The promotion of self is specifically and clearly prohibited by Scripture, and yet it is promoted, lauded, and sold in Christianity as self-help and leadership. The Bible commands all to love God with all of their being and to submit entirely and completely to Him. Yet the pride of humanity is such that it will do things in the name of God and convince itself that it loves God. But when the main motive is self, doing something in the name of God is an attempt to use God to serve self. Pride can speak highly of God and do that in order to exalt self. Since pride is the exaltation of self in some way, in anything that is an attempt to promote or exalt self that is pride by definition. That is true in Christianity and in religion as in all things.
“Promoting self under the guise of promoting Christ is currently so common as to excite little notice… self can lie unrebuked at the very altar…It can fight for the faith of the reformers and preach eloquently the creed of salvation by grace and gain strength by its efforts. To tell the truth, it seems actually to feed upon orthodoxy and is more at home in a Bible conference than in a tavern…Self is the opaque veil that hides the face of God from us.” (A.W. Tozer in The Pursuit of God)
“In egocentric religion, we may say, man is the measure of all things-even of God. For God Himself is understood in the light of man. In theocentric religion it is God who is the ‘disposer supreme,’ the final arbiter of all things. Here, man is understood in the light of God. Expressing the difference in specifically religious language, we may say; in egocentric religion, man chooses or ‘elects’ God; in theocentric religion, God chooses or ‘elects’ man.” (Let God Be God! An Interpretation of the Theology of Martin Luther)
The Bible is quite clear in Isaiah 45:6 that God is central to all things: “That men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun That there is no one besides Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other.” At the very heart of biblical Christianity is the teaching that God is God in all things. He is to be the one loved with all of the heart, mind, soul, and strength. Love for Him is to be the chief motive in all that we do and all that we don’t do. The reason we do what we do is to be love for God and the reason we don’t do what we don’t do is to be love for God. But instead man elects God from pride in order to obtain benefits for God. Human beings read the Bible from pride and want God to do things for man. They also read the Bible in order to obtain praise and honor from others for what they know. Human beings will pray in order to appear religious and obtain things from God for self. All of these things are the epitome of pride. These are done (so to speak) at the very altar of God while self is the real love and motive of all that is done in the name of God.
Man and women love orthodoxy because of the honor, prestige, and perhaps wealth that it will bring. Men will preach long and loud in order to impress others or do things in the name of God while self stands there exalting in self. That is surely the height of pride. Self can look upon itself as orthodox with pride because it is comparing itself with those who are not. It may have the creed that tells it that it is orthodox because God enlightens the eyes and does this by grace, but pride will find ways to think of this as something to make it better and exalt self over others. Self will find ways to exalt itself because that is what pride does and yet deceive others and self because it gives God all the credit with its lips. Self will pretend to be humble in order to be exalted in the eyes of others and to think well of self too. The religion that comes from pride may be extremely devoted and orthodox, yet all is done for self. The religion that comes from pride may focus on helping others, but that is done for self.
Pride in religion prays to God to bless the plans that self has come up with. Pride in religion wants the blessing of the Spirit without the denial of self that the Spirit will work in the heart because holiness will not come apart from it. Pride will engage in all sorts of activities that it may be thought of as orthodox or as loving because that is easier than dying to self so that true love for God and man will be there. Man desires to be god to himself in reality while in words giving God all the credit, but it gives God the credit because it is supposed to and it must do so in order to obtain honor from others. In this egocentric or proud orthodoxy is a way that man rules and is in control and can fool himself and others into thinking that he is doing all for God. Apart from a broken heart, orthodoxy provides men with excuses for failure and ways to obtain glory in the name of God. The Bible says that God chooses men and makes them holy for His purposes. Pride chooses God and makes Him unholy (in intent) so that He will serve men for their purposes. Pride rises to the throne of God (in intent) and takes it from Him for the purposes of self.
God Loves... Himself 
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