Our Great Sin

If idolatry consists of the worship of a false god or its representation, the I propose a self-centered life filled with concern for just “me, myself, and I” is the fullest realization of the sin. God creates a universe filled with different people, places, and things, but the creature rejects the worship of the creator, and glorifies in self while paying little mind to anything else. All things are disregarded save one’s own personal interests. If there is an acknowledgement of the Creator, or any value placed on others created people, places, and things, it is only for the sake of oneself. Hedonism.

The worship of self can easily be summed up in the word “pride.” More precisely, the disdainful and negative sense of pride which emulates from a person full of self-conceit.

Recently, I was encouraged to reacquaint myself with the chapter on “The Great Sin” from C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity. The first two paragraphs are applicable to the problem at hand. Lewis wrote,

Today I come to that part of Christian morals where they differ most sharply from all other morals. There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which everyone in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves. I have heard people admit that they are bad-tempered, or that they cannot keep their heads about girls or drink, or even that they are cowards. I do not think I have ever heard anyone who was not a Christian accuse himself of this vice. And at the same time I have very seldom met anyone, who was not a Christian, who showed the slightest mercy to it in others. There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others.

The vice I am talking of is Pride or Self-Conceit: and the virtue opposite to it, in Christian morals, is called Humility. You may remember, when I was talking about sexual morality, I warned you that the centre of Christian morals did not lie there. Well, now, we have come to the centre. According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere flea bites 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.¹

Lewis nails it. Our pride can so easily lead us astray in the sinful worship of the false trinity of me, myself, and I.

Self-glorification is the antithesis of Christian worship. Paul instructs Christians to “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others” (Phil. 2:3-4, NASB). What greater example of true humility is that of Jesus Christ, who condescended Himself in a humble servant, experienced the shame of the cross, which is reason why He can be exalted above every name (Phil. 2:2-11). Christ selflessly gave His own life so that many could receive eternal life. If the chief end of man is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever, then one’s own self-centered pride is the chief obstacle.

I would have to say that this is part of the cross I bear each day. It is hardly something that can get fixed overnight, but one that is dealt with daily through the power of the Spirit.

WGN

1. C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: Scribner, 1952), 94