Monday, November 3, 2014
416 - Christian Mercenaries
Spirituality Column #416
November 4, 2014
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville
C.S. Lewis once opined, “If you asked 20 good men today what was the highest of virtues, 19 of them would reply, Unselfishness.”
in his brief 1959 work, Screwtape Proposes a Toast, Lewis says 19 of 20 good men are wrong. All the great Christians of old, Lewis asserts, would identify the highest virtue to be Love (Colossians 3:14, e.g.).
The error, Lewis instructs, is in the trading of the Gospel’s outward-directed positive, “Love,” for the secular, self-directed negative, “Unselfishness.”
Lewis expounds, “The negative idea of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but with going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point."
See the twist? Unselfishness for its own sake cripples Christian doctrine by subordinating celebration and praise of God – which deserves first priority – to one’s self-denial. Everyone lists selfishness as a sin. Lewis is saying that unselfishness, too, is “all about me.”
The point when praising God is never my actions, my works, my efforts, my intentions, my knowledge, my obedience, my self-denial, not even, I would argue, “my faith.” The point is God’s glory. God’s glory is not a function of my faith; it’s intact whether I have faith to see it or not. Love is what God sees.
Jesus doesn’t sacrifice himself in self-denial; He sacrifices himself as an act of love for the glory of God.
The Old Covenant’s weakness is the Law’s tendency to make one wholly immersed in one’s behavior, i.e., Am I following the law? In life, prayer or worship, my focus slips away from God and toward myself and my obedience. Next I’ll probably compare my obedience with that of others, hence doing what we are told repeatedly in the New Testament not to do, which is to judge the righteousness of others.
Our great modern Christian problem, and the reason we mention “mercenaries” in the title, is that our intellects and psyches have been constantly whipped by philosophy, education, politics, social convention and in some cases even religion to believe that desiring good things for ourselves is a bad thing, a selfish thing; that we are “mercenaries” of faith if we accept God’s love. Lewis traces this error back to Kant and the Stoics, adding that joylessness has no place in Christianity.
The New Covenant’s perfection is that it relies wholly on God’s strength, mercy, truth, power, justice, faithfulness, humility, oath, promise and love.
Our human goal is for our joy to reside in the glory of God’s love, to love God, and to love others as ourselves. That makes us Christians, not mercenaries.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) trusts God’s character far more than his own.
November 4, 2014
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville
Christian Mercenaries
By Bob WaltersC.S. Lewis once opined, “If you asked 20 good men today what was the highest of virtues, 19 of them would reply, Unselfishness.”
in his brief 1959 work, Screwtape Proposes a Toast, Lewis says 19 of 20 good men are wrong. All the great Christians of old, Lewis asserts, would identify the highest virtue to be Love (Colossians 3:14, e.g.).
The error, Lewis instructs, is in the trading of the Gospel’s outward-directed positive, “Love,” for the secular, self-directed negative, “Unselfishness.”
Lewis expounds, “The negative idea of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but with going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point."
See the twist? Unselfishness for its own sake cripples Christian doctrine by subordinating celebration and praise of God – which deserves first priority – to one’s self-denial. Everyone lists selfishness as a sin. Lewis is saying that unselfishness, too, is “all about me.”
The point when praising God is never my actions, my works, my efforts, my intentions, my knowledge, my obedience, my self-denial, not even, I would argue, “my faith.” The point is God’s glory. God’s glory is not a function of my faith; it’s intact whether I have faith to see it or not. Love is what God sees.
Jesus doesn’t sacrifice himself in self-denial; He sacrifices himself as an act of love for the glory of God.
The Old Covenant’s weakness is the Law’s tendency to make one wholly immersed in one’s behavior, i.e., Am I following the law? In life, prayer or worship, my focus slips away from God and toward myself and my obedience. Next I’ll probably compare my obedience with that of others, hence doing what we are told repeatedly in the New Testament not to do, which is to judge the righteousness of others.
Our great modern Christian problem, and the reason we mention “mercenaries” in the title, is that our intellects and psyches have been constantly whipped by philosophy, education, politics, social convention and in some cases even religion to believe that desiring good things for ourselves is a bad thing, a selfish thing; that we are “mercenaries” of faith if we accept God’s love. Lewis traces this error back to Kant and the Stoics, adding that joylessness has no place in Christianity.
The New Covenant’s perfection is that it relies wholly on God’s strength, mercy, truth, power, justice, faithfulness, humility, oath, promise and love.
Our human goal is for our joy to reside in the glory of God’s love, to love God, and to love others as ourselves. That makes us Christians, not mercenaries.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) trusts God’s character far more than his own.
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