All sin is ultimately rooted in what C.S. Lewis calls the great sin: pride: “Pride leads to every other vice; it is the completely anti-God state of mind.” (Mere Christianity) He says pride is essentially competitive in nature. And being so, the natural course of ego and conceit (pride, self-importance) is to demand our own way—no matter what God has to say about it. So it’s not hard to see why the Bible defines sin as “lawlessness.”

Lewis goes on to say that pride, “is one vice of which no man in the world is free; and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine they are guilty of themselves… and the more we have it in ourselves, the more we dislike it in others.” It’s not at all uncommon for Christians themselves to be oblivious to pride in their life, or at least not appreciate the extent to which this cancer influences them.

Pride is at the very core of the problem of sin because a demanding ego causes us to pursue the things of the world, where it’s easy to experience instant and tangible satisfaction for our misdirected needs—however deceptive and short term this fix might be.(1 John 2:16)

Being the offspring of self-will rooted in self-interest, ego constantly seeks to enhance itself in an attempt to satisfy the desires of the heart. When you think about it, it can easily be seen how all the sins described in the Bible are rooted toward serving this end. So, in our struggle against sin, it’s very helpful to understand why we continue to do what we do, even though we ultimately do not find it rewarding. Pride is the culprit, and the flesh is its instrument.

Excerpted from: Free from the Power of Sin: The Keys to Growing in God in Spite of Yourself