Editorial May 15, 1937 Issue

Putting First Things First

Duncan Sinclair

Throughout his entire ministry Jesus put first things first, and he instructed his disciples to follow his example. How plainly he spoke of his relationship with God, the Father, and of his obedience to the Father's will. John records these words of his: "As my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. ... For I do always those things that please him" (John 8:28, 29). And to Pilate he said, "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth," adding, "Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice" (John 18:37). Jesus knew the truth which is of God, and witnessed to it.

Christian Science instructs its students in strict accordance with the Master's teaching. It reveals to them the nature of God, Truth, and teaches them how to be obedient to God, to bear witness to Truth, by applying their understanding of it. It inculcates the spirit of the Master—love for God and man, and faithfulness in the rendering of that love. Mrs. Eddy writes (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 496), "You will learn that in Christian Science the first duty is to obey God, to have one Mind, and to love another as yourself."

We are witnessing to Truth, then, when we are loving God and man, even as did Christ Jesus. How does love to God show itself? In the desire to gain spirituality and to depart from materiality; in faith in Spirit, as the only real power; in the overcoming of the evil beliefs which haunt the human mind, such as resentment, envy, jealousy, malice, anger, hate, and lust; in victory over the desire for human place and power, selfishness, ease in matter. Love to God, moreover, shows itself in purity of thought, high moral purpose, enlightened spirituality. He who truly loves God endeavors to think and act at all times in accordance with the divine will; that is, he always tries to be obedient to God's law, the law of Love. One can readily see how such obedience endowed Christ Jesus with spiritual power against which the forces of evil hurled themselves in vain.

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