What causes us humans to murder, lie, steal, cheat, covet, etc…? Does the devil really make us do it as some people claim? When we say something is evil what do we mean? Are we referring to the act itself or the perpetrator of the act? A blind force or a personality? Is it external or internal? To understand what evil is we need to look beyond the sins themselves. Acts that are considered evil, like murder and adultery, are not the source but simply the fruit of evil. Fruit, like apples for example, doesn’t just appear; it grows on trees.
A quick look at Genesis tells us that evil entered this once perfect world when Adam and Eve, tempted by Satan, picked and ate the forbidden fruit. But a closer look at Genesis reveals much more than a simple act of disobedience. Using the appropriate illustration of a tree and fruit, I would like to argue that evil had already taken root in the heart of humanity before the fruit was picked and eaten. The sinful disobedient act of picking the fruit and then indulging in it was not the real issue. Remember, sin doesn’t just appear, like fruit it must grow on something. What was the tree the fruit of disobedience and self indulgence grew from? What poisonous seed was willingly and uneventfully received from Satan during the temptation?
But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. — Genesis 3:4-6 (ESV)
Satan’s temptation focussed on one thought: elevate yourself. Pride was the seed that grew to produce the fruit of sin. The self had to rise to the surface before it could grab the forbidden fruit. Pride is all about elevating our self, our pleasures and our ideas to God’s level. Our first parents were already poisoned with the evil of pride before they disobeyed; the eating of the fruit merely proved it. Pride is more than a sin; it’s the tree on which all sin grows. Pride truly is ‘the root of every sin and evil’ (Andrew Murray, ‘Humility’ ).
Pride is the origin of evil, the original cosmic sin. It’s what made the devil the devil, as C.S. Lewis put it. Satan was not ejected from heaven for promiscuous behaviour or stealing his neighbour’s stuff or cheating (those ‘sins’ don’t exist in eternity). Satan was cast down for his pride, his elevation of self. Nothing is more repulsive to an infinitely humble God than the evil, in your face vulgarity of pride.
How you are fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground,
You who weakened the nations!
For you have said in your heart:
‘I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will also sit on the mount of the congregation
On the farthest sides of the north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High.’
Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,
To the lowest depths of the Pit.
Isaiah 14:12-15 (NKJV)
Satan is a fallen angel. His original state reflected the glory of God. He was not created evil but he was created with a free-will. Freeing a creature’s will is God’s most sovereign act. Free-will is a grand thing. It’s what allows an individual to partake in the divine act of giving its self. So how did Satan corrupt what was good and poison himself from nothing but pure ingredients? I believe Satan became bent and the corrupt by the misuse of his free-will in what C.S. Lewis calls ‘the holy game’. This quote is from the chapter 10 in Lewis’ book, The Problem of Pain:
The golden apple of selfhood, thrown among the false gods, became an apple of discord because they scrambled for it. They did not know the first rule of the holy game, which is that every player must by all means touch the ball and then immediately pass it on. To be found with it in your hands is a fault: to cling to it, death. But when it flies to and fro among the players too swift for eye to follow, and the great master Himself leads the revelry, giving Himself eternally to His creatures in the generation, and back to Himself in the sacrifice, of the Word, then indeed the eternal dance ‘makes heaven drowsy with the harmony’. (p. 158)
The evil of pride came into existence when Satan misused free-will and held on to ‘the golden apple of selfhood’. Free-will is meant to be used in giving the self away, not holding on to it. Imagine a game of tennis if one person chose to hold on to the ball. The thrill, the energy, the joy, the life of the game - it all dies if someone grabs for the ball and says, ‘It’s mine!’ The faster the ball is hit, the less it’s in your side of the court, the more thrilling the game! Whoever holds on to their life and says, ‘It’s mine, it’s all about me’ will lose it. Proud creatures can’t play God’s holy game!
If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. –Jesus Christ, Matthew 16:24-25 (ESV)
What is evil? Without a doubt, it’s pride. Pride is where it all started. Pride grows the fruit of sin, disobedience picks it and our flesh devours it. Any sin we care to indulge in follows that order. Not only does pride explain where evil came from but it also tells us who is responsible. The devil didn’t make us do it. No one else is responsible for my pride but me. The critical part of my battle with sin is not the act itself but the seemingly quiet period before when my pride is growing and the self is rising to the surface.
Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. — Proverbs 16:18 (ESV)
The biggest fight of my life is not with the devil or ‘the world’ or materialism or apathy or promiscuity or internet pornography or gluttony or drugs or alcohol… All such vices need my pride in order to grow. Pride is where the fight is, where the most important battle takes place. And the stakes are high. Eternity in fact. It all depends on whether I rise and say, ‘my will be done’ or lower myself and say ‘Thy will be done’.