Textbook: The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis
1 Corinthians 13:1-4, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant.”
1 Corinthians 8:1-3, “Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up. 2 If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. 3 But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.”
Romans 12:16, “Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.”
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.
“I have been in correspondence with Slumtrimpet who is in charge of your patient's young woman, and begin to see the chink in her armour. It is an unobtrusive little vice which she shares with nearly all women who have grown up in an intelligent circle united by a clearly defined belief; and it consists in a quite untroubled assumption that the outsiders who do not share this belief are really too stupid and ridiculous. The males, who habitually meet these outsiders, do not feel that way; their confidence, if they are confident, is of a different kind. Hers, which she supposes to be due to Faith, is in reality largely due to the mere colour she has taken from her surroundings. It is not, in fact, very different from the conviction she would have felt at the age of ten that the kind of fish-knives used in her father's house were the proper or normal or “real” kind, while those of the neighbouring families were “not real fish-knives” at all. Now the element of ignorance and naivety in all this is so large, and the element of spiritual pride so small, that it gives us little hope of the girl herself. But have you thought of how it can be made to influence your own patient?
“It is always the novice who exaggerates. The man who has risen in society is over- refined, the young scholar is pedantic. In this new circle your patient is a novice. He is there daily meeting Christian life of a quality he never before imagined and seeing it all through an enchanted glass because he is in love. He is anxious (indeed the Enemy commands him) to imitate this quality. Can you get him to imitate this defect in his mistress and to exaggerate it until what was venial in her becomes in him the strongest and most beautiful of the vices — Spiritual Pride?” (Lewis)
As believers, we possess spiritual knowledge (i.e., knowledge about God, His Word, His salvation, etc.) that unbelievers lack and cannot obtain because the Holy Spirit does not reside within them. 1 Corinthians 2:14 explains, “The natural [unbelieving] person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” Furthermore, 2 Corinthians 4:4 reveals how Satan further hinders unbelievers’ ability to receive the Gospel, “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.” However, as seen in Screwtape’s dialogue, Satan will tempt us to adopt conceited, unloving attitudes towards unbelievers due to our exclusive possession of this knowledge. As 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 demonstrate, this occurs when we possess and wield this knowledge apart from God’s agape love.
Jesus provides an extreme example of this in His parable in Luke 18:9-14. In it was a Pharisee who possessed vast knowledge on what God’s laws deemed good and evil. However, because he allowed this knowledge to puff up his ego, he became immensely conceited in his view of sinners, to the point of vocally claiming superiority over a tax collector next to him in the temple. This behavior, Jesus noted, caused the Pharisee to remain unjustified before God, unlike the tax collector who applied what knowledge he had to place his faith in the Lord and humbly repent before Him. As Christ’s parable vividly illustrates, when knowledge is used to breed conceit and applied apart from God’s love, we damage not only our relationship with Him, but also rebel against the Great Commission by adopting an uncharitable, unloving, and condemning attitude towards the lost.
In contrast, 1 Timothy 2:1-4 explain the proper application of our spiritual knowledge towards unbelievers, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Furthermore, to withhold God’s grace and love from the lost is immensely hypocritical, for Ephesians 2:1-3 note how we also were once wretched, spiritually blind sinners equally undeserving of salvation. Thus, the truth of the Gospel should never produce pride from possessing knowledge others do not, but God’s agape love that produces a deep yearning to evangelize to the lost, pray for them, and desire their salvation.
“The conditions seem ideally favourable. The new circle in which he finds himself is one of which he is tempted to be proud for many reasons other than its Christianity. It is a better educated, more intelligent, more agreeable society than any he has yet encountered. He is also under some degree of illusion as to his own place in it. Under the influence of “love” he may still think himself unworthy of the girl, but he is rapidly ceasing to think himself unworthy of the others. He has no notion how much in him is forgiven because they are charitable and made the best of because he is now one of the family. He does not dream how much of his conversation, how many of his opinions, are recognised by them all as mere echoes of their own. Still less does he suspect how much of the delight he takes in these people is due to the erotic enchantment which the girl, for him, spreads over all her surroundings. He thinks that he likes their talk and way of life because of some congruity between their spiritual state and his, when in fact they are so far beyond him that if he were not in love he would be merely puzzled and repelled by much which he now accepts. He is like a dog which should imagine it understood fire-arms because its hunting instinct and love for its master enable it to enjoy a day's shooting! Here is your chance. While the Enemy, by means of sexual love and of some very agreeable people far advanced in His service, is drawing the young barbarian up to levels he could never otherwise have reached, you must make him feel that he is finding his own level — that these people are “his sort” and that, coming among them, he has come home. When he turns from them to other society he will find it dull; partly because almost any society within his reach is, in fact, much less entertaining, but still more because he will miss the enchantment of the young woman. You must teach him to mistake his contrast between the circle that delights and the circle that bores him for the contrast between Christians and unbelievers. He must be made to feel (he'd better not put it into words) “how different we Christians are”; and by “we Christians” he must really, but unknowingly, mean “my set”; and by “my set” he must mean not “The people who, in their charity and humility, have accepted me”, but “The people with whom I associate by right.” (Lewis)
Earlier in the book, Screwtape advised Wormwood to tempt the patient to look down on other believers while enjoying nonbelieving friends’ company and dialogue. However, now that the patient is more spiritually mature and enjoying intelligent believers’ fellowship, Screwtape advises the opposite. Instead of tempting the patient to be proud of his worldliness, the plan is now to make him proud of his newfound knowledge and place among this well-educated Christian community. As the dialogue indicates, this societal and intellectual pride is meant to further lower his opinion of unbelievers and blind him to the role his fellow believers had in his growth.
The Apostle Paul warns against this prideful misuse of knowledge in 1 Corinthians 8:1-3, “We know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up. 2 If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. 3 But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.” As explained here, God calls us to use our knowledge of Him and His Word to lovingly build up our brethren and witness to the unsaved. However, if it is gathered and applied with the self-seeking intent to serve or build ourselves up in the flesh, it will only do that and fail to glorify God.
Furthermore, as the rest of 1 Corinthians 8 explains, the prideful misapplication of spiritual knowledge can cause us to create stumbling blocks for less spiritually developed believers. Here, the Corinthian church had believers who knew the powerlessness of idols and thus ate meat sacrificed to them. However, this offended and created a stumbling block for other believers who were delivered from idol worship and lacked the knowledge their brethren had. Although the more spiritually mature believers knew they had the freedom to eat this meat, Paul noted how their application of this knowledge was sinful due to it harming their brethren.
To avoid these potential misuses of spiritual knowledge, the Lord has called us to use it with discernment. For example, James 3:17 describes its proper application as spiritual wisdom, “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.” Next, Ephesians 4:15 notes how spiritual knowledge must be balanced with God’s agape love in our dealings with others, “Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.” Finally, Romans 12:3 notes how our spiritual knowledge should not be used to build up our egos, “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” Thus, the knowledge the Holy Spirit graciously imparts to us must not be misused in ways that cause others to stumble, create division, and puff us up with pride.
“Success here depends on confusing him. If you try to make him explicitly and professedly proud of being a Christian, you will probably fail; the Enemy's warnings are too well known. If, on the other hand, you let the idea of “we Christians” drop out altogether and merely make him complacent about “his set”, you will produce not true spiritual pride but mere social vanity which, by comparison, is a trumpery, puny little sin. What you want is to keep a sly self-congratulation mixing with all his thoughts and never allow him to raise the question “What, precisely, am I congratulating myself about?” The idea of belonging to an inner ring, of being in a secret, is very sweet to him. Play on that nerve. Teach him, using the influence of this girl when she is silliest, to adopt an air of amusement at the things the unbelievers say. Some theories which he may meet in modern Christian circles may here prove helpful; theories, I mean, that place the hope of society in some inner ring of “clerks”, some trained minority of theocrats. It is no affair of yours whether those theories are true or false; the great thing is to make Christianity a mystery religion in which he feels himself one of the initiates.
“Pray do not fill your letters with rubbish about this European War. Its final issue is, no doubt, important, but that is a matter for the High Command. I am not in the least interested in knowing how many people in England have been killed by bombs. In what state of mind they died, I can learn from the office at this end. That they were going to die sometime, I knew already. Please keep your mind on your work.” (Lewis)
What Screwtape desires here is for the patient to take pride in his membership in the specific group of believers he is among. Of note is the emphasis on convincing him that he is a member of an enlightened inner circle or secret group of believers among whom society’s hope rests on. Such a belief stems from intellectual pride and social vanity that can negatively affect our view of other groups of believers. Specifically, it can cause us to look down on and be unwilling to work with others whom we have minor disagreements with despite both holding to the same cardinal doctrines.
It is crucial to note that we are to pray for but avoid people who reject Scripture’s cardinal doctrines and openly cause division. This is commanded by Paul in Romans 16:17-18, “I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.” However, this does not apply to believers who, while possessing small disagreements, faithfully hold to the cardinal doctrines, truly love Christ, and desire to serve Him alongside us. To exaggerate and argue over these differences is sinful, for Titus 3:9-11 state, “But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.”
Avoiding divisive intellectual pride requires obeying through the Holy Spirit’s power Scripture’s commands on humble, gracious, and sympathetic unity. For example, Romans 12:16 states, “Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.” Also, Ephesians 4:29 commands, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Finally, 1 Peter 3:8 states, “Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.” Thus, obeying Christ requires surrendering our intellectual and social pride to look past minor differences, share God’s love, and extend His grace to co-labor with our brethren.
God has called us to wisely steward the knowledge He has given us about Himself, His Word, and the Christian life. As this letter showcases, wielding this knowledge without God’s agape love and exploiting it to puff ourselves up results in us looking down on nonbelievers, causing weaker brethren to stumble, and sowing division between us and other believers. Because of this, Scripture commands us to utilize our spiritual knowledge to share agape love towards others, humbly protect our brethren from stumbling, and graciously promote unity among them. We must always remember that a full head and an empty heart equal nothing in God’s kingdom, but a redeemed heart full of His love can properly apply spiritual knowledge to glorify Him, lead others to salvation, and earn eternal rewards.
Reference:
Lewis, C. S. The Screwtape Letters. Self-published, 2025.
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