The first great sin was pride. After considering his own splendor and wisdom, Satan thought that he knew more about running the universe than God did (see Ezekiel 28:14-19). Satan said, "I will exalt myself!" -- it was pride at its worst.
We can use the word pride to mean a sense of accomplishment or a desire to do well. You may be proud that your daughter makes straight As in school. Satisfaction in a job done well is proper. But Jesus said that when we have done well we are to remember that we are "unprofitable servants." We did simply what was our duty (Luke 17:10).
The best way to guard against sinful pride is to look at yourself, your family and your achievements as objectively as possible. But knowing what you can do well is certainly not pride. A world class runner, for example, would be lying with false humility if he said, "I'm just an old slowpoke." Rather, he should say, "God has given me the ability to run fast. I use it for His glory and praise Him for it."
All this is proper and glorifies God. However, when we begin to compare ourselves to other people, this sort of thinking leads to pride that is unhealthy and sinful.
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