Pride—The “Parent Sin”

“The Savior said: “… he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.” (Matt. 23:11.) I think he said that, in part, to help us avoid what some have come to call the “great sin.” C. S. Lewis wrote that in his opinion, pride is the “parent sin”—out of it comes all others. He went on to say that he who thinks he is not conceited is very conceited indeed. It is so easy for us to become self-centered and egocentric, and to believe that the world revolves around us. We are concerned about how we can get what we wish from life, rather than what we can do to serve others.

More than 60 times in the Book of Mormon, in a cyclical way, we read about what happened to people as a result of pride. The Savior must have felt that to be a very important message. It is so easy to fall into the sin of pride.”

Joe J. Christensen, associate commissioner for Seminaries and Institutes (from a talk given at Brigham Young University)