These devotions are based on CS Lewis’ book The Screwtape Letters. The book is a series of letters written from a senior devil to his junior devil. They provide instruction for the junior devil on how to tempt the human he has been assigned.
“It is only in so far as they reach the Will and are there embodied in habits that the virtues are really fatal to us. (I don’t, of course, mean what the patient mistakes for his Will, the conscious fume and fret of resolutions and clenched teeth, but the real centre, what the Enemy calls the Heart.) All sorts of virtues are painted in the fantasy or approved by the intellect or even, in some measure, loved and admired, will not keep a man from Our Father’s house: indeed they may make him more amusing when he gets there” (Lewis)
While in high school, I took an engineering class. That class was by far my favorite because I enjoyed the work I did, and I was close to the teacher. Because of our relationship, the teacher gave me some individual projects. All of them involved woodworking, and I fell in love with it. I’ve constructed many projects since taking that class. One of the most important things about woodworking is knowing how to properly use screws and nails. At the simplest level, they must be driven into the boards in order to be effective. If they are merely laid on top, they do absolutely nothing. This resembles the issue of virtues in the Christian life. If we practice them out of sheer discipline and find no fulfillment in the actions, Scripture tells us that we are not truly born again.
There was a time when I thought a preacher’s job was to get people to do what they do not want to do. However, the goal of Christianity is not to get people to be more moral. Yes, that is a side effect, but it is not the goal. The goal of Christianity is to enjoy God supremely. When a Christian enjoys God supremely, their will becomes aligned with His, and therefore His commandments become their desire. These virtues penetrate the being and become desires, rather than merely being admired by the intellect. Essentially, Christianity is not a straitjacket. Fullness of joy and complete obedience to God are one in the same thing for true Christians.
“For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.”
-1 John 5:3 ESV
While in high school, I took an engineering class. That class was by far my favorite because I enjoyed the work I did, and I was close to the teacher. Because of our relationship, the teacher gave me some individual projects. All of them involved woodworking, and I fell in love with it. I’ve constructed many projects since taking that class. One of the most important things about woodworking is knowing how to properly use screws and nails. At the simplest level, they must be driven into the boards in order to be effective. If they are merely laid on top, they do absolutely nothing. This resembles the issue of virtues in the Christian life. If we practice them out of sheer discipline and find no fulfillment in the actions, Scripture tells us that we are not truly born again.
There was a time when I thought a preacher’s job was to get people to do what they do not want to do. However, the goal of Christianity is not to get people to be more moral. Yes, that is a side effect, but it is not the goal. The goal of Christianity is to enjoy God supremely. When a Christian enjoys God supremely, their will becomes aligned with His, and therefore His commandments become their desire. These virtues penetrate the being and become desires, rather than merely being admired by the intellect. Essentially, Christianity is not a straitjacket. Fullness of joy and complete obedience to God are one in the same thing for true Christians.
“For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.”
-1 John 5:3 ESV