The Second Great Commandment

In expounding the law to a certain advocate, Jesus the Way-shower declared the first and great commandment to be, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind," and further explained: "The second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." In this instance, neighbor, in the Greek original signifies one near or close to. Now reasoning from the absolute metaphysical basis that divine consciousness, God and His infinite idea, is all there is, clearly discloses that all that the manifestation of omnipotent Mind can be near or close to is God, divine Principle. Hence, Principle is man's true neighbor. If we are loving God and being obedient to His commands we shall find that to "love thy neighbour as thyself" is fully apprehended, and kindness and thoughtfulness for others follow as a natural consequence. Of course, the desire to love God, the divine Principle of man, supremely, provokes a strenuous effort to overcome the sense of a material selfhood. As a rule people think highly and only of themselves, although, if confronted with this statement, they would, no doubt, register a vehement denial. And this mortal-self-thinking involves the lusts of the flesh, selfishness, envy, malice, hypocrisy, all the pains and pleasures of the five physical senses.

Perhaps the one turning to Christian Science for solace from this seeming whirlpool of material existence has faintly glimpsed the significance of what Jesus meant when he said that he must be about his Father's business, and the sham of mortal living looms up greater than before in its vast emptiness. He sees people vieing with people, each one trying to gather material hopes and substance into barns "where moth and rust doth corrupt." He sees those who were at one time fast friends, now at variance with one another. Mayhap resentment on account of sturdy work and advance in position on the part of the one has left the door open for jealousy and rivalry to creep in subtly, shattering so frail a thing as material friendship. For human friendship at its best is fragile and delicate unless supported by the understanding of true being. Then does this student, striving to emulate Principle, resolutely turn his back, as it were, on all this seeming struggle and analyze what the true self is. Since man is made in the image and likeness of God, who is good, the true self, then, is God, the great I am, and is discerned as cause expressed in effect; for cause and effect are inseparable. If all men had one Principle and worked from this common basis, a keener comprehension of the oneness of God and His image would stand revealed in its entirety, and human competition would cease. The divine idea is never found struggling against Mind but expressing the completeness of this Mind.

It is really as erroneous to condemn one's self continually as to think too loftily of this self. If Principle is adhered to as the cause of true being, it will clearly be per ceived that it would be an impossibility to condemn Principle. Consequently, spiritual man as God's reflection and likeness should never be condemned. Nevertheless, all this delusion of the material universe produced by the five physical senses is unlike Spirit, the All-in-all, and sin, sickness, and all the ills that flesh is heir to should be and in reality are forever consigned to their original nothingness. This, likewise, holds good in dealing with our neighbor. One need never love and laud a disagreeable human being, neither should one fear or worship persons, thus making himself an easy prey to mesmerism and seemingly harmful influence and domination. It is an absolute necessity for each one who would attain the peace of heavenly joy to exchange whatever presents itself as a false and grossly material manifestation for the true concept of God's perfect image. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling," exhorted Paul in his epistle to the Philippians.