Textbook: The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis
Watch This SermonConsider for a moment your relationship with an unbelieving friend or family member. Think about how your perception of, behavior towards, and prayers for this person are formed. For example, do you see this person as someone God loves and desires to save, or is your perspective subtly shifting towards an annoyed attitude towards this person’s flaws or stubbornness? Also, when around this person, do you find yourself growing in grace towards him or her, or becoming increasingly critical and nitpicking certain qualities you find aggravating? Finally, when praying for this person, do you intercede for his or her spiritual and physical wellbeing, or do you find yourself starting to selfishly wish for the person to be “delivered” from certain behaviors that irritate you?
As seen here, we fail to properly minister to and pray for others when our focus is led away from God’s unconditional love and driven towards our fleshly biases and selfish desires. While our flesh can produce these thoughts on its own, projecting them in our mind is a potent tactic the devil uses against us. Our class tonight will use The Screwtape Letters’ third letter to illustrate and explain these attacks.
The Screwtape Letters is a collection of fictional letters written by a made-up demon named Screwtape. Each letter sees him teach various tactics to his nephew Wormwood for use against a spiritually young Christian.
When studying this book, it is crucial to remember that it is satirical and fictional, with its author, C. S. Lewis, advising us, “not everything that Screwtape says should be assumed to be true even from his own angle.” The book was not written to explain how demons communicate with one another or how they are ranked in Satan’s army. Furthermore, it is not an authoritative source on doctrines such as eternal security. Rather, the purpose of this book is to provide deep insights on the various temptations and tactics demons use against us as believers. This is a worthwhile study, for 2 Corinthians 2:11 says, “So that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.” Furthermore, Ephesians 6:11 calls us to, “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.” Thus, our goal in studying The Screwtape Letters is to learn how to recognize and resist demonic attacks by tying its content to the Bible’s teachings.
“I am very pleased by what you tell me about this man's relations with his mother. But you must press your advantage. The Enemy will be working from the centre outwards, gradually bringing more and more of the patient's conduct under the new standard, and may reach his behaviour to the old lady at any moment. You want to get in first. Keep in close touch with our colleague Glubose who is in charge of the mother, and build up between you in that house a good settled habit of mutual annoyance; daily pinpricks” (Lewis).
Here, we can see division being instigated by demons on both sides: Wormwood manipulating the believing patient and Glubose influencing the mother, whose spiritual condition is not explicitly given. In our own lives, we may find ourselves fiercely divided from those in our household who are unsaved. This should not be surprising to us, for receiving Christ’s salvation immediately drafts us as a soldier of God’s Kingdom in spiritual warfare against the kingdom of darkness, being composed of Satan and his demons. Screwtape’s dialogue in this paragraph illustrates how this war divides families, where Satan attempts to turn family members against one another to prevent unbelieving family members from being saved. Furthermore, this familial division over the Gospel is promised by Jesus in Matthew 10:34-36, “34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person's enemies will be those of his own household.”
However, it is crucial to note that amid these divisions, our enemies are not the other people opposing or persecuting us. As our textbook shows, the devil and his armies are purposefully projecting thoughts into all our minds to subtly set us against one another. Furthermore, while the Holy Spirit grants us as believers the power to resist and overcome these attacks, unbelievers lack this power and are subject to far greater mental deception and control under Satan’s kingdom. 2 Corinthians 4:4 states, “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” For dealing with divisions against others, Ephesians 6:10-12 instruct us as follows: “10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood [i.e., people], but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places [i.e., Satan and his demonic armies].”
Thus, when our faith causes division between us and others, we must watch for Satan’s attempts to divide us against them. The demons influencing them are our enemies, not the people. We must remain in constant prayer for the Lord to give us His love for others and the strength to obey Matthew 5:44, which calls us to, “Love [our] enemies and pray for those who persecute [us].” Furthermore, we must pray for those under Satan’s bondage, especially unbelievers for their salvation. These are key to surviving and emerging victorious in spiritually-instigated divisions between us and others.
[Screwtape sharing tactics with Wormwood] “The following methods are useful.
“1. Keep his mind on the inner life. He thinks his conversion is something inside him and his attention is therefore chiefly turned at present to the states of his own mind—or rather to that very expurgated version of them which is all you should allow him to see. Encourage this. Keep his mind off the most elementary duties by directing it to the most advanced and spiritual ones. Aggravate that most useful human characteristic, the horror and neglect of the obvious. You must bring him to a condition in which he can practice self-examination for an hour without discovering any of those facts about himself, which are perfectly clear to anyone who has over lived in the same house with him or worked the same office” (Lewis).
Here, we see that the mind is the primary battlefield of spiritual warfare between us and demons. They cannot rob us of our salvation, but they can use tactics targeting our mind to keep us from enjoying the full benefits of our abundant life in Christ. For example, their ability to manipulate our mind to be distracted from Christ is seen in 2 Corinthians 11:3: “But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” Furthermore, the aforementioned 2 Corinthians 4:4 mention Satan’s ability to manipulate people’s minds to keep them from understanding truths, especially those from God’s Word.
Both tactics are seen in Screwtape’s dialogue here with the hope of sowing seeds of division between the patient and his mother. For the first one, he instructs Wormwood to keep the patient focused on an intellectual pursuit of “advanced” spiritual understanding. The other tactic Screwtape recommends is blinding the patient from seeing his own flaws. When we are passive towards these attacks, demons will build strongholds in our minds that will result in an inflated pride, stunted spiritual growth, and a critical attitude towards others. Such a state is extremely destructive because it causes us to live in the flesh, grieve and quench the Holy Spirit, and severely hinder our usefulness to God for winning others to salvation.
Thankfully, the Bible provides the counter to these attacks. First, while we should desire to understand God’s Word, our goal in doing so should not be self-centered intellectual stimulation. Rather, we should study His Word to develop an intimate relationship with Him by letting the Holy Spirit use His Word to renew our minds (Rom 12:2), correct us (2Ti. 3:16), and prepare us to effectively serve and worship Him (2Ti. 3:17). Also, while 2 Corinthians 13:5 calls us to examine ourselves, doing so will only be meaningful if we humbly come before God and allow Him to point out our shortcomings and sins, as David did in Psalm 139:23-24, “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”. Understanding the Bible’s truths on these matters is crucial to effectively recognizing and rejecting Satan’s deception and lies concerning them.
“2. It is, no doubt, impossible to prevent his praying for his mother, but we have means of rendering the prayers innocuous. Make sure that they are always very "spiritual", that he is always concerned with the state of her soul and never with her rheumatism. Two advantages follow. In the first place, his attention will be kept on what he regards as her sins, by which, with a little guidance from you, he can be induced to mean any of her actions which are inconvenient or irritating to himself. Thus you can keep rubbing the wounds of the day a little sorer even while he is on his knees; the operation is not at all difficult and you will find it very entertaining. In the second place, since his ideas about her soul will be very crude and often erroneous, he will, in some degree, be praying for an imaginary person, and it will be your task to make that imaginary person daily less and less like the real mother—the sharp-tongued old lady at the breakfast table. In time, you may get the cleavage so wide that no thought or feeling from his prayers for the imagined mother will ever flow over into his treatment of the real one. I have had patients of my own so well in hand that they could be turned at a moment's notice from impassioned prayer for a wife's or son's "soul" to beating or insulting the real wife or son without a qualm” (Lewis).
Prayer is a critical component in our walk as Christians; 1 Thessalonians 5:17 commands us to “Pray without ceasing,” while James 5:15-16 and Ephesians 6:18 call us to frequently pray for others. This is why Satan’s demonic army prioritizes disrupting our prayer life. When we attempt to pray, it is not uncommon to find ourselves distracted with wandering thoughts. Furthermore, demons can project thoughts into our minds that render our prayers for others ineffective by influencing us to make fleshly, self-centered requests. These attacks, if unchecked, will convince us to pray for others to be “delivered” from behaviors we dislike, deprive us of God’s love for them, and lead us to mistreat them with annoyance and disrespect. Thankfully, all these attacks are possible to deflect when we obey James 4:7’s command to, “Submit [ourselves] therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from [us].” Thus, when praying, we must wholly surrender ourselves to God, cast off our selfish desires and grievances, and keep His will and love for others at the forefront. These steps are necessary for recognizing and rebuking demonic interference in our prayers.
“3. When two humans have lived together for many years it usually happens that each has tones of voice and expressions of face which are almost unendurably irritating to the other. Work on that. Bring fully into the consciousness of your patient that particular lift of his mother's eyebrows which he learned to dislike in the nursery, and let him think how much he dislikes it. Let him assume that she knows how annoying it is and does it to annoy—if you know your job he will not notice the immense improbability of the assumption. And, of course, never let him suspect that he has tones and looks which similarly annoy her. As he cannot see or hear himself, this is easily managed.”
4. In civilised life domestic hatred usually expresses itself by saying things which would appear quite harmless on paper (the words are not offensive) but in such a voice, or at such a moment, that they are not far short of a blow in the face. To keep this game up you and Glubose must see to it that each of these two fools has a sort of double standard. Your patient must demand that all his own utterances are to be taken at their face value and judged simply on the actual words, while at the same time judging all his mother's utterances with the fullest and most oversensitive interpretation of the tone and the context and the suspected intention. She must be encouraged to do the same to him. Hence from every quarrel they can both go away convinced, or very nearly convinced, that they are quite innocent. You know the kind of thing: "I simply ask her what time dinner will be and she flies into a temper." Once this habit is well established you have the delightful situation of a human saying things with the express purpose of offending and yet having a grievance when offence is taken.”
Finally, tell me something about the old lady's religious position. Is she at all jealous of the new factor in her son's life?—at all piqued that he should have learned from others, and so late, what she considers she gave him such good opportunity of learning in childhood? Does she feel he is making a great deal of "fuss" about it—or that he's getting in on very easy terms? Remember the elder brother in the Enemy's story” (Lewis).
While Satan and his demons will strive to divide others against us, he likewise tempts us to cause and perpetuate division against them. This behavior is immensely destructive to our walk with Christ and our witness for Him because it causes us to live in the flesh’s soul-life rather than our new life in Christ via our spirit. When living in our old life in the flesh, God’s love is prohibited from flowing through us, leaving us with our soulish love which is conditional and self-centered. This leaves ample room for demons to plant thoughts in our mind that turn us against others due to their behaviors, mannerisms, or other traits that our flesh finds aggravating.
When we give into these thoughts and instigate divisions in our churches, homes, and relationships, we risk causing tremendous damage in these areas. As Jesus says in Luke 11:17, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls.” This is why Screwtape devotes this letter to help Wormwood create division between the patient and his mother, for division is one of Satan’s most powerful tools against us and the church. For the sake of our witness for Christ, unity with other believers, and ability to effectively share the Gospel with the lost, it is imperative that we avoid purposefully causing division through fleshly behavior. As Titus 3:9 commands us, “avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.”
It is important to note here that there will be people who will refuse to get along with us and only desire to cause strife, quarreling, and division. Scripture instructs us to avoid such people in Romans 16:17 and Titus 3:10-11. However, the Bible places responsibility on us to obey Romans 12:18, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” This is only possible through the Holy Spirit, especially with people whom we naturally find difficult to be around or live with. In such situations, demons will attempt to influence us to live in our flesh and react with “enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, [and] envy” (Gal. 5:20-21). However, by living in submission to the Holy Spirit and allowing Him to renew our minds, we can overcome temptations to produce these fleshly works and instead exemplify Christ in difficult relationships with His “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, [and] self-control” (Gal. 5:22-23). Thus, when desires to be critical, irritated, and hateful towards others build up within us, we must immediately rebuke them, willfully choose to live in submission to the Holy Spirit, and ask Him for the love, patience, and kindness necessary to exemplify Christ to others.
Although we are called to be loving and Christlike towards others, Satan’s demonic armies strive to sow division between us and others to hinder our walk with Christ, divide the church, and keep unbelievers blinded to the truth of His Gospel. From interfering with our prayer life to influencing us to react angrily to others’ behavior, demons have many tactics that, if passively permitted, will severely cripple our effectiveness as Christ’s servants. Fortunately, no matter how settled these lies and deceptions are in our minds, 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 provides our means of deliverance: “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.” By receiving Christ’s victory over these demonic strongholds and fleshly behaviors through submitting to the Holy Spirit, we can effectively pray for the lost, successfully reject carnal behaviors that sow division, and freely share Christ’s love for others in all situations.
Reference:
Lewis, C. S. The Screwtape Letters. Self-published, 2025.
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