Have No 'Right to Happiness'

At the beginning of his essay "Have No 'Right to Happiness,'" C.S. Lewis presents a scenario in which a man deserts his wife to marry another woman who is more sexually attractive to him. After the fictional character (Mr. A) learns that his former wife committed suicide he says the following:

"'But what could I do?' he said. 'A man has a right to happiness. I had to take my one chance when it came.'"

C.S. Lewis has a number of thoughts which condemn the attitude of this man in the essay that follows. I thought it would be good, however, to take a look at what our Lord Jesus says concerning this manner. Jesus relates in Matthew 19: 8 what is called a Creation ordinance, because he says, when referring to whether a man or woman can divorce their spouse for any cause (including what C.S. Lewis would call the "right to happiness"), that "from the beginning it was not so." In other words, God created Adam and Eve in such a way that they were made to live together in the bond of marriage; "Til death do us part."

In our sinful, fallen world this can be difficult, because both spouses are sinful. We all sin against God, and we all sin against one another. However, when we are regenerated in our hearts, we are freed from the bondage of sin, and we can pray to God for the grace to love our wives and our husbands, and be faithful to them, just as Christ is faithful to His church, in spite of her continuous sinning against him. Christ's command stands firm:
"And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, comitteth adultery: and whose marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery." Matthew 19:9

C.S. Lewis stuck me in his essay when he talked about people's attitude when he was young:

"When I was a youngster, all the progressive people were saying, 'Why all this prudery? Let us treat sex just as we treat all our other impulses.' I was simple-minded enough to believe they meant what they said. I have since discovered that they meant exactly the opposite. They meant that sex was to be treated as no other impulse in our nature has ever been treated by civilized people. All the others, we admit, have to be bridled....But every unkindness and breach of faith seems to be condoned provided that the object aimed at is 'four bare legs in a bed.'"

What C.S. Lewis describes here is sick; it is anti-Christian, and almost worst of all it is indicative of the direction our society is headed. So many movies, books, internet sites, and other kinds of media promote this kind of behavior. Think of movies like National Lampoon's Van Wilder (and almost everything else created by National Lampoon), or American Pie; those are the obvious ones, but it even creeps into the more tame movies. And books, the Twilight series for instance is saturated with sexual undertones which are designed to inflame the desires of young people. These kinds of publication (and many more) make a mockery of a thing which God has created good. Sex is beautiful if done within the bounds of Scripture and to the glory of God.

So, let us think before we play with sex in a way which Scripture condemns.  I confess that I often conveniently forget that I am a Christian when it comes to this matter and I fail just like any other man or woman when it comes to sexual purity. We are all faced by a culture which not only condones what the Bible calls fornication and adultery, but encourages it. If we are aware of this in our every day lives we can fight against it by the grace of God so that we stand out as a witness.