Screwtape shows how to transform a minor trespass into a major sin:
Success here depends on confusing him. If you try to make him explicitly and professedly proud of being a Christian, you will probably fail; the Enemy’s warnings are too well known. If, on the other hand, you let the idea of ‘we Christians’ drop out altogether and merely make him complacent about ‘his set’, you will produce not true spiritual pride but mere social vanity which, by comparison, is a trumpery, puny little sin. What you want is to keep a sly self-congratulation mixing with all his thoughts and never allow him to raise the question ‘What, precisely, am I congratulating myself about?’
The idea of belonging to an inner ring, of being in a secret, is very sweet to him. Play on that nerve. Teach him, using the influence of this girl when she is silliest, to adopt an air of amusement at the things the unbelievers say. Some theories which he may meet in modern Christian circles may here prove helpful; theories, I mean, that place the hope of society in some inner ring of ‘clerks’, some trained minority of theocrats. It is no affair of yours whether those theories are true or false; the great thing is to make Christianity a mystery religion in which he feels himself one of the initiates.
“And lead us, not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” The reference here is to spiritual pride, which we may fall victim to once we choose God’s way for our lives. It is deadly because this pride blinds us to our own self-righteousness, cutting us off from repentance and forgiveness. Many good Christians fall victim to this sin by starting down the path described by the demon Screwtape.
When we trust too much in ourselves, our leaders or our institutions instead of God’s love, forgiveness, humility and patience, we suffer from the illusion of separation from God and his children. This illusion of separation is sin. It matters not whether we consider ourselves on the right side or the wrong side of this illusion. It is still sin, and allows us to divide ourselves from one another.
In God’s world we are not divided, but all are part of his family, the body of Christ. When we live according to this reality of unity, then we are living according to God’s will, in communion with God and all of his children. This communion, this indivisible unity of spirits is God’s will. When we live in this body of Christ, we are experiencing the garden God created for us.
And lead us,
Z gardener
Good Morning Garden 
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