“ We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it ”
C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (1952). copy citation
| Author | C. S. Lewis |
|---|---|
| Source | Mere Christianity |
| Topic | evil fighting |
| Date | 1952 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | Adapted from a series of BBC radio talks made between 1942 and 1944 |
| Weblink | https://www.dacc.edu/assets/pdfs/PCM/merechristianitylewis.pdf |
Context
“A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means—the only complete realist. Very well, then. The main thing we learn from a serious attempt to practise the Christian virtues is that we fail. If there was any idea that God had set us a sort of exam. and that we might get good marks by deserving them, that has to be wiped out.”
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Meaning and analysis
