1.5.2 – Superbia: Hubris

Superbia – pride; insolence; arrogance; haughtiness

– WordHippo

Pride is often considered the most dangerous of the deadly sins because it easily leads to any (or all) of the others. But what is it? Can we have good, fuzzy feelings about our accomplishments without being sinful?

What Constitutes the Deadly Sin of Pride?

Pride is the excessive love of one’s own excellence.

– New Advent

Just as we discussed earlier with respect to lust, pride is sinful when it’s in excess. Appreciating your own self-worth is fine, but it should be done in moderation and with due respect to the One who made you. You are extraordinarily valuable and loved; so is everyone else God created. Recognize your own worth, but keep it in check.

Most of us have met these people or those who won’t say it aloud but they make you feel like you’re lesser because they’re greater. Some people do mean it. Heuristically, however, I’ve found that eager confidence often comes off as hubris, so reminder: we should reflect on our own actions, or help friends understand how they come across if they ask, but it’s improper to condemn the actions of others because we don’t know their minds.

Pride: the Gateway Sin

Pride goes before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before a fall.

– Proverbs 16:18

– Wait Up: If It’s the Worst Sin, Why’s It In the Middle?

Good question! Pride falls in the middle of this series because I ordered it based on the virtues, not on the sins. Oddly enough, the baddest sins aren’t directly tied to the goodest virtues. I hypothesize that this is because even the slightest virtue can handle the gravest depravity because virtue is with God – the same way it only takes the faith of a mustard seed to move mountains.

– How Does Hubris Lead to Destruction?

Pride is a gateway to the other sins. By thinking so much of ourselves, we may think ourselves invincible. In thinking that nothing can harm us, we may do things we shouldn’t do – like sin. It goes back to original sin entering the world in Genesis: Eve ate the apple because she thought she knew better than God.

– Line Drawn Between Hubris and Reason

We may think that we know what’s best for ourselves, better than our friends, our family, our wisest advisors, and even God Himself.

Sometimes we do know better than the advice offered; people know about different things based on the experiences they’ve had. For example, I have a dear friend whom I would delightedly take investment advice from as he’s an enthusiastic hobbyist who does rather well for himself; however, I probably wouldn’t ask for marriage advice as he’s not married. That’s not pride; that’s a reasoned assessment of skill.

A clear maneuver of pride would be dismissing his investment wisdom out of hand because I know better simply because I’m me. He’s done extensive research over years; I’ve read Little Book of Bull Moves circa 2010. The book was a great introduction, but it’s an introduction, and it’s almost a decade old. (This is quite dated for investment advice when considering milliseconds matter to the point one author wrote a novel about it.) Suffice to say, I’m no expert.

But if I’m all about myself and I can’t be wrong, that won’t matter. I could lose every penny I ever had investing poorly and it wouldn’t be my fault, it’d be the fault of the market, or bad luck, or malfeasance. If I’m proud, the problem can’t be me – perish the thought! – because I’m too awesome to make a mistake. But I lost so much! Someone must be to blame!

… And then anger sets in. And probably envy aimed at whomever got away with my money. And greed was likely in the mix when making the original decision.

Oh. Look: that’s easily three more deadly sins.

Is Self-Harm the Only Problem with Pride?

– No Room at the Inn

Unfortunately not.

Therein lies the problem, doesn’t it? We’re called to love God and to love His creation, but pride prevents us from doing just that because there’s no more room – because we don’t make space and time in our lives to love others. Pride is a problem because there’s no love left for God or neighbor.

This harkens back to our discussion on envy. God is a jealous god, and He wants our love both for Himself and for His creatures. Sinful pride prevents us from loving others, and loving others constitutes the first and second new commands Jesus gave to us (as recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke).

– Where is Pride in the Bible?

Pride prevents us from doing what we are called to do – to love God and love each other. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the Bible has a few choice things to say about the topic. Specifically, God calls us to cast off our pride and return to Him. Check it out:

God abases the proud,
but he saves the lowly.

– Job 22:29

Again:

Toward the scorners he is scornful,
but to the humble he shows favor.

– Proverbs 3:34

And again:

He gives more grace; therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.

– James 4:6-7, 10

– Ray of Hope

If we accept that pride is a problem, how do we identify it in our own lives? If pride has been the way we’ve been operating for years, how can we even tell what it is? We can ask friends for help, but even they won’t know for certain.

Through pride we are ever deceiving ourselves. But deep down, below the surface of the average conscience, a still, small voice says to us, “Something is out of tune. ”

– Carl Gustav Jung, Swiss Analytical Psychologist

While others may be able to lend a helping hand to get you started, they can’t determine anything for you. Self-reflection and listening to your inner guiding tuning fork is the only (non-divine interventionist) way of figuring out if pride is getting in the way.

Summary

Pride is self-love excessive to the point of blocking others out. It isn’t being content with work we completed or being excited at executing a great performance; rather, pride is a problem when it hinders our lives, our relationships with others, and our obligations. Like anger, it can trigger other sins and set off a chain of events.

Have you had any run-ins with pride recently? How to you keep yourself in check, or reign yourself back in once you’ve realized you overstepped? Let me know in the comments!

Further Reading

• New Advent explains pride; the entry is both helpful, albeit rather difficult to read through (mostly for lack of paragraphing).
• Another, simpler resource is the Got Questions article about pride.