When Hatred Is Close and Benevolence Is Far
Individuals, corporations, and churches have learned to respond quickly to natural disasters, epidemics, and other tragedies in the 21st century. Recent events in Haiti, Chile, Turkey, and elsewhere have reminded us of the power of nature to bring havoc to human experience. Sorrow has been witnessed in unprecedented ways. Yet amid that sorrow, it is beautiful to see Christ’s church all around the globe rushing to offer their money, their hands, and their feet to those in need.
In The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis addresses an aspect of this type of benevolence. In the book, Uncle Screwtape (a veteran demon) teaches his nephew Wormwood (a rookie demon) how to succeed in keeping his victim (the “patient”) from following Christ. The story is set during World War II. The man that Wormwood attempts to lure away from the Christ (the “Enemy”) has a hatred for the German leaders. Wormwood is quite proud that this hatred exists within his patient, but Uncle Screwtape quickly explains to Wormwood that a hatred for the German leaders is unimportant.
The reason the patient’s hatred is unimportant is because it is directed towards people he does not know and has never met. In a sense, the German leaders are the scapegoats of a mythical hatred. The point is that this man is getting along fine with his neighbors, and even his own mother most of the time, but his hatred is focused on mythical figures in a distant regime.
Screwtape explains to Wormwood that the only hope he has of turning his patient’s hatred into something useful is to reverse these emotions. Wormwood has to find a way to convince his Christian patient to be indifferent, to love the mythical figures, and hate those who are close to him. In the words of Lewis, “The great thing is to direct the malice to his immediate neighbors whom he meets every day and to thrust his benevolence out to the remote circumference, to the people he does not know. The malice thus becomes wholly real and the benevolence largely imaginary.” [1]
It is this very aspect of benevolence that the church often misses. It substitutes cash given to a stranger afar in lieu of love expressed to its nearby neighbor. The church’s benevolence has become “largely imaginary,” to use Lewis’s words, and its hatred has become “wholly real.”
This is a common and serious danger. While local churches often send money to missionaries in foreign countries, they do this at the expense of evangelism in their own community. It is a convenient satisfaction to send a check to others and entrust evangelism to them. However, this is contrary to Scripture. The church that doesn’t take the Gospel to its neighbors is not much of a church at all.
A few biblical principles must be understood concerning this:
1) Charitable acts may be the logical extension of the Gospel, but they must not be confused with the Gospel itself.
It is tempting to interpret passages like Luke 4:16-18 as call to the Social Gospel, but that is not the primary purpose of Jesus’ quotation of Isaiah. Scripture calls the church to take care of widows and orphans, but simply caring for their physical needs is not the Gospel. The fruit of the Gospel is a sign of the power of Christ in the believer’s life, but the results of the Gospel are not the Gospel itself.
It is impossible to read the Bible, looking closely at the life of Jesus, and come to the conclusion that caring for the physical needs of our community is not essential to Christian living. Jesus frequently healed the blind, the crippled, the lepers, and even raised the dead. But looking at these events in the four gospels makes it clear to us that Jesus did not stop there.
Jesus met physical needs, but always addressed the necessity of a relationship with God. Jesus understood that concern for the physical was not enough, but the spiritual as well. This is an example for the church as well: Meeting the everyday needs of the community, and giving them the Gospel that motivates those good deeds. The first is only temporal, while the second is eternal.
2) Support for missions projects is no substitute for the biblical call to personal evangelism.
Young Americans, particularly those of the millennial generation, are extremely concerned with poverty and other social ills. This generation is also expecting the church to be consistent in its words and deeds. The world wants to see those who say they follow Christ actually imitating him.
Far too often the American evangelical church has neglected the physical needs of society, fearing it would be selling out to the Social Gospel. But the Christian church has historically been concerned with social issues and community service. Even the early Christians in the Roman Empire, despite the intense persecution, were understood to be a people concerned with their fellow citizens’ needs. [2] It was on this very basis that Justin Martyr and other early apologists appealed to these sorts of acts as evidence of how Christians were good citizens. Love for their fellow man provoked sacrificial service.
3) The Great Commission includes next-door neighbors and third-world strangers.
This essay is not a call to neglect the nations. It is a call to love our neighbor and the nations. One way to spread the Gospel to the nations is through the support of missions agencies. With the downturn of the American economy, many agencies are in a state of financial crisis. These agencies need the support of the local churches that have covenanted together to do together what they could not do individually. The church can accomplish much by funding people who have a burden for taking the Gospel into other countries. This will require radical sacrifice.
Some times these lessons strike close to home. For over two years I have given monthly to an organization that supports orphans in impoverished countries. This organization allows its donors to select a child to provide with food, clothing, and education. I was initially excited about the opportunity to help one in need. I received a picture of her, along with regular updates and notifications on her birthday and other occasions. She is beautiful. It is a wonderful thing to see her grow up, knowing that my few dollars have kept her alive and well.
However, to be honest, my giving has made me susceptible to self-righteous pride as I give to one who I don’t even know. It was not until I read Lewis’s words that I realized that my “distant-benevolence” might actually be exposing my close-hatred.
When focusing on sharing the Gospel with co-workers, neighbors, and the clerk serving you coffee at Starbucks, your desire to spread the Gospel abroad will grow. But if we don’t learn to love our brother who we can see, we won’t love God who we cannot see (1 Jn. 4:20). Only when one truly loves their neighbor do they have a basis for loving the ones they don’t know. It is only then that hatred becomes imaginary, and love becomes real.
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[1] C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters. New York: HarperOne, 2001 (Letter Six).
[2] Robert Louis Wilken, The Christians as the Romans Saw Them. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.
April 15, 2011
Thank you for this essay. The Lord has used it to influence me, that I may examine my own motives in giving and ensure that I love my neighbor and the nations. I fear that I lack in loving my neighbor as I should. I have never read The Screwtape Letters but I plan to soon. Thank you again Jesse. [originally submitted on 5 April 2010]
April 15, 2011
I really appreciate the kind words. This is an issue that I have struggled with for a long time, and still continue to struggle with. The Screwtape Letters opened my eyes to this issue and others. I hope the book will be a great help to you as well. [originally submitted on 8 April 2010]