But now, sayest thou, who is such a fool as to choose pride for his God? No man living, sure, will do so. To this I answer that I cannot tell thee in special who sinneth deadly in pride. But in general I shall say that there be two sorts of pride, one bodily and the other spiritual. Bodily pride is of fleshly living men; spiritual is of hypocrites and heretics. These three sin deadly in pride; I mean such fleshly living men as St Paul speaks of: If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die. Then say I thus: That a worldly man who loveth and seeketh principally the worship of himself, and chooseth the liking of it as the rest of his heart, and the end of his bliss, he sinneth deadly. (John Climacus)

Do I seek principally the worship of myself?

To worship can have several meanings: to honor, to offer praise, to give thanks, to participate in sacred ritual, to revere, to fear... and more.

I cannot be sure of the Greek that Climacus might have used, there are several Greek terms each commonly translated by the English "worship."

But I wonder if λατρεύω (latreuo) may be his choice. This is the Greek that is used in the gospel of Luke, when Jesus quotes scripture to Satan: "It is written, 'You shall worship (latreuo) your God and serve (latreuo)him only." (Luke 4:8)

The verb is derived from the common term for a hired hand who would do menial work. Menial has come to mean lowly, but it originally meant to "belong to a household." It is the work of maintaining where we live.

Who do I serve? To whose household do I belong?