Pride can, according to St. John, render salvation impossible, whatever other virtues we may possess. This is why it is so important to acknowledge our pride, to have enough humility to fight it, and to struggle to acquire greater humility. By contrast, the surest way to know that we are full of pride is to think that we are free of it.

Pride, in its purest form, is a rejection of God. It is for this reason that St. John ends his chapter on pride with a section on blasphemy and blasphemous thoughts. Blasphemy is to speak, think, or act in a derogatory way about God or things divine. Thus blasphemy is the outcome of the deepest demonic pride.

Nonetheless, St. John goes on to speak of blasphemous thoughts not only as the fruit of pride, but also as a demonic temptation that even the most righteous can experience.

The only way to fight blasphemous thoughts is to keep on praying and struggling against pride, which is the root of blasphemy. John writes:

Let us refrain from passing judgment or condemnation on our neighbor. If we do, then we will not be terrorized by blasphemous thoughts, since the one produces the other. He who has defeated this vice has banished pride.

We see in St. John’s ideas about pride how all things in our spiritual and psychological lives are connected. Our attitudes of mind truly influence our behavior.

It seems that when we are filled with pride it may be the result of how we were treated as children. If we were depreciated as children – made to feel worthless or unworthy – we may develop a psychological defense mechanism which tries to suave our hurt ego by making us more prideful. Again, if we were given a false sense of who we are and what our talents are, we may become boastful and prideful. Pride is only quelled by an honest recognition of who we are in God’s kingdom and a true acceptance of who we are. Virtue is when we recognize who it is that God created when He created us.