Chapter Eight...The Great Sin

I wrote a week or so ago about some stuff I had recently read in the book Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis on marriage from Chapter 6. Chapter 8 is entitled The Great Sin. I just finished chapter 12 on Faith, but I was thinking about Chapter 8 today and thought I would jot down a few things. C. S. Lewis has amazing insight on this subject. I have to believe he's writing about himself in this chapter. I hate to use so many quotes. Like I should just come up with my own thoughts or something. But, man, this guy is amazing. He blows me away.

Now, just because C.S. Lewis wrote this stuff does not automatically mean it is absolutely true. Much of this book consists of his personal opinions on various topics and he says himself that he could be wrong about some of it. But I have yet to come across anything that struck me as contadictory to the Bible or what I know to be true about God or His nature. Not that I know it all...for that would be prideful of me to say.

That said, this chapter addresses the issue of pride and self-conceit, as well as the opposite of this, which is humility. C.S. Lewis writes,

"There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconcious of in ourselves. And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others."

This to me is a terrifying statement. To think that a great sin or "the great sin" is something that we are often unaware of in ourselves is very scary. I would like to believe that I am fairly humble, but that belief in itself is a prideful one. And blatant conceit in others sickens me, repulses me, turns me off to knowing them further, so that must mean I have plenty of it myself. I don't like that. I don't want to hear that. That is not an easy statement to read or think about.

C.S. Lewis also writes:

"As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you."

I am heavily convicted again as I read this stuff. How in the world can we focus on God and the magnitude of His righteousness and perfection if we are comparing ourselves to other people who we consider ourselves better than? It doesn't work. It is just not possible. We cannot focus on our worth and God's worth at the same time. It's like we have to flip a mental switch to just be able to enter into His presence and focus wholly on Him. And none of us are capable of doing it...atleast not for very long. Does that mean we should not try? That we should throw our hands up and just forget the whole thing? No, that's where grace comes in.

Lewis says that it is not necessarily prideful to find pleasure in personal praise. "For here the pleasure lies not in what you are but in the fact that you have pleased someone you wanted to please." He talks about that this can become a problem if you are constantly seeking praise and then thinking highly of yourself when you get it. He says that this kind of pride shows that you are not satisfied with your own admiration and need the admiration of others, which is dangerous, but there is something even more dangerous than this. That is being so full of yourself that you do not even desire or delight in the praises of others.

"'He says, "Why should I care for the applause of that rabble as if their opinion were worth anything? And even if their opinions were of value, am I the sort of man to blush with pleasure at a compliment like some chit of a girl at her first dance? No, I am an integrated, adult personality. All I have done has been done to satisfy my own ideals - or my artistic conscience - or the traditions of my family - or, in a word, because I'm That Kind of Chap. If the mob like it, let them. They are nothing to me.'"

C.S. Lewis refers to this kind of pride as black and diabolical. Again, terrifying.

Humility comes when we really truly get to know about God. "He is trying to make you humble in order to make this moment possible: trying to take off a lot of silly, ugly, fancy-dress in which we have all got ourselves up and are strutting about like the little idiots we are." "To get even near it, even for a moment, is like a drink of cold water to a man in a desert."

I love this guy!

The last paragraph in this chapter is a great way to end it.

"If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realize that one is proud. And a biggish step, too. At least, nothing whatever can be done before it. If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed."