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Key insights from
Mere Christianity
By
C.S. Lewis
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What you'll learn
C.S. Lewis was one of the most beloved Christian authors of
the twentieth century. In this best-selling classic, Lewis's aim was to
articulate and defend the fundamental beliefs that are common to all
Christians. He begins with arguments for God's existence, then turns to the
basics of Christian doctrine. To ensure he was speaking on behalf of
Christians across denominational lines, Lewis sent the original script to
four clergymen (Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic) inviting
their critique. The result is the presentation of a common, or “mere”
Christianity.
Read on for key insights from Mere Christianity.
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1. There is a
moral dimension to reality that points in God’s direction.
When people argue, they often make implicit appeals to a
standard of behavior that they expect the other person to know about. For
example, they’ll say things like, “That’s not fair!” or “You should have
known better!” Without question, we all expect each other to behave a
certain way. And whenever we argue, attempts are made to hold each other
accountable. Of course, instead of denying that there is a moral standard
when we’re accused of violating it, we invariably claim that we haven’t
really violated it after all, or we make up some kind of excuse for our
behavior. Such responses only underscore the point—there is a standard of
behavior above and beyond our personal preferences, and each of us knows
it.
Just as physical objects are governed by the law of gravity,
so man’s behavior is governed by the law of morality. The key difference is
that man has a choice to either obey or disobey the moral law.
Nevertheless, we have all failed to consistently practice the kind of
behavior we expect from others.
The fact that we all know the moral law (and break it,
anyway) serves as a striking indication of what reality is really like.
There is a moral dimension to the universe that one wouldn’t expect unless
something like Christian theism is true.
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2. Christianity
becomes relevant the moment we realize that our bad behavior puts us at
odds with our good creator.
We are not completely in the dark regarding the source of
the moral law. Whoever is behind it has, at least in part, revealed himself
to us. For example, the universe he’s created tells us that he’s a great
artist. It also indicates that he may not be our friend, for the universe
is a rather hostile, dangerous place. The other clue comes from our
conscience—the moral law within each of us tells us that the creator of the
universe is keenly interested in our behavior. He designed us to know the
difference between right and wrong, and he expects us to act accordingly.
This leaves us with a very serious concern: If the universe
we inhabit is governed by a moral law, and that moral law was instituted by
a good and powerful creator, then aren’t we doing ourselves a great
disservice whenever we violate it? Aren’t we putting ourselves at odds with
our own maker? Christianity becomes relevant the moment we come to this
realization.
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3. Without some
standard of good, there’d be no such thing as bad.
There is much that is bad and seemingly meaningless in the
universe. And, incredibly, the universe has produced creatures who are
aware of this. There are only two views that address these facts. One is
the Christian view, which says that the world used to be good but has since
gone bad. The other is dualism, which says the universe is a sort of battlefield
where the powers of good and evil wage war against each other. But there is
a problem with dualism: any appeal to a standard by which the powers of
good and evil could be judged must assume a source for that standard, and
this source would have to be of a higher order than either power. This
points us to the real God.
Without a real God, dualism must have a bad power who
prefers evil for its own sake. But in real life, we do not find people who
are drawn to what is bad just because it is bad. We can be kind when we
don’t feel like it, simply because it is the right thing to do. But no one
has ever been cruel just because being cruel is wrong. This makes sense
when we consider what badness is. Badness is always the pursuit of some
good thing—whether it be money or sex or power—in an inappropriate or
excessive way. Unlike goodness, badness doesn’t exist on its own, in its
own right. It can only be understood as the absence of goodness, or a
distortion of something good. Normal sexuality, for example, is simply
itself, while sadism is a perversion of normal sexuality.
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4. If Jesus wasn’t
God incarnate, then he was either a fraud or a madman.
Jesus made some radical, shocking claims that no on else had
ever dared to make. He claimed to forgive sins, to have always existed, and
that he would one day judge the whole world. At the same time, he also
claimed to be humble and meek.
There aren’t many explanations for Jesus’ radical
self-understanding. If he wasn’t God incarnate, then he was either a fraud
or a madman. The people who try to say Jesus was a good moral teacher
simply don’t realize their foolishness. We’re forced to either take him at
his word, or brand him a liar. We must either worship him or reject him.
There’s no middle ground from which he can be viewed as a good moral
teacher. His radical self-understanding precludes that possibility.
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5. Only a bad man
needs to repent, but only a good man can actually do it.
Because we’ve sinned, we’ve separated ourselves from God.
We’ve accrued a debt that needs to be paid. The problem is that we’re
unable to pay it. Being imperfect sinners, we’re incapable of the perfect
repentance that’s required in order to put us right with God. While a bad
man is the only type of man who needs to repent, a good man is the only
type of man who can actually do it.
It is this predicament which Jesus came to resolve for us.
As a man, he was able to live, suffer and die—and as God, he was perfect
and righteous. While undeserving of punishment, he was the only one who
could atone for our sins on our behalf. He was the righteous replacement
who could do for us what we could never do for ourselves.
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6. The sins of the
flesh are the least of all sins.
Christianity emphasizes the importance of chastity and
faithfulness. If you aren’t married, you’re to abstain from sex. If you are
married, you’re to remain faithful to your spouse. We’re expected to
restrain ourselves from giving in to our natural sexual instincts and
impulses. This view of sexuality is unpopular, to say the least. But does
that make it incorrect?
Sex is for procreation, just as food is for nourishment. But
sex has become an unhealthy obsession. Imagine if people lusted after food
the way they lust after dancers in a strip club. Imagine if people paid to
see food slowly uncovered on a platter, the way they pay to see women get
undressed. It would obviously be unnatural to obsess over food in that way.
So why don’t we think of our sexual obsession as being unnatural? The
popularity of strip clubs suggests that our sex instinct is broken.
But sexual sins are not the worst of all sins. In fact, the
sins of the flesh are the least of all sins. Far more egregious are sins of
the spirit.
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7. Pride is the
greatest sin of all because it keeps us looking down on others when we
should be looking up.
There are many grave sins that displease God, but there is
no sin greater than pride. It was pride that made the devil into an enemy
of God, and it will make us enemies of him, too. A proud man is not merely
in need of improvement—rather, he is in need of a complete overhaul. A
proud man is the complete opposite of what he should be.
If you want to try and gauge how proud you are, think about
how much it bothers you when people don’t treat you the way you want to be
treated. If other people get more praise than you, does it bother you? How
about if you’re belittled? Pride is fiercely competitive. It isn’t content
to merely have something, but to have more of it than others. The problem
is this: when we’re proudly looking down on others, we can’t help but lose
sight of what’s above us. This is why proud men can never hope to know
God.
Pride also manages to quietly work its way into our
spiritual lives. We often think we’re making improvements by getting over
our vices, but if in doing so we become proud of our efforts, we’re
actually taking a step backward. Being proud of your spiritual
accomplishments is, in itself, a great spiritual failure.
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8. God intends
that we should love and forgive others the way we love and forgive
ourselves.
Forgiveness sounds wonderful as a concept, but putting it
into practice is always difficult. The best way to learn how to forgive is
to start small. Forgive your wife, or friends, or parents for something
they’ve recently done to upset you.
In Christian circles, you’ll often hear an instruction to,
“hate the sin, but not the sinner.” At first, this seems absurd. How do you
hate what a man does without hating the man? But it’s actually not that
difficult once you come to realize that this is precisely how we behave
with respect to ourselves. We often sin in terrible, shameful ways, and yet
we go on loving ourselves, anyway. What God asks of us is that we simply
extend this same loving attitude to others. In doing so, we’re not excusing
their sin—we’re just not using it as an excuse for withholding love and
forgiveness.
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9. You will begin
to love God and others by simply acting as if you already do.
Love is not a feeling that must be manufactured but a matter
of the will that must be acted upon. It is the natural state of mind that
we have toward ourselves and that we must learn to have toward
others.
So, rather than wait to “feel” love for your neighbor, act
as though you love him already. When you do this, you’ll be surprised at
how quickly and easily you develop a genuine love for him. Christian love,
when acted upon, leads to affection. This is why the little decisions we
make every day are so important.
And what are we to do when we are told to love God? The
answer is the same. Rather than try to manufacture a feeling, ask yourself,
“If I truly loved God, what would I do?” When you determine the answer, go
and do it. If we are obeying God’s commandments, we will find ourselves
loving him.
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10. Despite what
you may think, Christianity isn’t about rules and guilt—it actually leads
us away from all that.
The road back to God is one of moral effort, of trying
harder. But there is a point at which we realize that all of our trying
will never truly accomplish the task. That’s when we turn to God and
confess, “You must do this, I can’t.” Instead of continuing a futile
effort, we put our trust in Christ, believing that He will impart His
perfect obedience to us. In Christ, we find everything for nothing. The
whole of the Christian experience consists of receiving this remarkable
offer.
This does not mean that we stop trying to be obedient or
righteous in God’s eyes, but it does mean that we begin trying in a new
way. Not in order to be saved, but because God has already begun the
process of saving us. Not in the hope of getting into heaven as a reward
for our efforts, but because the light of heaven is already in us. Thus,
while Christianity seems at first to be all about rules and guilt and
virtue, it actually leads us away from all that.
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11. God doesn’t
want us to become perfect before he will help us; he wants to help us
become perfect.
Some people think that when the Lord said, “Be perfect,” he
meant, “Unless you are perfect I will not help you.” Since none of us can
be perfect, that would put us in a hopeless situation. It seems better to
take Him to mean, “The help I’m offering you is to be perfect. I will give
you nothing less.”
In this sense, going to God is like going to the dentist. We
may go to Him to deaden the pain so we can sleep, but we will not get what
we want out of Him without also having our teeth permanently fixed. That’s
why the Bible warns us to “count the cost” before becoming a Christian.
There is going to be suffering and weariness on the road to righteousness,
but Jesus will not rest—nor let us rest—until we’ve reached the end of our
journey to perfection.
The job will not be finished in this life, but God intends
to get us as far along as possible before death. So the Christian must not
be surprised when he encounters illnesses, or financial difficulties, or
temptation. God will force us into situations where we will have to be
braver, or more patient, or more loving than we’ve ever been before. At
times we will wonder if what is happening is necessary, but that is only
because we can’t see over the horizon. What God has in store for us is
greater than we could ever imagine.
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12. The people who
have the biggest impact in this world are focused on heaven, not earth.
Hope is looking forward to the world to come, but that
doesn’t mean we should fall into escapism or indifference about this life.
Christian history demonstrates that those who have had the biggest impact
on the present world are those who have been the most committed to the
next. Focus on heaven and you get earth, as well; focus on earth and you
get neither.
Unfortunately, we are trained and educated to fix our minds on
this world. It is, therefore, not surprising that most of us struggle to
really want heaven. But there remains in all of us an underlying desire for
heaven that often goes unrecognized. The feelings that are stirred by a
first love, the intrigue at the thought of starting a great journey, and
the thrill of beginning studies on a subject that really interests us are
all longings that eventually fade. But Christianity tells us that we are
not given desires unless a satisfaction for those desires exists. If we
feel hunger, food will satisfy us. If we feel tired, sleep will satisfy us.
If we feel a desire that nothing in this world will satisfy—if we
experience an insatiable longing—then there must be something beyond this
world to meet our desire. We are, in fact, longing for heaven in such
moments, and the Christian teaching is that our longing will one day be
satisfied.
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Endnotes
These insights are
just an introduction. If you're ready to dive deeper, pick up a copy of Mere
Christianity here. And since we get a commission on
every sale, your purchase will help keep this newsletter free
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