Christian Living: Spiritual Warfare
Memo to Demons: Killing the “Love” Threat
As I mentioned in my last memo, nothing is so threatening to the security of our kingdom as a simple church body that is united in the revolting practice of “love”. This is a phenomenon, frankly, we don’t understand. Whereas we get our nourishment and power from devouring others – it just makes sense -- they seem to thrive when they do just the opposite. It is a mystery we may never fathom, but on with the lesson.
One of the best weapons we have found against this vulgar weakness is “the wedge”. Ever since our successful work with their first parents, it is surprisingly easy to use against the human vermin. Thanks to that work, there is now a part of them that inclines to our likeness, and it only needs a little encouragement for that part to get the upper hand. You will find this behaviour easy to inspire in them and very gratifying.
“The wedge” is any point of difference you spot between two of them that can become, with your encouragement, more important than the other person. It might seem too obvious a contradiction to the Enemy’s commands that they “love each other,” “put the other first,” and all that drivel, but they are not bright and quite easy to deceive. The weakest of them fall for it every time. Almost anything can become a wedge. If they love the Bible, make it even the smallest difference of interpretation and application of the Bible. If they love worship, encourage them to cling to a certain style and volume of worship. Do they love missions? Make them feel that others don’t love missions enough. I’ve seen the delightful implosion of churches over the least significant things – a dress-code, one unfriendly person, a small criticism and, most reliably, personality differences.
But here’s the trick. This spawn of the Enemy knows that they are to do “right” (we’d say “wrong”). That is, they are to do just what he would do. Some incomprehensible part of them actually wants that. For the wedge to really work, therefore, they must believe their view or practice or personality is “right” to him and that they are only motivated by a desire for righteousness. In their feeble logic, then, the other person is sinning. Once you get them believing that, they will do almost anything for you. They will do it with pride, so stir up their pride (they are almost incapable of spotting that in themselves). Help them feel things like anger, resentment, hurt, and contempt, all in the name of standing for what is right, but all a fruit of pride. Carefully cultivate those feelings because where they exist love cannot. Never allow them to suspect that those very feelings, so consistent with our own, make anything they do “wrong” (we’d say “right”) automatically.
They should know this, of course. The Enemy has told them so plainly, in his manual for living. His bizarre decree is that their best work done without love means that they ultimately accomplish nothing, gain nothing, and are nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). It even goes on to a most vile and explicit description of that love. I gag when I read it. But against this there is hope. If they live by his manual for their lives, we face a huge obstacle. Fortunately, we know better, and take more seriously, that book than they do. If they come to live by that single decree, that only the “right” they do in love is “right” to the Enemy, the game is over. If you cannot prevent your client from doing what is right (always regrettable), have him do it with pride, NOT love. That is the great key. Should you fail in your mission, you will pay, for I am,
Your ever unloving Prince.
(This article is written in imitation of C. S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters)