Article March 4, 1922 Issue

Obedience

LUCIA C. WARREN

What a wide and beautiful meaning we find in the word "obedience" when we understand it in the light of Christian Science! It includes, according to the authority of the dictionary, the elements of hearing, listening, and comprehending; also, willing submission. Christian Science adds the elements of gladness, joy, unity with God, as well as expectation that is fulfilled according to promise, loyalty, and love.

Most of us were taught as children to render to our parents or elders unquestioning and immediate obedience; but how often rebellion made us question or hesitate, and how frequently, though we complied outwardly with what was desired of us, we resisted inwardly. Perhaps we thought that had we our freedom we should do something quite different. Slowly we came to recognize the fundamental reasons for obeying our parents; gradually we saw that they were wiser and more experienced than we, and we realized that we should obey them because we honored and loved them. Through Christian Science mortals come to recognize that because of their ignorance and inexperience they are channels for evil, sometimes to the extent of willfulness, mistrust, and even dishonesty, and that from these seeds of error come the "works of the flesh" enumerated by Paul in his epistle to the Galatians; but the "fruit of the Spirit," which the apostle states to be "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance," is experienced by men when they learn true obedience, when they know how to hear and to comply with the demands of divine Principle not only willingly, but gladly and lovingly. Through this process all mankind may gain salvation, and the troops of evil which spring from the seeds of disobedience and dishonesty may be cast out. Thus true obedience turns men completely to God in the attitude of a little child,—that attitude of humility which recognizes only one God and acknowledges Him to be all powerful and ever present.

We may feel that in human affairs we are sometimes called upon to obey an unjust command or law. In our present stage of growth we may only approximate complete understanding of how to obey God's laws—His laws of purity, honesty, wisdom, knowledge, love, and good works. Let us, however, endeavor constantly, in our every thought and act, to express more fully His qualities, for thereby shall we increase our spirituality, our love, and our helpfulness to our fellow men. We shall thus become better citizens, better neighbors, more loving friends, helping to annul unjust and unrighteous laws, through better understanding of what obedience to divine law includes.

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