If we reflect on sin very deeply at all, it becomes clear that the heart or root of sin is pride and self. There is not one sin that does not flow from a heart that is full of pride and self. The Greatest Command is to love God with all of the heart, but pride does the exact opposite of that command which is to love self which is in reality to be at enmity with God. All sin has its root in the pride of the heart. Sin is when human beings exalt themselves or depend on their own wisdom to determine what is right and wrong. This is the lie of the devil or the Serpent of old. He promised Eve that she could be like God knowing good and evil (Gen 3:5). This was the stench of pride and the poison of the old Serpent. When the Serpent got Eve to think that she could determine what was good and evil, she was his. When it is pride that determines for itself what is good and evil, then the human being that is proud has become like God in his or her own mind and is deep in sin.
Now the depth of pride is seen as I John 2:15-16: “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.” Pride is seen in loving the world rather than loving God. When the heart loves the world it shows that the love of God is not in that heart. When the love of the world is expressed in the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes, that shows that the fleshly soul has a spring of desires for the things forbidden by God. When the heart has such pride that it is described as a boastful pride of life, that is clearly not from the Father. But this type of heart is simply the repeating of the sin of Adam and Eve. It shows that the heart still has the first Adam as its father and not Christ in the heart.
The heart that is full of pride is a heart that lives in love for itself rather than love for God. It sees the commandments of God as being interpreted by self for the good of self. When self interprets the commandments for self, then all things are relative to self and the good of self. It is simply the proud heart acting like the devil’s promise and deciding what is good or evil according to its own wisdom. When this proud heart sees the Greatest Commandment to love God with all of its being, it may bow toward that but unless it is born again it will only twist that command to do what self wants to do. Self and pride always lives in opposition to God and the Greatest Commandment because self and pride follow love for self as its own greatest command. This is why one must deny self and take up the cross in order to follow Christ. Not only must one do it once, but it must be done daily (Luke 9:23). The one who does not deny self cannot follow Christ because that person is following self. Following self out of love is to be at enmity with God and His Greatest Commandment. It is also to be at enmity with the Second Greatest Commandment to love one’s neighbor.
As we think upon pride the necessity of humility shines forth. If pride keeps us from loving God, then we should know that our pride must be repented of in order that love would flow through a humble heart. If pride drives us to self-exaltation rather than to exalt God, then we know we must repent of pride so that God would be exalted through a humble heart. If pride keeps us leaning on self-sufficiency, then we know that we must repent of that in order to have a humble heart that would lean on God’s sufficiency in Christ. If pride drives us to self-determination, then we know that we must repent of that and be humbled to the sovereign will of God. But the heart is so deceitful that it will hide its pride behind words, doctrines, and religious activities. The Pharisees did that. They hid their proud hearts behind religion and blinded themselves and others to their pride. A heart that is being humbled realizes that it must look to the work of God to humble it as pride will never cast out pride and self will never cast out self though a proud self will try to hide behind other things.
If all sin is truly linked to pride and self in that all sin flows from pride and self, then the utter necessity of true humility shines forth. A soul must be humbled in order for Christ to reign in that soul rather than pride. The soul must be humbled so that the soul can turn from the reign of self in it to the reign of the love of Christ. The love of God dwells in the soul by grace and His love in the soul will not live with pride. After all, over and over again we see that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (I Peter 5:5). We see that God dwells with the humble and teaches them His way (Psa 25:9). He dwells with the lowly and the contrite in spirit (Isa 57:15). He looks with pleasure upon the humble, the contrite, and those who tremble at His word (Isa 66:2). Humility is not just something that is added to a person, it is that complete opposite of the sinful person who lives in pride and self. Humility must be there or a person is in the bondage of pride and self no matter how religious s/he is.
God Loves... Himself 
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