Pride

Avoiding the root of sin

"Yea, and there shall be many which shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die; and it shall be well with us. 

And there shall also be many which shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry; nevertheless, fear God—he will justify in committing a little sin; yea, lie a little, take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a pit for thy neighbor; there is no harm in this; and do all these things, for tomorrow we die; and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God. 

Yea, they have all gone out of the way; they have become corrupted, because of pride," -2 Nephi 28:7-8,11-12

In these times, many people reject the notion of any standard to follow in life. The world increasingly turns toward an attitude that anything goes, and away from an attitude of righteousness. This situation is described in verse 7. In the next verse Nephi talks about a more common group of people. These are those who believe in doing the right thing, but also allow sin without repentance. In 2 Nephi 25:23, Nephi explains that we must "believe in Christ, and be reconciled to God, [then] it is by grace we are saved, after all we can do." Obviously none of us are perfect in our actions, and we will make mistakes. When we do, we must turn to Christ and receive forgiveness through Him. Christ died for us and our sins, and is always there for us to repent and come to Him.

But why do some persist in the attitudes mentioned in verses 7 and 8? Nephi explains their sins in verses 9-14, and the recurring theme is pride. When we talk about pride negatively, it is not being satisfied with our accomplishments, but it is feeling jealousy and thinking you are better than others. Those who don't feel like they need help from anyone have pride. In class this week, we talked about a different interpretation to the common parable of the lost sheep. In this parable, Christ leaves his 99 sheep to go and find the one who is lost. I've always thought of the 99 sheep as the righteous who are already secure, and the one as someone who lost their way in sin. Naturally, with this view we would all like to think of ourselves as the 99. A different interpretation is that the 99 sheep are prideful and not receptive to the words of Christ, while the one is trying to find their way back and needs Christ to rescue him. In this explanation, we should all strive to be the one sheep. We need Christ in our lives if we hope to make it back to the highest glory. His arm is stretched toward us, and He is willing to help us.

I challenge you to lay aside your pride and try to be better. Don't judge others, and learn to love. Seek help from Christ and from others.