CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity: Forgiveness, Pride, and Envy. Can Pride Ever Be Good?

MORALITY IN THE MODERN WORLD

What would a Christian society look like? CS Lewis assures us that everyone will be willfully and eagerly obedient to those who are in authority. The Christian society will also be a “cheerful society: full of singing and rejoicing, and regarding worry or anxiety as wrong. Courtesy is one of the Christian virtues,” with no busybodies.

Finally, deep in Book 3, CS Lewis finally teaches us that the two-fold Love is the cornerstone of the Christian life. “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 neighbor as myself: and I cannot learn to love my neighbor as myself till I learn to Love God: and I cannot learn to Love God except by learning to obey Him.”[1]

CS Lewis also tackles the question that has engaged theologians for millennia: the commandment for us to love our neighbor as ourselves. CS Lewis asks: “How exactly do I love myself?” He does not fall into the theological trap that self-love is a third type of love, which is thoroughly discussed by Anders Nygren in his wonderful book on Eros and Agape. Rather, CS Lewis declares that old adage, “hate the sin but not the sinner,” applies especially to yourself if you are repentant. CS Lewis does not answer this question directly, but he implies that we love ourselves when we truly repent.[2]

Anders Nygren, On Christian Agape-Love and Eros-Love in Gospels and Pauline Epistles
https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/anders-nygren-on-christian-agape-love-and-eros-love-in-gospels-and-pauline-epistles/
https://youtu.be/KniBalQMemM

What about the mentally ill? What about those who suffer from dementia? What about the autistic? Are they morally responsible for their actions?

CS Lewis assures us that psychological problems are “not a sin but a disease. It does not need to be repented of, but to be cured.” But people often forget this. People “judge one another by their external actions, but God judges them by their moral choices.”

These questions reflect my personal experience as an officer of an over-55 condominium association. I was censured after I stopped the foreclosure of a destitute owner who had advanced dementia. He was behind in paying his maintenance fees, and had harassed his neighbors and office staff. In short, his demented behavior turned everyone in our community against him, the concept that he could NOT be held responsible for his actions was inconceivable.

Case studies of the life of Glen Campbell, who passed away from dementia, and other neurological case studies, demonstrate mental illness can rob you of your moral compass, that you are controlled solely by your emotions.

How I Halted a Foreclosure on a Destitute Owner with Advanced Dementia! We Discuss Dementia
https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/how-i-halted-foreclosure-on-owner-with-advanced-dementia-reflecting-on-dementia/
https://youtu.be/_uAJPCCRNQ8

How Do We Treat our Neighbors Who Suffer From Dementia? Guidance for Over-55 Condos
https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/how-do-we-treat-our-neighbors-who-suffer-from-dementia-also-guidance-for-over-55-condos/
https://youtu.be/zwQK3VgaNOo

Glen Campbell Suffering from Alzheimer’s, Early Signs and Symptoms
https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/glen-campbell-suffering-from-alzheimers-early-signs-and-symptoms/
https://youtu.be/F9NmDiiPowI

Neurological Case Studies Including the Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, and the Curious Story of Phineas Gage
https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/case-studies-including-the-man-who-mistook-his-wife-for-a-hat-and-the-curious-story-of-phineas-gage/
https://youtu.be/tBZIs0YZ05A

IF YOU WILL NOT WORK, YOU WILL NOT EAT

CS Lewis continues: “The New Testament tells us that” in a Christian society “there would be no passengers or parasites: if man does not work, he ought not to eat.” But CS Lewis also notes that “in the passage where the New Testament says that everyone must work, it gives as a reason ‘in order that the Christian may have something to give to those in need.’ Charity, giving to the poor, is an essential part of Christian morality.”[3]

CS Lewis is referring to this verse from Second Thessalonians, which is often misinterpreted:
“For even when we were with you, we gave you this command:
If anyone will not work, let him not eat.
For we hear that some of you are living in idleness,
mere busybodies, not doing any work.”[4]

The context of this verse is that in the first Book of Thessalonians, St Paul discussed the imminent coming of the Lord, but some in the community were counting on this coming a bit too much, quitting their jobs and causing problems in the community. In the second book, St Paul is urging those who quit their jobs to wait on the Lord’s coming to find another job.

We will quote from the conservative Baptist Broadman Commentary: “Due to their confusion as to the time of the Lord’s return, some Thessalonians, thinking that it would be immediately, had stopped working. They had become idle troublemakers. Paul ordered his readers to keep away from any brother who is living in idleness contrary to Paul’s tradition,”[5] as Paul himself set an example of continuing to work as a tentmaker when he was visiting the community, so they would not need to support him.

How do we know we have been sufficiently generous in our almsgiving? CS Lewis suggests that “the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare.”

CS Lewis continues: “For many of us, the great obstacle to charity lies not in our luxurious living or desire for money, but in our fear: fear of insecurity,” which is a “temptation. Sometimes our pride also hinders our charity; we are tempted to spend more than we ought on the showy forms of generosity, such as tipping and hospitality, and less than we ought on those who really need our help.”[6]

St John Chrysostom teaches us that neglecting to feed the poor is a type of theft: “If you cannot remember everything, instead of everything, I beg you, remember this without fail, that not to share our own wealth with the poor is theft from the poor and deprivation of their means of life; we do not possess our own wealth but theirs. If we have this attitude, we will certainly offer our money; and by nourishing Christ in poverty here and laying up great profit hereafter, we will be able to attain the good things which are to come.”[7]

Likewise, when we receive bad service in a restaurant, who are we to stiff the waitress? She may be a single mother living on the edge, struggling to put food on her table for her children. Instead, give her twenty percent, and ask her about her day, whether she is struggling, and whether you or your church can help. Always tip our waitress, God is punishing her enough: because she is a waitress!

There are two versions of Jesus’ memorable sermon, the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, which begins with, Blessed are the poor in spirit, and the Sermon on the Plain in Luke, which begins with, Blessed are you poor. Perhaps when Luke’s Jesus says, Blessed are you poor, perhaps that is the exact meaning of this verse. This is the first paired couplet:

Blessed are you poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.

But woe to you that are rich,
for you have received your consolation.[8]

Blessed Are the Poor, Woe to the Rich, and Other Woke Compassionate Bible Verses
https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/blessed-are-the-poor-woe-to-the-rich-and-other-woke-bible-verses/
https://youtu.be/576TYemgA8o

THE FORGIVENESS THAT PRECEDES REPENTANCE

CS Lewis notes that in the middle of the Lord’s Prayer we pray: “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” He observes: “There is no slightest suggestion that we are offered forgiveness on any other terms. It is made perfectly clear that if we do not forgive, we shall not be forgiven.”

Indeed, immediately after the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew, Jesus exhorts us: “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”[9]

Also, after Jesus exhorts us to love our enemies, he also exhorts us to “be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”[10]

We should strive for perfection, but what demands perfection? FORGIVENESS. After all, our lack of forgiveness poisons our spiritual life. When we make excuses to hold grudges against one person, our attitude becomes contagious: we always find more who deserve our dislike and hatred.

What would CS Lewis think of Trump viewing repentance as a sign of weakness? A Politico article reported that “prior to his endorsement from evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr,” “Trump told CNN’s Jake Tapper that he does not ‘like to have to ask for forgiveness. And I am good. I don’t do a lot of things that are bad. I try to do nothing that is bad.’”[11]

PRIDE AND ENVY: THE ORIGINAL AND ORIGINATING SINS

Pride is the original sin, pride how the serpent tempts Eve in the Garden of Eden when he says to her: “You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it,” the forbidden fruit, “your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”[12] CS Lewis teaches us that Pride is also called Self-Conceit, and its opposite virtue is Humility. CS Lewis teaches us: “Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.”

CS Lewis continues: “Pride is essentially competitive, while the other vices are competitive only by accident. Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others.” “If I am a proud man, then, as long as there is one man in the whole world more powerful, or richer, or cleverer than I, then he is my rival and my enemy.”

By this definition, pride is supercharged envy. Envy is the commandment that precedes the breaking of any other commandment in the Decalogue that harms your neighbor. CS Lewis teaches us: “Pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense.”

Pride was the first sin tempting Eve in the Garden, but perhaps it is also a final temptation when all other temptations fail to deceive the devout. CS Lewis asks a terrible question: “How is it that people who are quite obviously eaten up with Pride can say they believe in God and appear to themselves very religious?” And often fool many acquaintances, or even followers. “I am afraid it means they are worshipping an imaginary God. They theoretically admit themselves to be nothing in the presence of this phantom God, but are really imaging how He approves of them and thinks them far better than ordinary people.”[13]

In the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, the Pharisee is obviously swelled with pride about his religiosity: “Jesus also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others:” “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank thee that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you; this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”[14]

Perhaps we can ask ourselves this terrible question, particularly if we see ourselves as devout, church-attending Christians: Do we see ourselves as falling into the trap of the Pharisee, or do we self-identify as the Publican, or tax collector? If we attend church regularly, and take pride in being Christian, how can we not be like the Pharisee?

CAN PRIDE EVER BE GOOD?

There are several behaviors that we label as pride that are beneficial. Praising your children’s accomplishments to encourage them is admirable. CS Lewis says: “Pleasure in being praised is not Pride,” we should appreciate others when they sincerely praise us.

CS Lewis does not totally answer the question: Is there good pride and bad pride? Is there divine pride and evil pride? Or is pride a human emotion that can be either beneficial or corrupting? Or is the word PRIDE merely an example of how difficult it can be to reduce divine concepts into imperfect language and understanding?

Or would these be better questions to ask? Are there both spiritually beneficial and spiritually corrupting types of pride? Do all forms of pride have an element of spiritual danger, the danger that spiritually beneficial pride can evolve in a spiritually damaging pride?

CS Lewis praises spiritually beneficial pride: “To love and admire anything outside yourself is to take one step away from utter spiritual ruin; though we shall not be well so long as we love and admire anything more than we Love and admire God.” CS Lewis also characterizes the sin of taking praise too much to heart as one of the most pardonable of sins.

Pride can be both a subtle and substantial sin, so we must concentrate when reading this observation by CS Lewis: “We must not think Pride is something God forbids because He is offended at it, or that Humility is something He demands as due to His dignity, as if God Himself was proud. God is not in the least worried about His dignity. The point is: God wants you to know Him: He wants to give you Himself.”

God seeks to make us humble. How can we become humble? CS Lewis teaches us: “The first step to humility is to realize that one if proud.” This is a big step. “Nothing whatever can be done before” rejecting Pride. “If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed.”[15]

[1] CS Lewis, Mere Christianity, Book 3, Chapter 3, Social Morality, p. 87.

[2] CS Lewis, Mere Christianity, Book 3, Chapter 7, Forgiveness, pp. 116-117.

[3] CS Lewis, Mere Christianity, Book 3, Chapter 3, Social Morality, pp. 84-87.

[4] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+thessalonians+3%3A10-11&version=RSVCE

[5] The Broadman Bible Commentary, Volume 11, 2 Corinthians – Philemon (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1971), p. 296.

[6] CS Lewis, Mere Christianity, Book 3, Chapter 3, Social Morality, pp. 84-87.

[7] https://blog.acton.org/archives/18664-chrysostom-on-the-poor.html quoting St John Chrysostom, On Living Simply, Sermon XLIII, also in collection of essays, On Wealth and Poverty, https://www.oca.org/reflections/fr.-steven-kostoff/st.-john-chrysostom-who-is-the-poor-man-and-who-is-the-rich

[8] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke+6%3A20-24&version=RSVCE

[9] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew+6%3A14-15&version=RSVCE

[10] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+5%3A43-48&version=RSVCE

[11] https://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/trump-forgiveness-god-224068

[12] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+3%3A4-5&version=RSVCE