Wisdom from C.S. Lewis

I started reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis at the end of last month. I have found it to be a very through explanation of Christianity so far. My idea of the book from reading just the title was that he was saying that Christianity isn’t much of anything, but he is really describing what Christianity truly is.

I just wanted to share with you some of the nuggets I have pulled from the first two sections of the book (it’s divided into four “books”). You also need to keep in mind that the books within this book are radio transcripts (with minor adjustments for easier reading) that Lewis did in the early forties.

“There is nothing progressive about being pig headed and refusing to admit a mistake. And I think if you look at the present state of the world, it is pretty plain that humanity has been making some big mistake. We are on the wrong road. And if that is so, we must go back. Going back is the quickest way on.”

“[T]here is a difficulty about disagreeing with God. He is the source from which all your reasoning power comes: you could not be right and He wrong any more than a stream can rise higher than its own source. When you are arguing against Him you are arguing against the very power that makes you able to argue at all: it is like cutting off the branch you are sitting on.”

“A live body is not one that never gets hurt, but one that can to some extent repair itself. In the same way a Christian is not a man who never goest wrong, but a man who is enabled to repent and pick himself up and begin over again after each stumble—because the Christ-life is inside him, repairing him all the time, enabling him to repeat (in some degree) the kind of voluntary death which Christ himself carried out.”

“He does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us; just as the roof of a greenhouse does not attract the sun because it is bright, but becomes bright because the sun shines on it.”