“The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because God loves us.”
This quote is by C.S. Lewis from his book Mere Christianity. Lewis was an English author and university instructor who lived from 1898 to 1963. He is well known for both his fiction and nonfiction works. Most of his nonfiction books are about various aspects of Christianity and faith, and I’ve found them to be very insightful.
Lewis’ quote is a reminder to us to have humility and to embrace our Creator’s love for us.
We are humble when we acknowledge the truth that we are dependent upon our Creator for any of the things we do in the ways our Creator wants us to—in other words, doing those things that make up our goodness. Having genuine humility helps us to avoid being egocentric, such as by thinking that somehow we do the right things without the help of our Creator. Remembering that we are dependent on God working within us by guiding us, helping us to see our faults, giving us abilities and direction about how to use those abilities, and in many other ways is essential to our being good.
Human goodness encompasses many qualities: compassion, selflessness, empathy, sharing of one’s time and abilities, patience, and more. To the extent we have any degree of these qualities, they are gifts from the Divine. And, as Lewis says, they are given to us because our Creator loves us.