Mere Christianity [book III, ch1-7]

Main points: Lewis discusses morality and how it is the condition of the inward man that matters most. Among other virtues, he touches on marriage and Christ-like forgiveness. 

Lewis starts his next section talking about morality and virtuous living. In the first chapter, he establishes the long-term importance of morality:

Christianity asserts that every individual human being is going to live for ever... Now there are a good many things which would not be worth bothering about if I were going to live only seventy years, but which I had better bother about very seriously if I am going to live for ever. Perhaps my bad temper or my jealousy are gradually getting worse —so gradually that the increase in seventy years will not be very noticeable. But it might be absolute hell in a million years: in fact, if Christianity is true, Hell is the precisely correct technical term for what it would be. 

Living with an Eternal Perspective means that the little things I do... that might not be so good... that I think don't matter so much..... actually matter a lot. 

Lewis then moves into a discussion of virtues - but more important than the specific actions are what they make of us. He writes, 

"There is a difference between doing some particular just or temperate action and being a just or temperate man... A man who perseveres in doing just actions gets in the end a certain quality of character. Now it is that quality rather than the particular actions which we mean when we talk of "virtue."" 

This reminded me of Elder Lynn G. Robbin's talk, What Manner of Men and Women Ought Ye to Be? 

Speaking of perseverance, Lewis also writes, "You will notice, of course, that you cannot practise any of the other virtures very long without bringing [fortitude] into play." In The Screwtape Letters, Lewis expressed the same idea when he wrote, "Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means, at the point of highest reality. A chastity or honesty or mercy which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions."

In trying to practice good moral living, it is important to remember that "God is not deceived by externals." A large portion of the Sermon on the Mount is dedicated to internal righteous living, not just what other people see. Internal righteousness is the only kind that will lead us to being the kind of people God wants us to be. Lewis writes, "Right actions done for the wrong reason do not help to build the internal quality or character called a "virtue," and it is this quality or character that really matters." Mormon teaches us basically the same thing in Moroni 7:6-9 - if we do good works without real intent, it doesn't profit us at all.  

And why should we be doing these good works and developing virtuous character? Lewis explains,

"If we thought only of the particular actions... we might think that God wanted simply obedience to a set of rules: whereas He really wants people of a particular sort... We might think that the "virtues" were necessary only for this present life—that in the other world we could stop being just because there is nothing to quarrel about and stop being brave because there is no danger. Now it is quite true that there will probably be no occasion for just or courageous acts in the next world, but there will be every occasion for being the sort of people that we can become only as the result of doing such acts here. The point is not that God will refuse you admission to His eternal world if you have not got certain qualities of character: the point is that if people have not got at least the beginnings of those qualities inside them, then no possible external conditions could make a "Heaven" for them—that is, could make them happy with the deep, strong, unshakable kind of happiness God intends for us." [emphasis added]

This is something that I think is super important to understand...  God didn't make up an arbitrary set of rules for us, nor even a good set of rules. God wants us to be happy, like Him. His work and His glory is to bring about our Eternal Life. He teaches us how to be, so that we can be like Him. That is the purpose behind doing righteous actions. We do the good things so that we can become as He is. :)


Lewis' words on charitable giving always sort of prick my conscience: 

"I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare... If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small." 

Hm. I don't think I'm quite there yet. Something for me to work on! It's eternally important, after all. :)

In chapter 3, Lewis writes about a Christian society and concludes:  

"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."

It definitely is the internal that will eventually change the external, not the other way around. We must obey God before we can love Him, and we must love Him before we can love our neighbors. I can only be a good member of society if I am first obeying God. It reminds me of what Ezra Taft Benson said in a talk called Born of God - 

"The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature... Yes, Christ changes men, and changed men can change the world."

The next chapter, Morality and Psychoanalysis, reminds me of a class on mental illness I took at BYU last year. Joseph Smith taught that,

Men will be held accountable for the things which they have and not for the things they have not. … All the light and intelligence communicated to them from their beneficent creator, whether it is much or little, by the same they in justice will be judged, and … they are required to yield obedience and improve upon that and that only which is given.

I think Lewis would agree. He writes, "Human beings judge one another by their external actions. God judges them by their moral choices."

Even going beyond what we may call "mental illness," it is still true that God sees the inner picture that we here on earth never could. Lewis explains,

Some of us who seem quite nice people may, in fact, have made so little use of a good heredity and a good upbringing that we are really worse than those whom we regard as fiends. Can we be quite certain how we should have behaved if we had been saddled with the psychological outfit, and then with the bad upbringing, and then with the power, say, of Himmler? That is why Christians are told not to judge. We see only the results which a man's choices make out of his raw material. But God does not judge him on the raw material at all, but on what he has done with it. Most of the man's psychological makeup is probably due to his body: when his body dies all that will fall off him, and the real central man, the thing that chose, that made the best or the worst out of this material, will stand naked. All sorts of nice things which we thought our own, but which were really due to a good digestion, will fall off some of us: all sorts of nasty things which were due to complexes or bad health will fall off others. We shall then, for the first tune, see every one as he really was. There will be surprises.

I feel like I am one of those people blessed with a great family and wonderful upbringing. I have to expect a lot more of myself, and never judge another person, because I have no idea what "raw material" they're working with. God does. He knows everything, knows every person perfectly. He is their Creator, and in the end only He can judge. As He said to the prophet Samuel, "the Lord looketh on the heart."

Lewis really seems to understand the importance of choices and agency. He writes,

"Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow-creatures, and with itself... Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state or the other."

So true! And it really reminds me how important day-to-day choices are in turning me into what I will eventually be. Emily Dickinson wrote, "Forever – is composed of Nows –" and I think this is the principle that Lewis is explaining. What I choose now is turning me into what I will be forever. 


Lewis concludes this chapter on morality by reminding us that 

"When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse, he understands his own badness less and less. A moderately bad man knows he is not very good: a thoroughly bad man thinks he is all right." 

This is a good way to check myself - do I think I'm doing alright? Then I'm probably headed in the wrong direction. The closer to God I get, the more clearly I will see how much farther I have to go.


Lewis next writes about sexual morality and Christian marriage. He defines marriage love thus:

It is a deep unity, maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habit; reinforced by (in Christian marriages) the grace which both parents ask, and receive, from God. They can have this love for each other even at those moments when they do not like each other; as you love yourself even when you do not like yourself... "Being in love" first moved them to promise fidelity: this quieter love enables them to keep the promise. It is on this love that the engine of marriage is run: being in love was the explosion that started it.

I've never been married, but I've been part of a family and I think it works the same way. We can love each other even when we do not really like each other. It is only by God's grace that we can continue to love as He loves, that we can maintain a loving relationship even when it isn't easy.

Lastly, Lewis' words on forgiveness. I like how he bases his thoughts on the principle that we are to love our neighbours as ourselves. First, he examines how we love ourselves. We don't always like ourselves, and we don't always think what we do is right. In fact, sometimes I'm really mad at myself for doing things I know are wrong. But I still always love myself. In fact, just like Lewis, it is because I love myself that I am sorry to find that I am the sort of person who did those things. So in loving my neighbours, I don't have to love what they do. In fact I can (and should) hate what they do, if it is evil. Though this may appear to just be outright hatred, Lewis asks us to remember,

We Christians think man lives for ever. Therefore, what really matters is those little marks or twists on the central, inside part of the soul which are going to turn it, in the long run, into a heavenly or a hellish creature.

What really matters is how I'm feeling on the inside about the person. What Lewis has been telling us throughout these seven chapters is that our inner choices matter infinitely more than our outward actions. Of course, our inward choices are reflected in what we do. :)

Regardless of any sin I might hate, I can always love the person. God commands us to love everyone!

"I admit that this means loving people who have nothing lovable about them. But then, has oneself anything lovable about it? You love it simply because it is yourself... Perhaps it makes it easier if we remember that that is how He loves us. Not for any nice, attractive qualities we think we have, but just because we are the things called selves."

To love as God loves. That is my goal. He doesn't love me for anything nice about me, but for just being me. It reminds me of a talk by President Uchtdorf called The Love of God. In it he teaches us, 

Think of the purest, most all-consuming love you can imagine. Now multiply that love by an infinite amount—that is the measure of God’s love for you... Though we are incomplete, God loves us completely. Though we are imperfect, He loves us perfectly. Though we may feel lost and without compass, God’s love encompasses us completely... We are important to God not because of our résumé but because we are His children. He loves every one of us, even those who are flawed, rejected, awkward, sorrowful, or broken. God’s love is so great that He loves even the proud, the selfish, the arrogant, and the wicked.What this means is that, regardless of our current state, there is hope for us. No matter our distress, no matter our sorrow, no matter our mistakes, our infinitely compassionate Heavenly Father desires that we draw near to Him so that He can draw near to us." [emphasis added]

And finally, the scripture that comes to mind is,

Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

...

read the full text of Mere Christianity here!

EDIT 9/21/11: I think Lewis would agree with Martin Luther King, Jr, who said that, 

"He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. It is impossible even to begin the act of loving one's enemies without the prior acceptance of the necessity, over and over again, of forgiving those who inflict evil and injury upon us...Forgiveness does not mean ignoring what has been done or putting a false label on an evil act. It means, rather, that the evil act no longer remains as a barrier to the relationship...Without this, no man can love his enemies. The degree to which we are able to forgive determines the degree to which we are able to love our enemies.... 

We must recognize that the evil deed of the enemy-neighbor, the thing that hurts, never quite expresses all that he is. An element of goodness may be found even in our worst enemy. Each of us has something of a schizophrenic personality, tragically divided against ourselves. A persistent civil war rages within all of our lives. Something within us causes us to lament with Ovid, the Latin poet, "I see and approve the better things, but follow worse," or to agree with Plato that human personality is like a charioteer having two headstrong horses, each wanting to go in a different direction, or to repeat with the Apostle Paul, "The good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do." This simply means that there is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies. When we look beneath the surface, beneath. the impulsive evil deed, we see within our enemy-neighbor a measure of goodness and know that the viciousness and evilness of his acts are not quite representative of all that he is. We see him in a new light. We recognize that his hate grows out of fear, pride, ignorance, prejudice, and misunderstanding, but in spite of this, we know God's image is ineffably etched in being. Then we love our enemies by realizing that they are not totally bad and that they are not beyond the reach of God's redemptive love... 

Another reason why we must love our enemies is that hate scars the soul and distorts the personality... Hate is just as injurious to the person who hates. Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true...

My friends, we have followed the so-called practical way for too long a time now, and it has led inexorably to deeper confusion and chaos. Time is cluttered with the wreckage of communities which surrendered to hatred and violence. For the salvation of our nation and the salvation of mankind, we must follow another way.While abhorring segregation, we shall love the segregationist. This is the only way to create the beloved community.

[emphasis added]