Falling

According to C. S. Lewis, the greatest and most common sin is pride:
1. “There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others.
2. “According to Christian teachers, it is the essential vice, the utmost evil.
3. “It was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.
4. “Each person’s pride is in competition with everyone else’s pride.
5. “Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. . . it is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition is gone, pride has gone.
6. “In God, you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that – and, therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison – you do not know God at all.
7. “Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are good – above all that we are better than someone else – I think we may be sure that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the devil. The real test of being in the presence of God is, that you either forget about yourself altogether or see yourself as a small, dirty object. It is better to forget about yourself altogether.
8. “Pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense.
9. “Pleasure in being praised is not Pride. . . . the pleasure lies not in what you are but in the fact that you have pleased someone you wanted (and rightly wanted) to please. . . . You value other people enough to want them to look at you. You are, in fact, still human. The real black, diabolical Pride, comes when you look down on others so much that you do not care what they think of you. Of course, it is very right, and often our duty, not to care what people think of us, if we do so for the right reason; namely because we care so incomparably more what God thinks. . . . the devil loves ‘curing’ a small fault by giving you a great one. We must try not to be vain, but we must never call in our Pride to cure our vanity.
10. “. . . if you really get into any kind of touch with (God) you will, in fact, be humble – delightedly humble, feeling the infinite relief of having for once got rid of all the silly nonsense about your own dignity which has made you restless and unhappy all your life.
11. “Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call ‘humble’. . . . Probably all you will think about him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him. If you do dislike him, it will be because you feel a little envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily. He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all.
12. The first step is to realize that one is proud. And a biggish step, too. At least, nothing whatever can be done before it. If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed. (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, “The Greatest Sin”)

Proverbs 16:18 18 Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

James 4:6-10 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.