It's been awhile since I've read Ezra Taft Benson's talk on Pride. Here are the first two installments (I and II). It's been on my mind today, so I thought I'd spend my scripture study time looking a bit further into these great words. Hope you enjoy them too. Here's the talk in its entirety if you're interested.
· Christ was ready to support His Father’s plan and be the Savior that His Father needed to step up to save us all. Christ would just do it for no glory—just out of love for His Father and thus us. Lucifer would do it by force. He would take away our agency, which is an eternal principle, but his catch…the glory. He had to have it in order to do it. He wanted credit for his part in it all. He wanted to be God.
How does this relate to us? Do we do things just for the sake of doing something good and right and because we love God and my fellow beings? Or, do we want credit and thanks and to be placed on a pedestal by others? Do we want the glory?
· Pride will destroy us. It was the problem with Sodom. "The scriptures abound with evidences of the severe consequences of the sin of pride to individuals, groups, cities, and nations. 'Pride goeth before destruction.'"
Ezekiel 16:49-50:
49Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister aSodom, bpride, fulness of bread, and abundance of cidleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
50And they were haughty, and committed aabomination before me: therefore I took them baway cas I saw good.
So, if we want to be free of pride, we must be grateful for all that we have knowing that it could be taken away at any moment. We need to give to others—do random acts of kindness just because our fellowmen are His children too. It seems that we are frequently afraid to act on another’s behalf because in this day and age, there are sometimes dire consequences, so we’ve dropped the Good Samaritan idea. Do we fear man more than God?
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