do anything he can to get us to trade in our humility and intimate relationship with Christ for pride and intellectual knowledge of Him.

We know from the history that pride is the downfall of angels, kings, priests, generals, soldiers, lovers, and men in high places falling headlong into the abyss of sin. The scriptures abound with evidences of the severe consequences of the sin of pride to individuals, groups, cities, and nations.

The angel Lucifer (Satan's original name) was cast from heaven because of his pride. He was transformed from an angel of light to an angel of darkness due to his pride. Pride was the sin of Adam and Eve who disobeyed God and wanted to become like him. It destroyed the Nephite nation and the city of Sodom. Pride brought on the confusion of tongues at the Tower of Babel; pride brought defeat to Pharaoh and to Goliath; pride reduced Nebuchadnezzar to the condition of an animal; Saul became an enemy to David through pride.  King Noah was about to free the prophet Abinadi, but an appeal to his pride by his wicked priests sent Abinadi to the flames. Herod sorrowed at the request of his wife to behead John the Baptist.  His death resulted because he gave not God the glory. He prided himself equal to God and the Lord smote him. Pride drew Christ's divine criticism upon the Pharisees and the Scribes.

Only insecure people love human applause. They have to make sure that everybody knows what they have accomplished and from where they have come. They get their identity in being promoted, but they forget that promotion comes from God. They take great pride in driving the right kind of car, keeping an expensive mobile, living in the right kind of house and office. They wear designer clothes and show themselves that they have been born with a silver spoon in their month and they are from rich and respected families. They feel proud of their accomplishments and their identity.

Consider the emptiness of created things. How empty is fame, how empty is praise, how empty the little satisfactions we get from boast­ing and criticizing. Remember that we came from nothing, we are nothing, and we can do nothing, except in so far as God helps us.                          

If anyone has a right to be proud, it must be God. After all, He created the world without any help from us. He Himself is uncreated, eternal, and utterly faultless. If we think there is a problem with God, we are just showing our ignorance. He Himself dwells in unapproachable light, He is mighty, glorious and perfect in beauty and splendour, all-knowing - no one and nothing can compare to Him. He is the only One qualified to be proud. And yet, He is humble.

We all must have seen the movie, "King of Kings." Produced years ago by Cecil De Mille. One of the most interesting parts of the play is that which pictures Mary Magdalene meeting our Lord for the first time. She came to Christ - a sinner; she left - a saint. She came - proud, sensual, and vain; she left­ - humble and mortified. She came - guilty; she left - forgiven. It was intensely interesting to see how this change took place.

Christ merely looks at Mary, looks into her very soul. And that look of our Lord softens her proud heart. She draws back some distance. She cannot bear that sad, loving look. The struggle in her soul is clearly shown in the picture. Each in its turn, the seven deadly sins come in the guise of devils and whisper into the ear of Magdalene. Each in turn is repulsed by her, as she drinks in grace from the gaze of Christ. The devil of pride and the devil of avarice, together with the devils of lust, anger, gluttony, envy and sloth, are firmly brushed aside. Finally Mary is free of her old tempters. In shame she drops her head. In modesty she covers her half­-nude body. She rushes to Christ and falls at His feet. There she secures the forgiveness for which her entire being is crying out.

Like Mary Magdalene, we also are affected and enslaved by at least some if not all of these same death-dealing devils, the seven capital sins. It is not our privilege to look into the physical face of Jesus, as she did. Never­theless, we can go before Christ present in the tabernacle and by faith look into His face as He looks into our hearts and ask him to give us power to fight against the sin of pride which is our greatest enemy - the root of all that is evil, and the failure of all that is good.

May Christ's humility drive out our pride, as His love and grace drove pride from the heart of Mary Magdalene.

REPAY NO ONE EVIL FOR EVIL

There are no good or bad emotion, what makes them either good or bad is the way that they are used. That is especially true in the case of anger. Anger can save our life in time of crisis but if left unchecked, it can also bring a world of misery.

Anger usually happens when a person feels not in complete control or situation. The feeling of anger kicks in an effort to meeting personal resources that would otherwise not be available. In other words, anger is produced by a feeling of weakness and not by a feeling of strength. Sadly, that is not how it is sometimes perceived.

In some circles, the tendency to get angry is viewed as a sign of character, strength and power. Nothing could be further from the truth. Strong people are not disposed to anger because they are very rarely in situations where they see themselves helpless so there is no need for anger. Most mature people will see anger as a sign of personal weakness therefore will try to avoid it at all cost.

It should also be noted that anger robs a person of a great portion of the ability to think clearly and rationally. It is also well known that the angrier a person becomes, the more irrational will be the behaviour.

There is a desire deep within each of us to dominate, to defeat other men and women, to use them as means for achieving our own selfish purposes and this selfish desire gives birth to anger and revenge. In the face of selfish desire, what comes immediately to our mind is to destroy the one who is the obstacle in getting his selfish desire fulfilled. Take example from our daily life and living, if we have a problem with pests, we kill them; and when we have problems with dogs, we kill them too. 


Such an attitude also prevails when we deal with difficult people in our lives.  When someone stands in our way of getting what we want, or is a challenge to live with, we seek to remove that person from our lives.  Indeed, that is how most people react to evil or inconveniences in their lives.  We adopt an apocalyptic mentality of solving problems by destruction. That is what Pharisees did with Jesus and hung him on the cross to fulfill their selfish desires.

We are all set to hurt people like we were hurt. We talk about getting even, and settling the score. The idea is that because they hurt us we now owe them some hurt in return. And that is one debt we are only too glad to settle. In fact, usually it is not enough to “get even”. We usually want to add just a little more. Like playing poker: I see your insult and I raise you a poke in the eye! I see your humiliation and I am happy about it. Sometimes we go to that extent persuading a person where he desires to end his life by committing suicide due to constant humiliation and harassment, and we are happy about that.

We do not look into ourselves that how stupid we had been in the past and how we hurt and abused so many innocent people and superiors who made our life and raised our dignity to such an extend where we enjoy saying I am not a riff-raff.

We read Bible and reflect every day where it is written, “Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honourable in the sight of all”. Live peaceably with all. Remember the words of Jesus, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:17-21)

We are to answer evil with good. Everybody understands tit for tat. That is the way the world works. But they have a really hard time with paying back evil with good. It makes their conscience burn. It drives them to rethink their approach because it is not producing what they expected. That is the way to overcome evil. Not by fighting it. Not by punishing it.

 Not by stamping it out. But by overpowering it with kindness and generosity until it can no longer breathe. Remember, we hurt ourselves by hating others. Hating people is like burning down our own house to get rid of a rat. The fire of hate compressed within our heart would soon burn fiercer and burst into flames consuming not only our own selves but also consuming the world. Some say that the world will end in fire, others say in ice, but after knowing what hate has done so far between races, nations and communities, we can also say that the world could end by hate.

We hurt ourselves by contemplating on revenge because, by doing so, we keep our wounds green which otherwise could heal. In any case, can blood be washed with blood and can injury repair injury? Of course, it is human to strive to get even with an enemy, but it is Christian to forgive, for we are all children of God who loves both the good and the bad without any discrimination. Jesus always practiced what he preached and taught us, and this is true also of his call that we love our enemies.

Once a sparrow fell in love with a white rose, but the rose said to the bird, "Unless I am turned into red, I will not be able to love you". The sparrow, now lost in deep thought, wondered and searched hard for means to turn the white rose into red. At dawn the next day, the sparrow was struck with the bright idea of pricking itself with a thorn and letting its blood flow on the rose. Having accomplished its loving task, when the rose had turned red, the sparrow breathed its last, nestling close to the rose. This is how Jesus loved us, shedding his blood for his enemies.

Hence, love even our enemies, not because it will drive the enemy nuts, but because those who deserve love least, need it most. Hate not our enemies, life is too short for hate; and think of no revenge, and if we want to take any revenge at all, remember that the noblest revenge is to forgive. Don’t do evil just because someone did evil to us. They did the wrong thing. We do the right thing.  That is exactly what Jesus is asking us to do.

Remember, anger is like a match stick which has a head but not a brain which can burn the entire forest in no time. Let us be like an ice and cotton which is cold and soft. A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger (Prov 15:1). In your anger do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent (Ps 4:4). It is to a man's honour to avoid strife, but every fool is quick to quarrel (Prov 20:3). Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.(Ps 37:8) Make no friendship with a man given to anger, nor go with a wrathful man, lest you learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare(Prov.22:24-25).

The power to forgive is one of the greatest powers given to us. It is part of the nature and essence of God, and when we exercise it we assume godlike stature. We have the power to forgive and thus rise above the pettiness of souls. Choosing to forgive another is one of the hardest things most people ever do because it is not human nature. Human nature cries out for revenge and retribution. But why get stuck in human nature?

Jesus came to bring forgiveness and salvation from sin, but He also came to save us from human nature. When we received Him as our Savior, we received a measure of His superhuman nature. Since one of the most outstanding traits of His nature is a readiness to forgive, how quick we are to forgive others is a pretty good indication of whether or not we are letting His superhuman nature take charge.

Whether that person who wronged us deserves forgiveness or not is not the central issue. The central issue is we doing the right thing. No one really deserves forgiveness. If others have done wrong, they deserve a just punishment. But forgiveness is greater than justice. Justice is human; forgiveness is divine. Forgive others who have wronged us, even as our heavenly Father forgives us.

BOAST ONLY ABOUT THE LORD

There are people who reach the pinnacle of glory by impression (virtue) of their calling and yet have their feet firmly on the ground. Then there are people who struggle a lot to see their dreams come true into realities, and when they have, they thank God and their friends and well-wishers for being a support. Finally, there are people who are simply a disloyal drop in the ocean and they think they are the ocean itself. Such people are always busy assembling a verbal collage of praise for themselves and the type of work they do. They rant and rave about every little thing under the sun.  To themselves they appear perfect.

The Bible says that when a person measures himself by himself, he is not wise. He may claim to be wise, highly intellectual and he might tell you that he is so popular that you should be honoured that he chose you to spend his day with! But actually, he is an unlikable man with a hardly any real friends. You get irritated with such people who keep showing off their possessions and bragging about their achievements, and of the number of influential people they know.

Self-praise leads to vanity and egoism and is considered bad in almost every faith and religion. Boasting is not a good sign and always proves counterproductive. The fact that you say of yourself as being the best doesn’t necessarily mean that others on this planet earth are the worst. If you are the best, you should be everywhere; how come then the others are where you are not.

You may only deny the very act of boasting if you think you are a person of exceptional ability and address. None of us is so perfect to claim this stature; and if you actually are of this outstanding and towering address then you don’t even need to boast yourself.

When you indulge in boasting, you are in reality insulting the sound intelligence and wisdom of the people who you think should be supporting your gossip. You lose your faith in them and what they develop of you is an outstanding image of being a dishonest, self-centered and a highly dis-interesting character. Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; not your own lips, someone else’s. It is not good to eat too much honey, nor is it honourable to seek one's own honour.

Having self-confidence, knowing your strengths and being proud of your accomplishments are admirable attitudes. But you don't have to try to impress anyone especially those people who hardly know you. Others can see who you are and what you are made of from your attitudes and personality. Just do what you are good at and the results will show.

You should avoid occasions to praise yourself. If you are faithful to do what God has called you to do with excellence and pure motives, in time, God will praise you. This may happen publicly or possibly just within your own heart. You may not even hear the words of praise until you pass from this life to the next, but you will hear them.

Boasting is evil and against God, but why does the Bible say to boast in God? Boasting about God is included along with Praising Him, while boasting about yourself is included with hating God and inventing evil things. You boast about God and please him; you boast about yourself and disgust him. God is worthy of praise, and we should all praise and worship him by boasting in Him.

God praises the humble, not those who befriend the rich and the famous, and He promises to exalt the humble at the appointed time. Jesus Christ's example of humility helps us to realize the meek stature of true Christians. In Him we see the summit of virtue from which the apostles drew illustrations and warnings for us. He gave up inexpressible glory to take upon Himself the humble form of humanity and perform the lowliest of services to us. He agreed to be without honour and was willing to be reviled and ignored. When He laid aside his former rank and dignity, He became as nothing, yet now He is exalted above everything and everyone. He set this example for us that we might overcome boasting and develop the praising trait of true humility.

Grace eliminates for us the possibility of any boasting. Regardless of our material accomplishments-no matter how may doctorate degrees we may have, how much money we may have amassed, or how many good deeds we may have done or how many languages we are good at—no one can boast before God because, we are "of Him”. All that we have accomplished has been done only because of what He gave. We are important only because God has made us the focus of His creative efforts, not because of anything inherent within us. We have great potential because of God's workmanship now in progress, but apart from His purposes, we are nothing but animated clay.

God ultimately removes all the physical accomplishments of the self-exalted person. Anyone who glories in himself will receive his true reward in due time in the form of denunciation, disgrace, degradation, and humiliation. Glory is praise, honour, or distinction extended by common consent. If we glory in ourselves, it is because no one else is glorifying us for our perceived accomplishments—probably because we have done no real, glorious deeds in the first place.

The LORD says: Let not the wise and skillful person glory and boast in his wisdom and skill; let not the mighty and powerful person glory and boast in his strength and power; let not the person who is rich [in physical gratification and earthly wealth] glory and boast in his [temporal satisfactions and earthly] riches; But let him who glories glory in this: that he understands and knows Me [personally and practically, directly discerning and recognizing My character], that I am the Lord, Who practices loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the Lord." (Jeremiah 9:23-24). Therefore, instead of praising ourselves, we should strive to approve ourselves to God. In a word, let us glory in the Lord our salvation, and in all other things only as evidences of his love, or means of promoting his glory. Instead of praising ourselves, or seeking the praise of men, let us desire that honour which comes from God only.

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DON’T RIDICULE, HUMILIATE OR DEMEAN

Humans are considered to be the highest living beings on the planet with the several habits they bear, of which, one of them is "to humiliate". Some humiliate directly, some indirectly. Some humiliate purposely, some with specific reasons. "He himself gets humiliated, who humiliates others intentionally". It comes into being when you try to do things that are bizarre; it comes up when you try to act superior; it happens. Most of the time people who humiliate others are the egoistic ones, the ones who think they are the only masters.

The purpose of humiliation is to degrade a person. People are mean because it is human nature. People put other people down to feel better about themselves. Everyone who feels the need to be unkind to others has some sort of insecurity. Some people are mean because they are jealous of others for some reason. Some people are mean because they want to feel higher up in the hierarchy than others. Some people are mean to others because they have had an unhappy life (this explains their behaviour but doesn't excuse it).       

Humiliation invokes strong feelings of shame and inferiority. It is more demeaning and hurtful than “taking offense” at something.  It is a painful experience and is often memorized for a long time and may lead to anxiety.

Murderous acts have been committed by people who feel humiliated over job loss and cheating spouses. Suicide is a tragic reaction to the humiliation some young people feel as a result of the bullying and taunting of others. There are cases where someone getting insulted or women facing humiliation have committed suicide. It can spur violent reactions that include revenge, suicide, murder, political uprising, war and terrorism.

Humans have many ways to slight others and humiliate them. For example: denying and  manipulating recognition, dominating, reduction in rank,increasing responsibility to find fault, being laughed at,  being given a dirty look, ridicule , unjustly forcing into a degrading position, failing to recognize the self-respect of another, disrespecting, rejecting, encouraging disgrace,  accusing falsly, losing basic personal freedoms such a mobility, access, or autonomy, intrude to find faults for further humiliations, treating as an equal by a lower stature person, etc.

Another way of humiliating someone is by treating that person like a servant: asking them to fetch something, making him perform menial tasks like making coffee, sweeping a floor or dusting an office. The message is that the boss is superior, and the worker must therefore obey their command, often in a way that offends their dignity. It doesn't matter whether you mind or not to do such tasks. It will definitely destroy the respect people have for you in the workplace. We are our brothers' keepers. There are endless consequences for shaming people into suicide. We should never forget that.

No one likes being treated like dirt. Humiliation should never be part of an evaluation directed at any employee.

There is never an excuse to ridicule, humiliate or demean another person. There is always a way to express our thoughts without demeaning the other person.  We can show our anger and disappointment without putting the other person down. Those who find it necessary to be cruel have another agenda. They may feel insecure and the only way to feel better about themselves is to make others feel bad. They may want to have power over another person or feel powerless themselves and the only way to obtain this power they seek is to take it from another.

When someone verbally attacks someone, it usually has more to do with ego than anything else. Some people want to feel superior to others and the only way for that to happen is to put the other person down. It may see\m odd to those of us who do not behave this way. Although verbal attacks are not physically harmful, they are mentally and emotionally harmful and that is just as damaging. Whatever the excuse, there is never a good reason to tear someone else down.

Make it a rule never to ridicule, humiliate or demean anyone. It doesn't matter how angry we are, there is never an excuse to treat others with disrespect. Our first priority should always be to help someone and build them up not tear them down.

God does not wish to see anyone humiliated. That is why Jesus teaches people to be humble. He does it by saying, "Humble yourself". That is not a common popular everyday teaching “Humble yourself". Never pray - "Make me humble". Just do it - humble yourself.

The Power of your words.

A careless word--may kindle strife,
A cruel word--may wreck a life,

A bitter word--may hate instill,

A brutal word--may smite & kill.

A gracious word--may smooth the way,

A joyous word--may light the day.

A timely word--may lessen stress,

A loving word--may heal & bless.

Words are real things!

They bless or they curse,

They lift up or they knock down,

They save or they damn!

"But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the Day of Judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned." (Matthew 12:36-37)

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