Of all the sins ever sinned, the worst was that of Lucifer. Because of his sin, he fell from his chief position of covering cherub; because of his sin, he was cast out of heaven and removed forever from his creator.
Each one of us is guilty in one form or another of this same sin. Every time we deal with a situation in our own strength, every time we compare ourselves with others, every time we think we can handle the curveballs life throws us, every time we delight in what we have done by ourselves…
We are all guilty of pride.
It is interesting to note in Proverbs that “only by pride cometh contention.” The logical reverse would be that without pride, there would be no contention! Now think about that… every argument or disagreement arises from one standard, and thus one root issue. That standard is the belief that what I, for instance, believe is the correct belief and that yours is therefore wrong.
From this pride (root issue) that we hold in believing our case to be the correct one (whether this is true or not), we slide easily into arguing/discussing who is right. Now it may be that one is actually right and the other is actually wrong, but the contention arose because each felt he was right.
It is that pride that leads to contention.
Now I’m not saying that it’s wrong to discuss and debate issues because I do believe in a definite right and wrong actually exists. I just find it interesting that if pride did not exist, neither would contentions.
