WHAT SINS LEAD US TO DEATH AND HOW TO DEAL WITH THEM WHAT IS PRIDE What is high among people is an abomination before God.

In. 16:15 God resists the proud.

In. 4, 6 The most important and most ancient of the deadly sins is pride.

This sin can be defined as follows: pride is immeasurable, exaggerated love for oneself, false reverence for one's own merits and blind confidence in them. "Whoever is infected with pride is inclined to show contempt for everything, even for holy and divine things: pride mentally destroys or defiles every good thought, word, deed, every creation of God.

This is the deadening breath of Satan" (St.

John of Kronstadt).

The proud man is arrogant, verbose, and seeks glory, honor, praise, and obedience from all. "Pride usually shows itself in the fact that the one infected with it makes equal to himself all, or at least many, who are superior to himself in age, in power, in abilities, and does not tolerate being inferior to them.

If a proud person is a subordinate, he does not respect the orders of his superior, he fulfills them reluctantly, out of fear; he equals himself with all the educated and does not give preference to anyone, or very, very few; if he is a scholar or even an unlearned, a son or a daughter, he does not pay due respect to his parents and benefactors, especially simple and coarse ones, considering them equal to himself and even inferior" (St.

John of Kronstadt).

The offspring of pride are innumerable: haughtiness, selfishness, ambition, hypocrisy, pretense, arrogance in manners, boasting in words, pomp in dress, immoderate desires, unfriendliness, the spirit of vengeance, contempt for one's neighbor, and in general all sins contrary to love; for the proud man loves no one but himself.

Pride, with its innumerable offspring, can be likened to the great tree that the proud Nebuchadnezzar saw in a dream.

The top of the tree touched the clouds, and its branches, laden with fruit, stretched to the ends of the earth; in the shade beneath it lay the beasts of the field, in its branches dwelt the birds of the air, and all the animals that take shelter under the tree are vices born of pride.

They flock here as a common center and live quietly under the dense branches.

WHAT IS THE LOVE OF MONEY, INTEREST AND USURY You cannot serve God and mammon (wealth).