Editorial July 12, 1924 Issue

The Joy of Obedience

Albert F. Gilmore

It is probable that none other ever experienced the joy of obedience in the degree that Christ Jesus did. He was fully convinced that obedience to the will of God was his greatest obligation, and that such obedience brought the greatest, in fact, the only worthy reward. "For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me," he declared. Moreover, the Master was apparently convinced that the brotherhood of man was based primarily upon common obedience to the will of God. In support of this, on one occasion when informed that his mother and brethren awaited him, he declared to the multitude, "Whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother." Disregarding so-called human ties, he put true relationship squarely upon the ground of obedience to God's will.

Mrs. Eddy was no less explicit in her insistence upon obedience to divine will as the sure way of progress in spiritual growth. In discussing the desire for holiness, she says in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 11), "Prayer cannot change the unalterable Truth, nor can prayer alone give us an understanding of Truth; but prayer, coupled with a fervent habitual desire to know and do the will of God, will bring us into all Truth." To be brought "into all Truth"! How great the reward of praying with fervent desire to obey God's will! What obligation could be so insistent upon us, and what promises so great reward?

Since Truth is God, to be brought into all Truth is to come into a full understanding of God and His universe; that is, to manifest perfection, God's image and likeness. This can mean nothing less than the relinquishment of all fleshly beliefs and desires, the abandonment of every false pleasurable claim, the completion of that transformation which Paul describes as the renewing of the mind, beholding the infinite and perfect divine Love, our Father-Mother God. It is to awake with God's likeness, an experience which the Psalmist declared would satisfy him.

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