Textbook: The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis
Place yourself in the shoes of Demas, a man who once served alongside the Apostle Paul. Imagine having the indescribable honor of witnessing Christ transform countless people’s lives, work astounding miracles through His laborers, and preserve them amid intense persecution. Also imagine experiencing the incredible privilege of traveling with Paul and listening to his anointed teachings. Furthermore, envision having the extraordinary blessing of working alongside him to serve Christ. However, imagine having all this undeniable proof of Christ’s unfathomable love, awesome power, and spiritual life, only to forsake Him and an imprisoned Paul for the selfish, fleeting, and hollow pleasures of this world.
The Screwtape Letters is a collection of fictional letters from a made-up demon named Screwtape. Each letter sees him teach his nephew Wormwood various tactics for use against a Christian they call “the patient.”
When studying this book, it is crucial to remember that it is satirical and fictional. Its author, C. S. Lewis, advises us, “not everything that Screwtape says should be assumed to be true even from his own angle.” The book’s purpose is not to explain how demons communicate with one another, nor to be an authoritative source on doctrines such as eternal security. Rather, its purpose is to provide deep insights into the various temptations and tactics demons use against 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.
“Yes. A period of sexual temptation is an excellent time for working in a subordinate attack on the patient's peevishness. It may even be the main attack, as long as he thinks it the subordinate one. But here, as in everything else, the way must be prepared for your moral assault by darkening his intellect.
“Men are not angered by mere misfortune but by misfortune conceived as injury. And the sense of injury depends on the feeling that a legitimate claim has been denied. The more claims on life, therefore, that your patient can be induced to make, the more often he will feel injured and, as a result, ill-tempered. Now you will have noticed that nothing throws him into a passion so easily as to find a tract of time which he reckoned on having at his own disposal unexpectedly taken from him. It is the unexpected visitor (when he looked forward to a quiet evening), or the friend's talkative wife (turning up when he looked forward to a time with the friend), that throw him out of gear. Now he is not yet so uncharitable or slothful that these small demands on his courtesy are in themselves too much for it. They anger him because he regards his time as his own and feels that it is being stolen. You must therefore zealously guard in his mind the curious assumption “My time is my own”. Let him have the feeling that he starts each day as the lawful possessor of twenty-four hours. Let him feel as a grievous tax that portion of this property which he has to make over to his employers, and as a generous donation that further portion which he allows to religious duties. But what he must never be permitted to doubt is that the total from which these deductions have been made was, in some mysterious sense, his own personal birth-right.” (Lewis)
As seen here, a possessive attitude is one of the most potent stumbling blocks for the believer. This is because entitlement is inherently a self-centered attitude that takes our minds off Christ and places self and its desires at the center of attention. This is especially true with time, where, despite it being a gracious gift from God, we naturally assume ownership of the 24 hours we are allotted each day. Predictably, this attitude makes our desires and agendas the center of our daily plans. This causes us to not only demote God to a secondary priority in them, but also resent people, circumstances, and even Him when our plans are interrupted or forcibly changed. Because these behaviors are significant hindrances to our relationship with God and witness for Christ, much demonic effort is dedicated to deceiving us from these truths.
The only effective counter to this fleshly attitude is one of total surrender to Jesus. This starts by continually reminding ourselves that all things, especially our time on earth, are given to us by God, for Psalm 139:16 states, “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” Next, we must remember that the time we have is very limited, for James 4:14 says, “Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” Furthermore, our use of time should not revolve around ourselves, but pleasing God through the Holy Spirit’s power, for Ephesians 5:15-17 state, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” Finally, Colossians 4:5 expands this command to involve our witness to others: “Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.” Thus, our use of time should not be based on the lie that we somehow own it but be utilized to glorify the One who created and thus truly owns it.
“You have here a delicate task. The assumption which you want him to go on making is so absurd that, if once it is questioned, even we cannot find a shred of argument in its defense. The man can neither make, nor retain, one moment of time; it all comes to him by pure gift; he might as well regard the sun and moon his chattels. He is also, in theory, committed a total service of the Enemy; and if the Enemy appeared to him in bodily form and demanded that total service for even one day, he would not refuse. He would be greatly relieved if that one day involved nothing harder than listening to the conversation of a foolish woman; and he would be relieved almost to the pitch of disappointment if for one half-hour in that day the Enemy said “Now you may go and amuse yourself”. Now if he thinks about his assumption for a moment, even he is bound to realise that he is actually in this situation every day. When I speak of preserving this assumption in his mind, therefore, the last thing I mean you to do is to furnish him with arguments in its defence. There aren't any. Your task is purely negative. Don't let his thoughts come anywhere near it. Wrap a darkness about it, and in the centre of that darkness let his sense of ownership-in-Time lie silent, uninspected, and operative.
“The sense of ownership in general is always to be encouraged. The humans are always putting up claims to ownership which sound equally funny in Heaven and in Hell and we must keep them doing so. Much of the modern resistance to chastity comes from men's belief that they “own” their bodies — those vast and perilous estates, pulsating with the energy that made the worlds, in which they find themselves without their consent and from which they are ejected at the pleasure of Another! It is as if a royal child whom his father has placed, for love's sake, in titular command of some great province, under the real rule of wise counsellors, should come to fancy he really owns the cities, the forests, and the corn, in the same way as he owns the bricks on the nursery floor.” (Lewis)
The possessive attitude described here is one we naturally apply not only to time, but virtually every aspect of our lives. It is our flesh’s natural tendency to claim ownership over our jobs, money, possessions, bodies, and even our very lives. It is this belief that mankind uses to justify a plethora of sins, including, as Screwtape notes, sexual immorality. It is also the belief that leads men such as Demas, who once served in the ministry, to abandon it for selfish, worldly pursuits. In fact, it is this heart-hardening attitude that leads the unbeliever to reject God, whom he knows requests control of his entire life.
Despite how prevalent this possessive attitude is, even among believers, its total and almost humorous foolishness is exposed in the light of Biblical truth. For example, Deuteronomy 10:14 proclaims that all things belong to God, “Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it.” Also, Colossians 1:16 notes that God’s status as the Creator of all things proves His ownership of them, “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.” Finally, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 states that believers especially have no ownership of themselves due to Christ purchasing us with His blood, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” Thus, because God both created and redeemed us, we cannot claim ownership of ourselves or anything He has given us.
“We produce this sense of ownership not only by pride but by confusion. We teach them not to notice the different senses of the possessive pronoun — the finely graded differences that run from “my boos” through “my dog”, “my servant”, “my wife”, “my father”, “my master” and “my country”, to “my God”. They can be taught to reduce all these senses to that of “my boots”, the “my” of ownership. Even in the nursery a child can be taught to mean by “my Teddy-bear” not the old imagined recipient of affection to whom it stands in a special relation (for that is what the Enemy will teach them to mean if we are not careful) but “the bear I can pull to pieces if I like”. And at the other end of the scale, we have taught men to say “My God” in a sense not really very different from “My boots”, meaning “The God on whom I have a claim for my distinguished services and whom I exploit from the pulpit — the God I have done a corner in”.
“And all the time the joke is that the word “Mine” in its fully possessive sense cannot be uttered by a human being about anything. In the long run either Our Father or the Enemy will say “Mine” of each thing that exists, and specially of each man. They will find out in the end, never fear, to whom their time, their souls, and their bodies really belong — certainly not to them, whatever happens. At present the Enemy says “Mine” of everything on the pedantic, legalistic ground that He made it: Our Father hopes in the end to say “Mine” of all things on the more realistic and dynamic ground of conquest.” (Lewis)
Of note here is Satan’s goal of deceiving believers into perceiving the statement, “my God,” to barely differ in meaning from saying something like, “my boots.” This behavior of devaluing the Lord comes in many forms from a heart that refuses to fully surrender to Him. For example, many people desire God’s blessings over Himself. However, as King Saul discovered, the Lord desires obedience and will eventually allow judgment to fall upon those who refuse to surrender to Him. Also, many want God, but only under the circumstances or time slots they choose. However, as Jonah experienced, God can only be served according to His plans and time, not ours. Additionally, some are so possessive and consumed with greed that they wish to exploit God for their own benefit. Judas Iscariot is the most egregious example of this, betraying Jesus for monetary gain.
Anything short of full surrender to Christ has the potential to lead us astray as Demas was. Jesus makes the necessity of this total submission clear in Luke 9:23-24, “And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”” Because Demas still desired to control his life and desires, he fell away from the ministry, abandoned Paul, and chose the world over Christ, as recorded in 2 Timothy 4:10, “For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.” As Demas’ falling away demonstrates, serving in Christ’s kingdom cannot be done with a partial allegiance, but only through total submission to the King.
A practical way to live in this manner is to live by the statement, “You’ll own nothing and be happy.” Though an infamous political statement with very concerning geopolitical implications, it makes perfect sense in God’s kingdom. For example, instead of selfishly planning our day as if we own our time, we should seek and obey God’s plans for us (Psa. 32:8; Prov. 3:5-6). Also, rather than hoarding possessions and money to satisfy our carnal desires, we should be thankful for what God has given us and use it as He directs us for His glory (1 Ti. 6:6; Prov. 3:9). Finally, instead of using our bodies to fulfill sinful desires, we should live by the Spirit to put said desires to death through the power of Christ’s victory over them (Rom. 8:13; Gal. 5:24). Thus, the surrendered life Christ calls us to live requires living according to the truth that we own nothing, all we have is graciously given by the Lord, and we are commanded to responsibly steward it for His glory.
The final recorded state of Demas—a former co-laborer turned betrayer who exchanged Paul and the ministry for worldly pleasures—is the result of being unwilling to relinquish false claims of ownership in our lives. As Scripture clearly states, all things, from time and possessions to our very lives, come from God and thus belong to Him. Living as if we own any of these things will breed selfishness and carnal pursuits that will hinder our walk with Christ. Conversely, by relinquishing our false claims of ownership and giving all we are and have to Him, we receive the Holy Spirit’s power to live the fully surrendered life Christ commands us to. Though we may live as if we own nothing, all the blessings of Christ’s abundant life will fill us with a perfect joy that no happiness on earth can remotely compare to.
Reference:
Lewis, C. S. The Screwtape Letters. Self-published, 2025.
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