Lewis: God’s Claims on Our Lives

Why do I take time to write this daily commentary? As I contemplate the reasons, two come to the forefront: to show that God and our relationship to Him and His truth is paramount; to reveal, as much as possible, how, even though we ultimately live for another and better existence after this life, we nevertheless need to put His principles into practice in this one.

C. S. Lewis 4C. S. Lewis said much the same thing in a 1939 essay, “Learning in War-Time.” Here’s how he explained it:

[Religion] must occupy the whole of life. There is no question of a compromise between the claims of God and the claims of culture, or politics, or anything else. God’s claim is infinite and inexorable. You can refuse it: or you can begin to try to grant it. There is no middle way.

Yet in spite of this it is clear that Christianity does not exclude any of the ordinary human activities. St. Paul tells people to get on with their jobs.

Each one of us has a dual responsibility: to place God’s claims on our lives above all others, while simultaneously going about the business of life. The two are not to be exclusive realms, but should be combined into one. His claims, and His truths, permeate every part of our lives, even those things we may perceive as ordinary. In Him, nothing is ever simply ordinary; He gives profound meaning to everything we do.