Ryle: "It is a most soul-ruining sin."

J.C. Ryle on Mark 9 v 33-34 (CSB)

33 They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” 34 But they were silent, because on the way they had been arguing with one another about who was the greatest.

How strange this sounds! Who would have thought that a few fishermen and tax collectors could have been overcome by rivalry and the desire of supremacy?

Who would have expected that poor men who had given up everything for Christ’s sake would have been troubled by strife and dissension as to the place and precedence which each one deserved? Yet so it is. The fact is recorded for our learning.

The Holy Spirit has caused it to be written down for the perpetual use of Christ’s church. Let us take care that it is not written in vain.

It is an awful fact, whether we like to admit it or not, that pride is one of the commonest sins which beset human nature. We are all born Pharisees. We all naturally think far better of ourselves than we ought.

We all naturally imagine that we deserve something better than we have. It is an old sin. It began in the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve thought they had not got everything that their merits deserved. It is a subtle sin. It rules and reigns in many a heart without being detected, and can even wear the clothing of humility.

It is a most soul-ruining sin. It prevents repentance, keeps people back from Christ, checks brotherly love and nips spiritual concern in the bud.

Let us watch against it and be on our guard. Of all clothing, none is so graceful, none wears so well and none is so rare as true humility.

J. C. Ryle, Mark, Crossway Classic Commentaries (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1993), 135.

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