We must not interpret God’s unconditional love as approval of our behavior.
Archives For November 30, 1999
scitis fratres mei dilecti sit autem omnis homo velox ad audiendum tardus autem ad loquendum et tardus ad iram
James 1:19
A Christian society is not going to arrive until most of us really want it: and we are not going to want it until we become fully Christian. I may repeat “Do as you would be done by” till I am black in the face, but I cannot really carry it out till I love my neighbour as myself: and I cannot learn to love my neighbour as myself till I learn to love God: and I cannot learn to love God except by learning to obey Him. And so, as I warned you, we are driven on to something more inward – driven on from social matters to religious matters
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Man has been accustomed, ever since he was a boy, to having a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head. He doesn’t think of doctrines as primarily “true” or “false,” but as “academic” or “practical,” “outworn” or “contemporary,” “conventional” or “ruthless.” Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church. Don’t waste time trying to make him think that materialism is true! Make him think it is strong or stark or courageous—that it is the philosophy of the future. That’s the sort of thing he cares about.
C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
God is no fonder of intellectual slackers than He is of any other slacker.
C.S. Lewis
The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self–all your wishes and precautions–to Christ. But it is far easier than what we are all trying to do instead. For what we are trying to do is to remain what we call “ourselves,” to keep personal happiness as our great aim in life, and yet at the same time be “good.”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
For you will certainly carry out God’s purpose, however you act, but it makes a difference to you whether you serve like Judas or like John.
C.S. Lewis
audiens sapiens sapientior erit et intellegens gubernacula possidebit (A wise man shall hear, and shall be wiser: and he that understandeth shall possess governments.)
Proverbs 1:5, Latin Vulgate Bible
There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously – no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.
C.S. Lewis
If God ‘foresaw’ our acts, it would be very hard to understand how we could be free not to do them. But suppose god is outside and above the Time-line… You never supposed that your actions at this moment were any less free because God knows what you are doing. Well, He know your tomorrow’s actions in just the same way–because He is already in tomorrow and can simply watch you. In a sense, He does not know your action till you have done it: but the moment at which you have done it is already ‘NOW’ for Him.
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Acerbity [əˈsɜːbɪtɪ] 