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Charity | C. S. Lewis · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome back to Reformed Thinking.
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  I'm really glad you're here with us.
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  Today. We're going to take a look at a
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  word that's been tossed around so much in English that it's
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  almost lost its shape. You hear it, you think you know
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  what it means. And it's a word that sits right
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  at the center of the Christian life.
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  Yet I would argue it's one of the ones we misunderstand the
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  most. And that word is charity.
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  That's the one. Yeah, it's a word that has
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  suffered a great deal of semantic drift over the
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  centuries. I mean, if you were to stop
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  someone on the street today and ask them to define charity,
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  they'd almost certainly describe a very specific set of actions.
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  Right, they talk about giving money.
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  They talk about dropping coins in a Baker's cup or writing a
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  check to a nonprofit. Or maybe, you know, cleaning out
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  their attic and taking a box of old coats to a donation center.
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  And that's exactly the image I get.
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  It's philanthropy. It's the act of giving material
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  goods to the poor. But we're continuing our deep
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  dive into CS Lewis's Mere Christianity, specifically his
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  chapter on charity. And he's going to push back on
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  that modern definition. Hard he is.
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  We find that our modern definition isn't just
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  incomplete, it's it's a drastic shrinking of what the concept
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  actually holds. Louis is going to argue that
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  we've taken something massive, something foundational, and
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  reduced it to something very, very small.
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  It's a reduction, absolutely. And Louis, he just cuts right to
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  the chase. He defines charity as love in
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  the Christian sense. OK.
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  And this isn't a side topic. We spent time in previous
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  discussions looking at the cardinal virtues.
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  Prudence, temperance, justice, and fortitude.
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  Right. Those are virtues that most
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  civilized people, Christian or not, would recognize as good
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  things. But now Lewis is moving us into
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  the three theological virtues, faith, hope, and charity.
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  These are the distinct marks of the Christian walk.
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  They're the fruit of the Spirit working in a believer.
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  So before we get into the weeds, I want to set the mission for
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  this deep dive. I think we need to strip away
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  the sentimentality. Oh, for sure.
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  Because in the modern church, and certainly in the culture at
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  large, love has become a very soft word.
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  It's associated with being nice, being affirmative, and, you
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  know, generally just having warm feelings toward everyone.
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  We often confuse love with niceness, but the historical
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  Christian view, the Reformed view, and definitely the view
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  Lewis presents here is, well, it's quite different.
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  Charity isn't a feeling, it's a harsh, practical and potent
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  state of the will. It's not about how you feel.
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  Not at all. It's about what you do and the
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  intent behind it. OK, so let's start with that
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  linguistic shift Lewis mentions. He points out that charity used
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  to have this much wider meaning, but now it's used almost
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  exclusively to mean alms giving to the poor.
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  Why does he think that happened? Well, he.
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  Uses this brilliant analogy to explain the slip in meaning.
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  He compares it to poetry. Imagine you ask a child, or, you
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  know, maybe someone who doesn't read a lot of literature.
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  What makes a poem a poem? What's the defining
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  characteristic? Oh, they'd almost certainly say
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  rhyme. If it rhymes, it's a poem.
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  If it doesn't, it's just talking.
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  Exactly. Rhyme is the most obvious part.
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  It's the external feature that catches the ear.
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  It's the thing that signals. This is poetry to the untrained
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  observer. But anyone who studies
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  literature knows that rhyme is not the essence of poetry.
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  I mean, you can have magnificent poetry like Milton's Paradise
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  Lost that doesn't rhyme at all. And you can have a little
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  Limerick on a bathroom wall that rhymes perfectly but is, well,
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  it's certainly not poetry. So in this analogy, giving to
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  the poor is the rhyme. Precisely giving alms is the
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  most obvious external, visible manifestation of charity.
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  It's the part you can see. So over time the popular mind
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  just took the part for the whole.
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  We confuse the symptom with the condition.
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  The fruit with the root. That's it.
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  We confuse the fruit with the root, giving to the poor as a
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  result of charity, but it's not the definition of it.
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  You can give all your money to the poor, as Saint Paul says in
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  First Corinthians, and yet have not charity.
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  You could have the rhyme without the poem.
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  That's a really helpful distinction.
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  So if giving money is just the rhyme, what is the poem?
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  How does Lewis define the core reality of charity?
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  He defines it simply as love in the Christian sense.
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  But then of course we run into another problem immediately.
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  The word love. The word love, which is even
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  more slippery than charity. We use the word love to describe
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  our relationship with our spouse, our children, God, and
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  tacos. We need to be specific.
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  And this is where we have to do some heavy lifting.
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  Lewis makes a distinction that I think is totally
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  counterintuitive to how we're raised.
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  I mean, we're raised on a diet of follow your heart and trust
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  your feelings. But Lewis says Christian love is
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  not an emotion. It is a state of the will.
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  And that is the pivot point for the entire chapter.
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  Christian love or agape if you want the Greek term.
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  It's a state of the will. It's a choice.
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  And this is vital to understand because of the commandment we're
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  given. We are commanded to love your
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  neighbor as yourself. And you cannot command a feeling
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  you. Absolutely cannot.
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  If I put gun to your head and ordered you to feel happy, or to
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  feel sad, or to feel fond of a specific person right this
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  second, you couldn't do it. You might be able to act it out,
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  but you can't force the internal chemistry of your emotions to
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  change on command. But God commands us to love.
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  Therefore this love cannot be an emotion.
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  It must be something within the control of our will.
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  Lewis uses that phrase love your neighbor as yourself to explain
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  what this looks like, and he points out something that I
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  found quite funny and very relatable.
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  He says that we don't always like ourselves.
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  It's a fantastic reality check, isn't it?
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  We tend to think that loving myself means sitting around
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  admiring my own virtues. But that's not true self love.
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  That's just narcissism. Yeah, think about your own
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  experience. There are days when you look in
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  the mirror and you're just disgusted.
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  You might have said something foolish in a meeting.
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  You might have committed a sin you're ashamed of.
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  You might just look tired and out of shape.
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  In that moment, you have no affection for yourself.
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  You might even feel a strong dislike.
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  Oh, I've definitely had those mornings.
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  I look in the mirror and just think you are a mess.
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  And yet, even in that moment of dislike, do you stop wanting
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  your own good? Do you stop wanting to be fed?
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  Do you stop wanting to be warm or for the police to protect
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  you? Yeah, even if I'm angry at
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  myself, I still want lunch. That is the point, That
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  relentless, biological, deep seated desire for your own
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  well-being. That is the love Lewis is
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  talking about. It's a state of the will that is
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  always operating. We naturally desire our own
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  good. We want ourselves to succeed.
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  We want ourselves to be safe. We want ourselves to be happy.
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  So the command to love my neighbor as myself means I have
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  to extend that same relentless will for well-being to them.
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  Yes. It has nothing to do with
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  thinking they're nice. It has nothing to do with
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  finding them attractive or interesting.
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  It simply means that you decide with your will to wish for their
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  good, just as you wish for your own.
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  Lewis even points out that loving yourself doesn't mean you
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  pretend you are good when you're not.
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  So loving your enemy doesn't mean you pretend he's not an
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  enemy. I can still see the truth.
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  You can look at a man and say he is a scoundrel and still wish
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  for his ultimate good, for his repentance and salvation.
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  This brings us to a distinction Lewis makes between charity,
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  this act of the will, and affection.
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  Because we do like some people. I like my friends, I like my
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  family. That feeling comes naturally.
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  I don't have to force my will to want them to be happy.
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  And Lewis is very careful here. He doesn't want to dismiss
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  natural affection at all. He distinguishes between charity
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  as a virtue and affection as a natural phenomenon.
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  He compares it to having a particular taste in food.
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  Oh, OK. Some people like spicy food,
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  others prefer mild. Some people are naturally warm
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  and affectionate, others are naturally cold or reserved.
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  And because it's natural, it's not.
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  It's morally neutral in itself. Being fond of someone is not a
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  virtue. It doesn't make you holy.
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  Jesus himself said that even the tax collectors love those who
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  love them. It's easy to be kind to people
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  you like. Of course, that's just nature
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  taking its course. It's no more Christian than
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  having a good digestion as Christian.
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  However, Lewis does argue that we should use it.
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  He says it makes charity easier. It does.
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  It removes the friction. If you have a natural affection
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  for someone, your will and your emotions are pulling in the same
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  direction. You want them to be happy
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  because you like them. It's easier to exercise the will
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  for their good when your feelings are already on board.
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  That makes sense, and that's why Lewis says we have a duty to
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  encourage our affections. We should try to like people.
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  We should try to find their good points.
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  We should try to cultivate the taste for people, just like you
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  might try to cultivate a taste for healthy food you don't
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  initially like. But, and here's where this deep
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  dive gets really interesting, he also warns that natural
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  affection can be a trap. We usually think of loving our
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  friends and family as the highest good.
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  We see it in movies all the time, right?
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  But Lewis says if we aren't careful, that natural love can
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  become uncharitable. And this reflects the reformed
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  understanding of the fall perfectly.
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  Sin effects every part of us, even our good parts.
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  Our natural loves, if left to themselves, can become idols.
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  They can become destructive. Lewis points out that if you
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  have a strong natural affection for your tribe, your friends,
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  your family, you can become unfair to outsiders.
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  You become clannish. Exactly.
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  You might pervert justice to protect someone you like.
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  You might overlook a serious flaw in your child because your
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  affection blinds you. The example he uses that just so
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  powerful the doting mother. This is such a strong image
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  because we usually hold up the mother child bond as the purest
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  form of human love. Louis just flips that assumption
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  on his head. He describes a mother who is so
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  driven by her natural affection, her intense emotional
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  attachment, that she actually harms the child.
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  She spoils him. But why?
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  I mean, in her mind, she's loving him.
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  Is she or is she prioritizing her own emotional gratification?
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  She wants the child to smile at her right now.
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  She wants the warm feeling of being the benevolent provider.
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  She can't bear to discipline the child's or to deny the child
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  anything because it would make her feel bad in the moment.
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  She's sacrificing the child's long term character and future
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  happiness for her own immediate emotional comfort.
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  That's a heavy indictment. She's calling it love, but it's
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  actually selfishness. It is affection masquerading as
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  charity, true charity. The will seeking the ultimate
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  good of the other would say I love you enough to say no.
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  I love you enough to let you cry now so that you will be a better
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  man later. That requires the will to
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  override the natural impulse of affection.
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  So the doting mother is just feeding her own need to be liked
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  by her child. That's what Lewis is arguing.
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  It's a sobering thought. That distinction really forces
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  you to check your motives, doesn't it?
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  Am I doing this because it's good for them or because it
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  makes me feel good? That is the constant question of
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  the Christian life. Now let's talk about the people
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  who struggle with this the most, the people who aren't naturally
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  affectionate. Lewis calls this the cold
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  temperament. And there are many, many people
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  who worry about this. They look at other Christians
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  who are bubbly and warm and hugging everyone, and they feel
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  like they're defective. They think I must not be a real
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  Christian because I don't feel that warmth.
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  I'm sure some of our listeners feel that way.
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  And Lewis offers a great deal of comfort here.
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  He says that having a cold temperament is a misfortune,
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  like having a bad leg or a poor eyesight.
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  It is not a sin. It's just the raw material you
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  were given. It's the hand they were dealt.
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  Correct. But, and this is absolutely
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  crucial, it does not excuse them from the duty of charity.
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  God doesn't judge you for having a cold temperament, but He does
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  judge you for what you do with it.
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  So how does a cold person, or really any of us dealing with a
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  person we dislike, practice charity?
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  If the feeling isn't there, what do we do?
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  The rule is simple and stunningly practical, Lewis
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  says. Act as if you did.
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  Sounds a bit like fake it till you make it.
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  In a way, but without the deception.
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  You're not trying to trick the other person into thinking you
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  like them. You're obeying a command from
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  God. You just ask yourself, if I did
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  love this person, what would I do?
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  Would I speak kindly to them? Would I help them with their
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  work? Would I refrain from gossiping
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  about them? Once you know the answer, you go
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  and do it. And this leads to what Lewis
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  calls the great secret. It's a kind of psychological
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  feedback loop that the church is known about for 2000.
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  Years. Yes.
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  It's profound when you behave as if you love someone, you will
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  eventually come to love them. The action of the will impacts
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  the emotions. It's not the other way around.
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  If you force yourself by an act of will to be kind to someone
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  you dislike, over time you will find your dislike lessening.
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  You'll actually start to like them.
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  You might, or at the very least the hatred will cool.
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  You might start to see them differently.
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  You might start to notice their humanity.
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  The act of the will drags the feelings along behind it,
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  kicking and screaming sometimes, but it drags.
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  Them. But there's a very specific
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  warrant here, a massive caveat. You can't just go through the
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  motions and expect the magic to happen if your motive is wrong.
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  Right. This is critical, yeah.
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  Louis warns against doing a good deed just to show off.
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  If you're being kind to a difficult person so that you can
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  pat yourself on the back and say look what a fine, forgiving,
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  charitable person I am, then you're.
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  Acting out of pride, it becomes a performance.
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  And it's a performance that fails.
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  Lewis knows that people are not stupid.
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  They can spot patronage a mile away.
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  They can spot condescension. If you help someone just to feel
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  superior to them, they won't be grateful.
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  They'll be resentful. And when they're not grateful.
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  You'll be offended, you'll think after all I did for them, and
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  you'll end up disliking them even more than when you started.
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  The whole thing backfires. So what is the correct motive?
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  If I don't like them and I'm not doing it for thanks, why am I
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  doing it? You must do it because they are
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  a self-made by God. They are a soul created in the
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  image of God, desiring their own happiness just as you desire
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  yours. You're recognizing the objective
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  reality of who they are in God's eyes.
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  You're doing it for God's sake and for the sake of the truth.
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  Not for my own sake. Not for your own sake.
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  When you act from that motive, ignoring the applause, ignoring
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  the gratitude, then the spiritual law works.
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  The ice begins to crack. This brings us to the inverse of
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  this law, and honestly, reading this part again, it's
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  frightening because if doing good produces love, what does
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  doing evil produce? It produces hatred.
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  Lewis calls this the compound interest of good and evil.
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  The spiritual law works in both directions.
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  If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself
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  disliking them more. It creates a spiral.
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  A vicious downward spiral. And Lewis uses a stark
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  historical example here. Writing in the shadow of World
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  War Two, he talks about the Germans and the Jews.
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  He suggests that perhaps at the very beginning a particular
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  German ill treated a Jew because he hated him.
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  That was the initial spark OK, but afterwards he hated him much
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  more because he had ill treated him.
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  That makes a chilling amount of psychological sense.
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  When you hurt someone, you have to justify it to yourself.
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  You have to. You can't live with the idea
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  that you are the villain, so if you hurt someone, you have to
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  convince yourself that they deserved it.
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  You have to dehumanize them. It's a they are vermin or they
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  are the enemy. And once you've dehumanized them
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  to justify the first injury becomes so much easier to
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  inflict the second injury, which in turn makes you hate them
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  more. Cruelty fuels hate, and hate
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  fuels cruelty. It's a feedback loop from hell.
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  Lewis uses the term compound interest.
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  We usually think of that in finance, you know, money growing
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  over time. But he applies it to character.
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  He says good and evil both increase a compound interest,
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  and that is why the small decisions we make every day are
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  so incredibly critical. We tend to dismiss our small
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  sins. We say, oh, I'll just indulge in
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  this one little angry outburst, or I'll just ignore this one
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  chance to be kind. But Lewis argues we're altering
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  the trajectory of our souls with every choice.
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  He uses a military analogy here that I think is very effective.
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  He talks about strategic points. He does, he says, a small good
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  act today, a moment of biting your tongue when you want to
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  lash out. A small kindness to a stranger.
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  It's like the capture of a strategic point on a
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  battlefield. A hill or a railway junction.
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  Exactly. It might not look like much on
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  the map, it doesn't feel like a huge victory, but from that
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  point you can launch victories you never dreamed of a few
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  months later. It gives you a position of
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  strength for the next battle. And the reverse is true.
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  The reverse is terrifyingly true.
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  A trivial indulgence in lust or anger is the loss of a
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  bridgehead you've given the enemy.
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  And here, speaking from our theological framework, we mean
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  the devil, the world and the flesh.
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  A foothold. You've lost a Ridge, and from
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  that Ridge the enemy can launch an attack that would have been
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  impossible before. From a reformed perspective,
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  this really highlights the danger of our fallen state,
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  doesn't it? We can't just coast.
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  There's no neutral. It highlights the doctrine of
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  sanctification. We are not static beings.
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  We are always moving. We're either being sanctified,
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  growing in grace, extending our capacity for charity, or we are
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  degenerating. We're either becoming a creature
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  of heaven or a creature of hell, one small choice at a time.
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  There's no neutral ground. You're either advancing or
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  retreating in every single moment.
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  Wow, that raises the stakes of a Tuesday afternoon significantly.
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  It's not just about being nice. It's about the very construction
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  of the soul. It is you are building the house
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  you will inhabit for eternity, brick by brick.
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  I want to pivot now to the final section of this chapter because
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  Lewis takes this definition of charity, this hard practical
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  state of the will, and applies it to the most important
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  relationship of all, our relationship with God.
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  This is the vertical application, Yeah, and it
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  addresses a problem that plagues so many sincere Christians.
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  I hear all the time in pastoral counseling, people will say I
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  know it's supposed to love God, but I look inside my heart and I
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  just, I don't feel it. Or they don't feel it enough.
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  Right. I don't feel the same emotional
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  intensity for God that I feel for my spouse or my children.
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  Am IA hypocrite? And I think most of us have been
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  there. You're in a church service.
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  People around you seem to be having a very emotional
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  experience and you're standing there feeling nothing.
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  You start to panic. You think do I even know God am
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  IA fraud? And Lewis says the answer is the
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  same as it is for your neighbor. Act as if you did.
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  Just do it just. Do it.
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  Don't sit around checking your own spiritual pulse to see if
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  you feel devout. You can't manufacture those
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  feelings. Instead, ask yourself the
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  practical question. If I were sure that I loved God,
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  what would I do? And the answer is usually very
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  practical. I'd obey him.
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  I would pray even when I don't feel like it.
• 18:35
  I would read my Bible. I'd treat my neighbor with
• 18:37
  respect. Spot on.
• 18:39
  When you find the answer, go and do it.
• 18:41
  That is love, Jesus himself says in John 14.15.
• 18:46
  If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
• 18:49
  He doesn't say If you love me, you will feel a warm glow.
• 18:52
  Love is obedience. It's the alignment of the will
• 18:56
  with God's will. This is actually incredibly
• 18:58
  freeing. It takes the pressure off of the
• 19:00
  emotional performance. It is theologically robust
• 19:03
  comfort. God knows our frame.
• 19:05
  He remembers that we are dust. He knows our emotions are tied
• 19:08
  to our biology, to our hormones, to whether we got enough sleep.
• 19:12
  If you're sick or tired or clinically depressed, you
• 19:14
  probably will not feel ecstatic love for God.
• 19:17
  And that's OK. God doesn't judge us based on
• 19:19
  the weather of our emotions. He looks at the compass of our
• 19:21
  will. Are you pointing toward Him?
• 19:23
  Even when the fog is thick? That is what matters.
• 19:25
  But Lewis does say that feelings have a place.
• 19:28
  He isn't saying we should be cold, unfeeling robots.
• 19:31
  Not at all. He says that feelings are a
• 19:33
  gift. God gives us feelings of love if
• 19:35
  he pleases. They are the desert, not the
• 19:37
  main course. We can't demand them, and we
• 19:40
  certainly can't create them by our own effort.
• 19:43
  But often, as we walk in obedience, acting as if we loved
• 19:45
  him, the feelings do come as a gift.
• 19:49
  But we should never rely on them.
• 19:50
  Never. If you build your faith on your
• 19:52
  feelings, you'll be unstable your entire Christian life.
• 19:55
  Feelings come and go like the wind.
• 19:57
  If you build your faith on the will to obey, you're building on
• 20:00
  the rock. There's a beautiful point Lewis
• 20:02
  makes near the end about the difference between our love for
• 20:05
  God and God's love for us. Yes.
• 20:07
  He says God's love for us is a much safer subject to think
• 20:10
  about than our love for Him. And why is that?
• 20:13
  Because our love is fickle. It's weak.
• 20:16
  It's interrupted by our selfishness constantly.
• 20:18
  It sputters and fails. But his love, Lewis uses a very
• 20:22
  powerful word. He says It is relentless.
• 20:24
  Relentless. That's a word that implies both
• 20:26
  comfort and, well, a bit of terror.
• 20:28
  It does and it should, Lewis says.
• 20:30
  God's love is not wearied by our sins or our indifference.
• 20:33
  We can't drive him away by being unlovable.
• 20:36
  In fact, because he loves us, he is determined to cure us.
• 20:41
  He will not stop until the job is done.
• 20:43
  It connects back to what we said at the start.
• 20:45
  Charity isn't soft, it isn't just nice.
• 20:48
  Not at all. God's love is a consuming fire.
• 20:51
  We tend to think love means a kind of mushy acceptance.
• 20:55
  I love you just the way you are. But Lewis argues that God loves
• 20:59
  you far too much to leave you the way you are.
• 21:01
  He wants to perfect you. He wants to remove the stain of
• 21:04
  sin. It's a love that says I'm going
• 21:06
  to make you holy, whatever the cost to you or to me.
• 21:09
  That is the Reformed view of grace right there.
• 21:11
  It's irresistible and it's effectual.
• 21:13
  It actually does the work. It's the strongest force in the
• 21:15
  universe. It's the force that drove Christ
• 21:17
  to the cross. That wasn't a sentimental
• 21:18
  moment. That was the supreme act of the
• 21:20
  will for the good of the beloved.
• 21:22
  So as we wrap this up, let's summarize the distinction Lewis
• 21:24
  makes between the worldly man and the Christian.
• 21:27
  Because on the surface, sometimes they might look
• 21:30
  similar. They might The worldly man has
• 21:33
  affections. He has likings.
• 21:35
  He treats certain people kindly because he likes them.
• 21:38
  He's nice to his friends and cold, or at least indifferent to
• 21:41
  his enemies. His kindness depends entirely on
• 21:44
  his mood and his natural temperament.
• 21:47
  He's a slave to his own chemistry.
• 21:49
  Christian. The Christian is operating on
• 21:51
  Charity, on the Will. He tries to treat everyone
• 21:54
  kindly, regardless of his feelings.
• 21:56
  He treats the bore, the enemy and the stranger with the same
• 21:59
  will for their good that he has for himself and his own family.
• 22:03
  And the paradox is that by doing so, he finds himself liking more
• 22:07
  and more people as he goes on. So he ends up with more real
• 22:10
  affection. He ends up with more true
• 22:12
  affection than the worldly man, even though he might have
• 22:14
  started with cold obedience. It's the result of the work.
• 22:17
  It is the worldly man only loves what is already lovable.
• 22:20
  The Christian, by God's grace, learns to love the unlovable and
• 22:24
  in doing so, helps make it lovable.
• 22:26
  It really changes how you view your daily interactions.
• 22:29
  It stops being about just getting through the day and
• 22:31
  starts being about training the heart, training the will.
• 22:33
  It's spiritual boot camp. Every single interaction is a
• 22:36
  wrap. I want to leave our listeners
• 22:38
  with the thought that Lewis hints at, which I think is a
• 22:40
  significant challenge. We talked about how every choice
• 22:43
  is a military maneuver, a capture of a strategic point, or
• 22:48
  a loss of ground. The compound interest.
• 22:50
  Right. So if our current likes and
• 22:53
  dislikes the person we are right now are simply the result of the
• 22:57
  thousands of small choices we've made in the past, then the
• 23:01
  person you will be at 10 years from now is being constructed by
• 23:04
  the choice you make immediately after this deep dive ends.
• 23:07
  That is the reality. You are building a creature and
• 23:11
  the question is, is it a creature that can endure the
• 23:14
  presence of God or is it a creature that will be consumed
• 23:17
  by its own self centeredness? That is the question.
• 23:19
  The next time you have a chance to be kind to someone you find
• 23:22
  annoying, remember you aren't just being polite, you are
• 23:25
  engaging in an act of war against your own selfishness,
• 23:29
  and you are building a capacity for love that will last forever.
• 23:32
  Amen to that. This has been reformed thinking.
• 23:33
  Thanks for listening.