Textbook: The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis
Matthew 5:13-16, “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. 14 You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
This passage sees Jesus call us to be salt and light in this increasingly dark and immoral world. Obeying this requires us to stand out from unbelievers through maintaining holy conduct, boldly proclaiming our faith in Christ, and being a godly influence on others. However, we encounter in our daily lives great pressure from our flesh, the world, and Satan’s army to eschew these behaviors and hide our faith. The temptations and deceptions demons use to apply this pressure is the focus of tonight’s chapter in The Screwtape Letters.
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 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 are 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.” (Lewis)
As we learned from Letter VII, we must manage our relationships with unbelievers very carefully. 2 Corinthians 6:14 warns against overly close relationships and deep partnerships with them: “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?” However, as we learned from Matthew 5:13-16, it is not God’s will for us to completely avoid nonbelievers and isolate ourselves like monks. Rather, we are called to go out into the world, interacting with nonbelievers in a Christlike manner that bears witness to His salvation and draws them to it. Nevertheless, because this fallen world fights to remain cloaked in the darkness of sin, we face great pressure from unbelievers, our flesh, and demons to cover our lights and reduce our saltiness.
Specific examples of these pressures are illustrated from this passage in The Screwtape Letters. For example, the patient’s acquaintances were very set in their secular, intellectual mentality, with their conversations being very much in opposition to the patient’s faith in Christ. Also, our flesh can lead us to fearfully downplay or hide our beliefs when interacting with unbelievers to avoid potentially offending them or in selfish hopes of gaining worldly benefits from them. Finally, demons work to convince us that such self-censorship is normal, preferable, and even noble, despite it contradicting Christ’s teachings to be bold witnesses for Him.
Scripture gives us multiple counter-offenses to these attacks against our witness for Christ. First, Colossians 4:6 states, “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” Our speech should clearly reflect our faith in Him in a manner that is not arrogant but founded in His love for others. Next, we must remember Paul’s words in Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” When we forsake selfish gain and focus on nonbelievers’ salvation when interacting with them, the Holy Spirit will empower us to boldly and effectively proclaim the Gospel to them. Finally, 2 Timothy 1:7-8 state, “For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God.” The betrayal mentioned by Screwtape where we feign agreement and alignment with unbelievers is often caused by fear, which the Holy Spirit has given us the power to overcome. Thus, our interactions with unbelievers should never be influenced by fear or selfish gain, but be salted with godly behavior, guided by the Holy Spirit, and prepared to share the Gospel in Christ’s love and grace.
“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.” (Lewis)
When interacting with nonbelievers, we will begin to realize their speech, behaviors, and attitudes greatly differ from those which God has commanded us to have. However, in attempting to weaken our witness for Christ, demons will influence us to not only tolerate but even assume these ungodly attributes while around unbelievers. As Lewis notes, this is often accomplished by demons projecting thoughts of shame, pride, modesty, and vanity into our minds. If we remain passive to these attacks, we will progressively fall into carnal living, become blind to the dangers of the world’s lifestyles and beliefs, and even begin to see some of the Bible’s teachings as “puritanical,” or in other words, overly strict and fanatical. Sadly, as Lewis observed churches in his time adopting worldly attitudes and abandoning Scripture’s hard truths, such has become alarmingly rampant in our day. How very true is Screwtape’s line, “All mortals tend to turn into the thing they are pretending to be.” (Lewis)
Loving unbelievers with Christ’s love does not allow for adopting, endorsing, or accommodating their worldly beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes. As James 4:4 warns, “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” Conversely, we are called in Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” This renewing of the mind involves us allowing the Holy Spirit to trade the thoughts and beliefs of our mind to match those in Christ’s mind. By surrendering to this work, the Holy Spirit not only clears our minds to receive God’s will, but He also provides the discernment necessary to counteract demons’ attempts to draw us into worldly thinking. This purity of mind is necessary to being an effective witness for Christ; to forfeit it is both rebellion against God and is truly unloving to the lost.
“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.” (Lewis)
Screwtape lists here four other ways demons can use relationships with unbelievers to hinder our walk with Christ and weaken our witness for Him. Here, these tactics will be described, followed by the Bible’s truths on them:
Desperately shielding the souls of unbelievers from Christ’s life-giving Gospel are demons waging war against our efforts to obey Christ’s call to evangelism. As noted in The Screwtape Letters, demons utilize a wide range of tactics in this war, from tempting us to hide our witness with fear to influencing us to partake in unbelievers’ worldly behaviors. Thankfully, Scripture provides a plethora of truths that teach us how to counter these attacks through protecting our Christlike behavior, receiving the Holy Spirit’s courage in witnessing to the lost, and following His guidance in setting proper boundaries with them. By applying these truths, allowing the Holy Spirit to renew our minds, and making obeying Christ our first priority, we ensure the unbelievers God has placed in our lives are able to see in us the salt and light Christ has called us to be.
Reference:
Lewis, C. S. The Screwtape Letters. Self-published, 2025.
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