![\"\"](\"https:\/\/orthodoxnet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Riches_Can_Alienate_Us_from_God_01_900x450.jpg\")
by C.S. Lewis –
\nThe Christian view is that men were created to be in a certain relationship to God (if we are in that relation to Him, the right relationship to one another will follow inevitably). Christ said that it was difficult for “the rich” to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, referring, no doubt, to \u201criches\u201d in the ordinary sense. <\/p>\n
But I think it really covers riches in every sense<\/strong>\u2014good fortune, health, popularity and all the things one wants to have. All these things tend\u2014just as money tends\u2014to make you feel independent of God, because if you have them you are happy already and contented in this life. You don\u2019t want to turn away to anything more, and so you try to rest in a shadowy happiness as if it could last for ever.<\/p>\n But God wants to give you a real and eternal happiness.<\/strong> Consequently He may have to take all these \u201criches\u201d away from you: if He doesn\u2019t, you will go on relying on them.<\/p>\n It sounds cruel, doesn\u2019t it? But I am beginning to find out that what people call the cruel doctrines are really the kindest ones in the long run. I used to think it was a \u201ccruel\u201d doctrine to say that troubles and sorrows were \u201cpunishments.\u201d But I find in practice that when you are in trouble, the moment you regard it as a \u201cpunishment,\u201d it becomes easier to bear.<\/p>\n If you think of this world as a place intended simply for our happiness, you find it quite intolerable: think of it as a place of training<\/strong> and correction and it\u2019s not so bad<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Imagine a set of people all living in the same building. Half of them think it is a hotel, the other half think it is a prison.<\/p>\n Those who think it a hotel<\/strong> might regard it as quite intolerable, and those who thought it was a prison<\/strong> might decide that it was really surprisingly comfortable. So that what seems the ugly doctrine is one that comforts and strengthens you in the end.<\/p>\n The people who try to hold an optimistic view of this world would become pessimists: the people who hold a pretty stern view of it become optimistic.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014 by C.S. Lewis – The Christian view is that men were created to be in a certain relationship to God (if we are in that relation to Him, the right relationship to one another will follow inevitably). Christ said that it was difficult for “the rich” to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, referring, no doubt, … [read more]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[25,10,29,54,67,56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apologetics","category-christianity","category-moral-issues","category-scriptures","category-theology","category-wisdom"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxnet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxnet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxnet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxnet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxnet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxnet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3690\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxnet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxnet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxnet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nExcerpts from \u201cAnswers to Questions on Christianity” in the book God in the Dock<\/a><\/em> by C.S. Lewis. (Minor organizational edits to optimize readability and emphasize key points made by Chris Banescu<\/em>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"