Screwtape Letter #16 – Discussion Guide

The church (the people) is supposed to be a body – acting as a whole, with individual people / parts to make it function. This can’t happen if people don’t have one accord –

Living Sacrifices

Ro 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.  2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Ro 12:3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.  4 Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function,  5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.  6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith.  7 If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach;  8 if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

The Vicar –

He has undermined many a soul’s Christianity.

His conduct of the services is also admirable. In order to spare the laity all ‘difficulties’ he has deserted both the lectionary and the appointed psalms and now, without noticing it, revolves endlessly round the little treadmill of his fifteen favourite psalms and twenty favourite lessons.

In other words – he’s no threat to have anyone is his congregation learn anything at all – unless they do it on their own.

Taming the Tongue

Jas 3:1 Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.  2 We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.

Jas 3:3 When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal.  4 Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go.  5 Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.  6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

Jas 3:7 All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man,  8 but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

Jas 3:9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness.  10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.  11 Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?  12 My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

The people at his church –

safe from the danger that any truth not already familiar to him and to his flock should ever reach them through Scripture

And so it would seem that there’s not much danger of them learning much on their own.

The patient –

But perhaps your patient is not quite silly enough for this church—or not yet.

Not yet – but Screwtape thinks he may be in the future.

Warning Against Rejecting Wisdom

Pr 1:20 Wisdom calls aloud in the street,
she raises her voice in the public squares;

Pr 1:21 at the head of the noisy streets she cries out,
in the gateways of the city she makes her speech:

Pr 1:22 “How long will you simple ones love your simple ways?
How long will mockers delight in mockery
and fools hate knowledge?

Pr 1:23 If you had responded to my rebuke,
I would have poured out my heart to you
and made my thoughts known to you.

Pr 1:24 But since you rejected me when I called
and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand,

Pr 1:25 since you ignored all my advice
and would not accept my rebuke,

Pr 1:26 I in turn will laugh at your disaster;
I will mock when calamity overtakes you—

Pr 1:27 when calamity overtakes you like a storm,
when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind,
when distress and trouble overwhelm you.

Pr 1:28 “Then they will call to me but I will not answer;
they will look for me but will not find me.

Pr 1:29 Since they hated knowledge
and did not choose to fear the LORD,

Pr 1:30 since they would not accept my advice
and spurned my rebuke,

Pr 1:31 they will eat the fruit of their ways
and be filled with the fruit of their schemes.

Pr 1:32 For the waywardness of the simple will kill them,
and the complacency of fools will destroy them;

Pr 1:33 but whoever listens to me will live in safety
and be at ease, without fear of harm.”

Absolutely!”

Warning Against Rejecting Wisdom

Pr 1:20 Wisdom calls aloud in the street,
she raises her voice in the public squares;

Pr 1:21 at the head of the noisy streets she cries out,
in the gateways of the city she makes her speech:

Pr 1:22 “How long will you simple ones love your simple ways?
How long will mockers delight in mockery
and fools hate knowledge?

Pr 1:23 If you had responded to my rebuke,
I would have poured out my heart to you
and made my thoughts known to you.

Pr 1:24 But since you rejected me when I called
and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand,

Pr 1:25 since you ignored all my advice
and would not accept my rebuke,

Pr 1:26 I in turn will laugh at your disaster;
I will mock when calamity overtakes you—

Pr 1:27 when calamity overtakes you like a storm,
when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind,
when distress and trouble overwhelm you.

Pr 1:28 “Then they will call to me but I will not answer;
they will look for me but will not find me.

Pr 1:29 Since they hated knowledge
and did not choose to fear the LORD,

Pr 1:30 since they would not accept my advice
and spurned my rebuke,

Pr 1:31 they will eat the fruit of their ways
and be filled with the fruit of their schemes.

Pr 1:32 For the waywardness of the simple will kill them,
and the complacency of fools will destroy them;

Pr 1:33 but whoever listens to me will live in safety
and be at ease, without fear of harm.”

We know from Revelation what Jesus thinks about lukewarm:

To the Church in Laodicea

Rev 3:14 “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:

These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation.  15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!  16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”

Also consider Paul – writing about the rights of an Apostle –

The Rights of an Apostle

1Co 9:1 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not the result of my work in the Lord? 2 Even though I may not be an apostle to others, surely I am to you! For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

1Co 9:3 This is my defense to those who sit in judgment on me. 4 Don’t we have the right to food and drink? 5 Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas? 6 Or is it only I and Barnabas who must work for a living?

1Co 9:7 Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its grapes? Who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk? 8 Do I say this merely from a human point of view? Doesn’t the Law say the same thing? 9 For it is written in the Law of Moses: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Is it about oxen that God is concerned? 10 Surely he says this for us, doesn’t he? Yes, this was written for us, because when the plowman plows and the thresher threshes, they ought to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest. 11 If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you? 12 If others have this right of support from you, shouldn’t we have it all the more?

But we did not use this right. On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ. 13 Don’t you know that those who work in the temple get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar? 14 In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.

1Co 9:15 But I have not used any of these rights. And I am not writing this in the hope that you will do such things for me. I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of this boast. 16 Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! 17 If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me. 18 What then is my reward? Just this: that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not make use of my rights in preaching it.

1Co 9:19 Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.

1Co 9:24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27 No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.