Resist the Devil and He Will Flee from You

 Horror of Growing Old  Fashion Letter X  Venus Flirting with the World Friends, Acquaintances and Attitudes

“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” II Corinthians 10:4-5

I N THIS CHAPTER, CS LEWIS MASTERFULLY DESCRIBES A RELATIONSHIP OF A CHRISTIAN TO HIS NON-CHRISTIAN FRIENDS. SCREWTAPE SUGGESTS HOW A WRONG CHOICE OF FRIENDS CAN LEAD TO A DOUBLE LIFE WHERE, “WHILE BEING PERMANENTLY TREACHEROUS TO AT LEAST TWO SETS OF PEOPLE, HE WILL FEEL, INSTEAD OF SHAME, A CONTINUAL UNDERCURRENT OF SELF- SATISFACTION.” SCREWTAPE DESCRIBES THE SUBTLE WAYS OF “LOOKS, TONES AND LAUGHS” WHERE “HE WILL BE SILENT WHEN HE OUGHT TO SPEAK AND LAUGH WHEN HE OUGHT TO BE SILENT” IN MANNER AND WORDS, REMINDING WORMWOOD THAT “ALL MORTALS TEND TO TURN INTO THE THING THEY ARE PRETENDING TO BE”. Questions for Discussion 1. What kinds of people are considered “desirable acquaintances” by  Elderly: adversity or Screwtape? prosperity 2. What are the contemporary characteristics of such friends?  prosperity 3. Are “old warnings” of “worldly vanities, the choice of friends, and the value of time” still important for post-modern lives? 4. How to fight inconsistencies such as enjoying blasphemy over coffee because we are aware of a “deeper” spiritual world? 5. When the difference between being “in” the world and being “of” the world hard to distinguish? 6. How can we avoid being “polluted” by the world? 7. How things like drinking, smoking, partying, etc. become fatal habits?

For Further Reading and Reflection\ Recommended Jo. 17:15-16, Ro 12:1-2, Jas. 1:26-27, 4:4 Area of Life Devil’s Advice God’s Way Questions, Observations and Strategies Friends and Rich Poor, Lonely Ah, look at all the lonely people… Acquaintances Middle-aged People of all ages Where do they all come from? Smart Widows, Orphans, Sick Where do they all belong?(Beatles) Superficially Intellectual Simple I was a strange, I was sick. and you Brightly Skeptical about all Wise came to visit me … Contemptuous Faithful Mt. 25:31-46/ Jas. 2:14-17 Belittles anything Christian Friends There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, Fashionable cultures, arts, civilizations - these are Vain (sexual, social and (Is any pleasure on earth as mortal. But it is immortals who we joke intellectual) great as a circle of Christian with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit - Pacifist (vaguely) friends by a fire? CSL) immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. “All mortals tend to turn into the C.S.L. thing they are pretending to be.” Attitudes Mannerisms – Subtle Play of Your word should be … Mat. 5: 37 (Yes-No) -Looks Yes, Yes, No., No. -Laughs Salt and light – Luke14: 33-34 “Faith in direct opposition to Walk with assumptions of the conversations” competence and Luke 16:13(Do not serve two masters) -Postpone open acknowledgment responsibility with the aid of shame, pride, Act with Justice and Mercy Mic.6:8(Justice and mercy) modesty and vanity. Speak Open my lips …Ps 51:15 -Silent when he ought to speak Silent -Laugh when he ought to be silent Attitude of humble in love II Cor. 10:2-6(we do not wage war as) Delay realization that this 1 Timothy 1:15-16( I, the worst of) pleasure is a temptation Christian Avoid Speak Up John 17:16,IICor10:3 (They are not of Literature Issues: Issues: the world) Mammon Moral Galatians 5:22 (Fruit of the Spirit) Worldly Vanities Virtues, Justice, Mercy Zachariah 7:9, Matthew 23:23 (Love Choice of Friends Puritanism justice/ mercy) Value of Time, Temperance Live in Chastity Romans 12:3 (think of yourself with Sobriety of Life sober judgment) Parallel Lives -Enjoy kneeling besides the Consistency in behavior 1 Peter 3:15-17 (clear conscience grocer because … He remembers ...good behavior in Christ) that the grocer could not possibly Proverbs 8:13 ( to hate evil);(say no to understand the mocking world. Integral life ungodly passions)Titus2:12, -Enjoy blasphemy over coffee 1John2:15 (do not love anything of) because … He is aware of a Romans 7:14(slave to sin) “deeper” spiritual world … II Peter 2:17-22 (promise freedom, -Drinking with them and laughing while slaves of depravity) at their jokes because it would be James 3: 13-18 (two kinds of wisdom) priggish, intolerant, and Life is Religion James 2:22 (faith complete by …did) puritanical not do so. -Aggravate domestic tension “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.” John 17: 15-16

Sin Transformed by the Holy Spirit into a Pearly Gate A lesson from Nature

When our children where small, we lived for a while in California, not far from San Francisco. As such, when friends came we would take them to the Fisher Warf and Golden Gate Bridge and the like. On one of these “tours”, we stopped at a shop where, at the front of the store, they had a little basket with oysters. You could pay a certain amount and they would open one for you. If a pearl was found, you could keep it. One of our daughters still has one of them. Now, we do not agree with “trying out your luck”, for our lives is in the Lord’s hands and my “luck” is certainty in heaven… Nevertheless, we would never have a chance to see a “pearl in an oyster” at such close range. I do not believe our children will ever forget the event. Neither will I. Since then I have learned a lot about oysters, pearls and pearl diving. As the facts lingered on in my heart, I came to a lesson without equal to me. A pearl, grows from irritations or impurities embedded in a bivalve (oysters are not the only ones that can produce these natural gems). The reaction around the substance or irritation creates the pearl. The longer it grows, the bigger the pearl. So, it can be in our lives: the irritations (annoyance, frustration, impatience, exasperation, anger, pain) and impurities (contamination, pollution, adulteration, uncleanness, infection, dirtiness of this world – the fruits of the flesh) can destroy us. Alternatively, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can develop beautiful spiritual pearls in our lives. An origin of sin, sprouting into a precious gem; A pearl - that even tough it started as a smudge of this sinful world full of sickness and pain - in a perfect oyster (a forgiven one!), may grow out to be what it was meant to be, and more, for His glory. Could I imagine one of the heavenly “pearly gates” in Revelation to be an earthly impurity, purified by the blood of the lamb, grown over the centuries to be as big as fitting in city wall for a gate? May God give us the humbleness in faith and the peace that is above all understanding (Isaiah 26:3) as to allow God’s Spirit to do so.

For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity. II Peter 2:18-19 X

MY DEAR WORMWOOD,

I was delighted to hear from Triptweeze that your patient has made some very desirable new acquaintances and that you seem to have used this event in a really promising manner. I gather that the middle-aged married couple who called at his office are just the sort of people we want him to know—rich, smart, superficially intellectual, and brightly sceptical about everything in the world. I gather they ore even vaguely pacifist, not on moral grounds but from an ingrained habit of belittling anything that concerns the great mass of their fellow men and from a dash of purely fashionable and literary communism. This is excellent. And you seem to have made good use of all his social, sexual, and intellectual vanity. Tell me more. Did he commit himself deeply? I don't mean in words. There is a subtle play of looks and tones and laughs by which a Mortal can imply that he is of the same party is those to whom he is speaking. That is the kind of betrayal you should specially encourage, because the man does not fully realise it himself; and by the time he does you will have made withdrawal difficult.

No doubt he must very soon realise that his own faith is in direct opposition to the assumptions on which all the conversation of his new friends is based. I don't think that matters much provided that you can persuade him to postpone any open acknowledgment of the fact, and this, with the aid of shame, pride, modesty and vanity, will be easy to do. As long as the postponement lasts he will be in a false position. He will be silent when he ought to speak and laugh when he ought to be silent. He will assume, at first only by his manner, but presently by his words, all sorts of cynical and sceptical attitudes which are not really his. But if you play him well, they may become his. All mortals tend to turn into the thing they are pretending to be. This is elementary. The real question is how to prepare for the Enemy's counter attack.

The first thing is to delay as long as possible the moment at which he realises this new pleasure as a temptation. Since the Enemy's servants have been preaching about "the World" as one of the great standard temptations for two thousand years, this might seem difficult to do. But fortunately they have said very little about it for the last few decades. In modern Christian writings, though I see much (indeed more than I like) about Mammon, I see few of the old warnings about Worldly Vanities, the Choice of Friends, and the Value of Time. All that, your patient would probably classify as "Puritanism"—and may I remark in passing that the value we have given to that word is one of the really solid triumphs of the last hundred years? By it we rescue annually thousands of humans from temperance, chastity, and sobriety of life.

Sooner or later, however, the real nature of his new friends must become clear to him, and then your tactics must depend on the patient's intelligence. If he is a big enough fool you can get him to realise the character of the friends only while they are absent; their presence can be made to sweep away all criticism. If this succeeds, he can be induced to live, as I have known many humans live, for quite long periods, two parallel lives; he will not only appear to be, but actually be, a different man in each of the circles he frequents. Failing this, there is a subtler and more entertaining method. He can be made to take a positive pleasure in the perception that the two sides of his life are inconsistent. This is done by exploiting his vanity. He can be taught to enjoy kneeling beside the grocer on Sunday just because he remembers that the grocer could not possibly understand the urbane and mocking world which he inhabited on Saturday evening; and contrariwise, to enjoy the bawdy and blasphemy over the coffee with these admirable friends all the more because he is aware of a "deeper", "spiritual" world within him which they cannot understand. You see the idea—the worldly friends touch him on one side and the grocer on the other, and he is the complete, balanced, complex man who sees round them all. Thus, while being permanently treacherous to at least two sets of people, he will feel, instead of shame, a continual undercurrent of self- satisfaction. Finally, if all else fails, you can persuade him, in defiance of conscience, to continue the new acquaintance on the ground that he is, in some unspecified way, doing these people "good" by the mere fact of drinking their cocktails and laughing at their jokes, and that to cease to do so would be "priggish", "intolerant", and (of course) "Puritanical".

Meanwhile you will of course take the obvious precaution of seeing that this new development induces him to spend more than he can afford and to neglect his work and his mother. Her jealousy, and alarm, and his increasing evasiveness or rudeness, will be invaluable for the aggravation of the domestic tension,

Your affectionate uncle SCREWTAPE