Pride is a silent but effective force that can slip past the defenses of even the most seasoned Christian. It appears in many guises: confidence, expertise, a strong worth ethic, perfectionism, independence, loyalty, and even false humility. While pride has traditionally been listed as one of the “seven deadly sins,” it is, in a sense, the source of them all. If you take any given sin and dig down deeply enough to find its cause, pride will likely be at the root. 

The Bible routinely condemns pride. So should we. But how do we find it? Here are a few suggestions I’d like to offer as guides for finding pride in ourselves.

We have difficulty admitting fault. Admitting responsibility for failure is one of the most difficult things we do. We try to hide our mistakes, shift the blame to someone else, make excuses, cite mitigating circumstances, or insist that our intentions were good. When we refuse to take responsibility for our errors, we are no better than King Saul, who failed to follow God’s instructions and made pitiful excuses to cover it up (1 Samuel 15:10-26). That didn’t stop God from taking the kingdom away from him. Adam and Eve shifted blame in the Garden in Eden (Genesis 3:8-13). We know how that turned out. Chances are we won’t do much better avoiding the consequences we deserve, either. We find it difficult to apologize. As with the refusal to admit fault, pride creates an unwillingness to say, “I’m sorry.” Apologizing requires vulnerability; it is an implicit appeal for forgiveness. Justifying our actions or downplaying the effects of our decisions is, ironically, a weakness—we’re simply not strong enough to take responsibility and confess. We’re afraid of losing status and control, something we see often in tahe lives of the Pharisees who opposed Jesus. We cower in fear of the consequences. We expect compliments. There’s nothing wrong with appreciating encouragement and compliments from others. We all enjoy them, and they are important for our self-esteem and well-being. But a craving for compliments signals several spiritual problems. It can indicate an overdeveloped sense of superiority. It might also suggest that our self-worth is tied to others’ approval rather than God’s affirmation. The humble heart serves God’s glory alone.qWe exaggerate our accomplishments. Sometimes, we stretch the truth to make ourselves appear more impressive. This is especially evident in job applications and resumes! Regardless of where it appears, this is a form of dishonesty. We might overemphasize our efforts in helping someone else or take the lion’s share of the credit from other contributors. Our worth is found in Christ, not in our achievements. We feel the need to outperform everyone else. Pride cannot suffer unfavorable comparisons. The prideful person must look better than his competitors, even when they are brothers and sisters in Christ. If we envy others’ successes, find it difficult to celebrate others who succeed, or push ourselves to outperform everyone else, pride is almost certainly the culprit. Many of us have one talent, others have two, and a few have five. We should do our best with what we have. We criticize others we feel are less worthy. Pride is inherently selfish and naturally divisive. It fosters a spiritual caste system of the self-righteous. Remember, a simple Galilean fisherman like Peter was just as much a servant of Christ as the learned Paul (and vice versa!). To put this another way, “the ground is level at the foot of the cross.” We pray infrequently. A lack of prayer may be one of the clearest signs of pride. It betrays a sense of self-reliance. Without God’s guidance, help, and wisdom, we shouldn’t expect to succeed. Faith is by nature a dependence or reliance upon God, and prayer is often a way of expressing it. Jesus’ parable of the importunate widow indicates that we should seek God persistently (Luke 18:1-8). But like an angry little child who desperately wants to show the world how big he is, pride says, I want to do it myself. 

Pride creates spiritual dangers and leads to discontentment. Oftentimes, we don’t see pride’s effects because we’re wrapped up in ourselves:

We become a laughingstock because our self-absorption is amusing to other people. Others pity us for our off-putting arrogance. We waste valuable opportunities for growth because we’re convinced we already have all the answers. People pull away from us because we have a parasitic need for validation. 

Being humble is not just a means of defeating pride or stepping in the right direction for self-improvement—it’s a necessary step in becoming like Jesus. The best version of us is when we let go of ourselves and become more like him.