Clive Staples Lewis on Temperance

Biblical teachers, authors & preachers must quote C.S. Lewis more than any other modern writer. It is rare that a month goes by that I do not hear or read a quote by Clive Staples (maybe it is because he has the first name 'Clive' & middle name 'Staples'). I am in the process of rereading the classics of Lewis: Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, The Abolition of Man, The Great Divorce, The Problem of Pain, Miracles: A Grief Observed, & The Weight of Glory. Hopefully soon I will take on The Chronicles of Narnia again. So...here & there, I may scatter in some thoughts, quotes, reflections, & such on the blog of my readings. 

On a recent trip to Lexington, I had about an hour or so of extra reading time before I had to teach. It occurred to me that much of what Lewis said wouldn't go over too well in many of our churches (I had this same feeling a few months ago reading Spurgeon's view that 'the doctrine of justification...as preached by an Arminian, is nothing but the doctrine of salvation by works'). But, to make my point I would like to share a few excerpts on Temperance from Mere Christianity. 

"Temperance is, unfortunately, one of those words that has changed its meaning. It now usually mean teetotalism...Temperance referred not specially to drink (alcohol), but to all pleasures; & it meant not abstaining, but going the right length & no further. It is a mistake to think that Christians ought all to be teetotallers...Of course it may be the duty of a particular Christian, or of any Christian, at a particular time to abstain from strong drink, either because he is the sort of man who cannot drink at all without drinking too much, or because he is with people who are inclined to drunkenness & must not encourage them by drinking himself. But the whole point is that he is abstaining, for a good reason, from something which he does not condemn & which likes to see other people enjoying. One of the marks of a certain type of bad man is that he cannot give up a thing himself without wanting every one else to give it up.  That is not the Christian way. An individual Christian may see fit to give up all sorts of things for special reasons--marriage, or meat, or beer, or the cinema; but the moment he starts saying the things are bad in themselves, or looking down his nose at other people who do use them, he has taken the wrong turning." 

As Lewis concluded, "There is a difference between doing some particular just or temperate action & being a just or temperate man." 

"God is not deceived by externals." I am challenged to become a person of a certain quality of character rather than one whose externals merely seem temperate. Because let's face it--we can be people of moral excellence & still be opposed by God. God wants our hearts!