• Home
  • About This Blog
  • Contact Me
  • Subscribe
  • Comment Policy

Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

  • Westminster Shorter Catechism Series
  • Sermon on the Mount Series
Home Quotation C. S. Lewis on Christian morality

C. S. Lewis on Christian morality

Posted on May 7, 2016 Written by Mark McIntyre Leave a Comment


C. S. LewisIn a collection of broadcast talks called Christian Behaviour, C. S. Lewis’ said this:

“People often think of Christian morality as a kind of bargain in which God says, ‘If you keep a lot of rules I’ll reward you, and if you don’t I’ll do the other thing.’ I don’t think that is the best way of looking at it. I’d much rather say that 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. To be the one kind of creature is heaven; that is, it is joy and peace and knowledge and power. To be the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, impotence, and eternal loneliness. Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state or the other.”

This is a good reminder that our moment-by-moment choices do have consequences. The Apostle Paul supports this idea when he writes:

“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” (Ephesians 5:15–16, ESV)

There are two extremes to be avoided in thinking about the choices that we make. The first is to become frozen because the understanding of the importance of each one becomes overwhelming. The second danger is to be stop caring about them because the decisions come so fast that it is difficult to process them correctly.

This is an imperfect illustration but perhaps it might help the discussion.

Assume for a moment that I have a perfect understanding of exactly what type of diet is good for me. I have a strict list of things that I know are good for me to eat. But these foods are not found in their purest form. In other words, the “healthy” foods are available but are combined with things that are not on the list. One extreme would be to not eat anything at all until I was sure that it was 100% healthy. The other extreme is to give up any hope of choosing well and eat Krispy Kreme donuts (or Dunkin’ Donuts, I am an equal opportunity donut eater).

The Christian’s desire is to choose well, but often we do not. But a proper understanding of the sovereignty of God frees us up with the understanding that even when we don’t choose well, God can use that poor choice to draw us closer to himself. We have the opportunity to repent and have our relationship restored.


Filed Under: Quotation Tagged With: C. S. Lewis, Choice, choosing, morality

About Mark McIntyre

A follower of Jesus Christ who shares observations about how Scripture should impact the church and the world. Mark is the original author and editor of Attempts at Honesty.

Follow Attempts at Honesty

Honesty in your Inbox

Twin Focus

External versus Internal Focus

I’ve been involved in some discussions recently regarding the focus of the church. Should our focus be toward the outside to bring new people in or should our focus be on building people up that are already in the church? I struggle to see how these two can be separated without doing damage to what […]

Water, chisel or dynamite? Choosing the right tool to drive change

For effective change to take place in an organization, the leader must understand the needs of the organization and select the proper tool to drive that change. The analogy of using water, a chisel or dynamite to change rock provides some insight as to the proper speed and amount of change that is needed.

LInks

Links to consider and share – 8/26/2014

Links gathered in the last week that you might interesting or helpful.

Greatest Apologetic

The Greatest Apologetic?

If we claim to be spending time in fellowship and service of Jesus, like those he healed in the Gospels, we should be eternally affected and it should show to those around us.

Perhaps the effect that Jesus has had upon us is the greatest apologetic.

On Bullies and Turning the Other Cheek

Whether it is by personality or by training, or some combination of both, I like to have rules to assist in making decisions. But one thing we learn from the gospels is that Jesus often didn’t play by the conventional rules and sometimes it is difficult to discern if a rule is from God (and inviolable) or from man (and can be ignored).

Post Series

  • Westminster Shorter Catechism Series
  • Sermon on the Mount Series
December 2023
SMTWTFS
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31 
« Nov    

Categories

Archives

Blogger Grid
Follow me on Blogarama

Copyright © 2023 · Focus Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in