"Give up your self, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favourite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in" (C.S. Lewis, selection from last paragraph of Mere Christianity).
This is a beautiful quote, but if one dwells the surface implications, it can come across as contradictory, for example, the very notion of "losing your life and you will save it" or of "submit to death...and you will find eternal life." However, this form of irony was not invented by Lewis. Christ himself said "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for My sake, the same shall save it" (Luke 9:24).
The quote also seems to imply a kind of personal futility and self-loathing, for example, "Submit to death . . . of your ambitions and favourite wishes. . . . Look for yourself, and you will find . . . only hatred, loneliness, despair . . ." But Lewis didn't invent this either. Christ also said: If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple" (Matthew 14:26, emphasis added). Those are strong words!
Now I doubt that Christ was actually advocating forceful hatred towards family members, considering that he condemned Pharisees for failing to keep the fourth commandment of honoring their parents (Matthew 15:4-6) and that, according to him, the second greatest commandment is to "love thy neighbour as thyself" (Matthew 22:39), which surely applies to family members. While hanging on the cross, some of Christ's final words were in consideration for his mother's welfare (John 19:26-27).
But did Christ advocate a forsaking of personal ambition and self-loathing? It's hard for me to imagine one who has no goals in life and who hates himself measuring up to Christ's admonish to "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16). Christ certainly didn't hate himself. He loved life, waking up early, meditating in nature, making many friends, doing good wherever he went, lifting people's hearts, boldly declaring himself as the son of God, saying "I am the way, the truth and the life; no man cometh unto the father but by me" (John 14:6). Could one with no self-esteem or personal ambition be so bold? Considering that he said to the Nephites "What manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am" (3 Nephi 27:27), it stands to reason that we must share in his sense of self-worth and personal ambition. Furthermore, how can we love our neighbors as ourselves if we don't first love ourselves?
So is there contradiction between these opposite ends of Christ's message, between forsaking one's life and finding one's life? Certainly not. Christ spoke in the manner of the Jewish scholars and prophets of his time, quoting scriptures, using metaphors, teaching in parables, and certainly using hyperbole. The fact that he himself coined the seeming paradoxes such as "whosoever will love his life . . . shall save it" proves that he openly spoke poetically, to the spiritually minded.
Christ gave us the key to this riddle when he said "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Matthew 6:21). Illustrating this point, he told the parable of the rich man who invested all his time and resources in material gain, only to die the night before he intended to enjoy his wealth (Luke 12:13-21). If, on the other hand, our hearts are in building the kingdom of God, to "Go . . . into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15)--no small ambition--then surely our ambitions are God's ambitions, and they are righteous. The fact that Christ commanded us to be like him means that we must be incredibly ambitious. Infinitely ambitious! For the smartest, strongest, most spiritual, most influential, most successful, wealthiest men on earth are still dwarfed beneath his godliness.
"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33). Christ wants us to be happy and to prosper, but the irony is that this is impossible unless our goals are eternal life and not wordly gain. This is the heart of Christ's message as reiterated by C.S. Lewis.
This is a beautiful quote, but if one dwells the surface implications, it can come across as contradictory, for example, the very notion of "losing your life and you will save it" or of "submit to death...and you will find eternal life." However, this form of irony was not invented by Lewis. Christ himself said "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for My sake, the same shall save it" (Luke 9:24).
The quote also seems to imply a kind of personal futility and self-loathing, for example, "Submit to death . . . of your ambitions and favourite wishes. . . . Look for yourself, and you will find . . . only hatred, loneliness, despair . . ." But Lewis didn't invent this either. Christ also said: If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple" (Matthew 14:26, emphasis added). Those are strong words!
Now I doubt that Christ was actually advocating forceful hatred towards family members, considering that he condemned Pharisees for failing to keep the fourth commandment of honoring their parents (Matthew 15:4-6) and that, according to him, the second greatest commandment is to "love thy neighbour as thyself" (Matthew 22:39), which surely applies to family members. While hanging on the cross, some of Christ's final words were in consideration for his mother's welfare (John 19:26-27).
But did Christ advocate a forsaking of personal ambition and self-loathing? It's hard for me to imagine one who has no goals in life and who hates himself measuring up to Christ's admonish to "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16). Christ certainly didn't hate himself. He loved life, waking up early, meditating in nature, making many friends, doing good wherever he went, lifting people's hearts, boldly declaring himself as the son of God, saying "I am the way, the truth and the life; no man cometh unto the father but by me" (John 14:6). Could one with no self-esteem or personal ambition be so bold? Considering that he said to the Nephites "What manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am" (3 Nephi 27:27), it stands to reason that we must share in his sense of self-worth and personal ambition. Furthermore, how can we love our neighbors as ourselves if we don't first love ourselves?
So is there contradiction between these opposite ends of Christ's message, between forsaking one's life and finding one's life? Certainly not. Christ spoke in the manner of the Jewish scholars and prophets of his time, quoting scriptures, using metaphors, teaching in parables, and certainly using hyperbole. The fact that he himself coined the seeming paradoxes such as "whosoever will love his life . . . shall save it" proves that he openly spoke poetically, to the spiritually minded.
Christ gave us the key to this riddle when he said "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Matthew 6:21). Illustrating this point, he told the parable of the rich man who invested all his time and resources in material gain, only to die the night before he intended to enjoy his wealth (Luke 12:13-21). If, on the other hand, our hearts are in building the kingdom of God, to "Go . . . into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15)--no small ambition--then surely our ambitions are God's ambitions, and they are righteous. The fact that Christ commanded us to be like him means that we must be incredibly ambitious. Infinitely ambitious! For the smartest, strongest, most spiritual, most influential, most successful, wealthiest men on earth are still dwarfed beneath his godliness.
"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33). Christ wants us to be happy and to prosper, but the irony is that this is impossible unless our goals are eternal life and not wordly gain. This is the heart of Christ's message as reiterated by C.S. Lewis.
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