Charity

ANNA KATHARINA LEUZINGER

The commandment to love our neighbor as ourself is designated in the New Testament as next in importance to the one demanding that we should love God above all else. And we learn in Christian Science that if we love God above all else we cannot help loving our neighbor, since God, our Father-Mother, is inseparable from His children; divine Principle, Love, is inseparable from its ideas. Mrs. Eddy says in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 88), "To love one's neighbor as one's self, is a divine idea; but this idea can never be seen, felt, nor understood through the physial senses."

To perceive the divine idea of charity, one must recognize God as the only Mind; and one gains this perception only through spiritual training or development. There should be a willingness to renounce materiality, fallacious and transitory earthly desires and pleasures, to destroy its seeming power, and thus to prove the unreality of physical and mental suffering. The Psalmist said, "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help." So there should be a striving for the good and true, for the love which "seeketh not own." When the infallibility of divine Principle, Love, which "forgiveth all thine iniquities" and "healeth all thy diseases," has been revealed, should not the heart overflow with gratitude? And should we not, with the love wherewith we are loved, endeavor with all our might to help mankind out of the limiting sense of ignorance and fear?

We certainly would not be complying with the divine demand to love our neighbor as ourself if we limited our understanding of divine Principle, God, to the solving of our personal problems, for in doing so we would not be recognizing the one Mind as omnipresent or as infinite; and our ability to demonstrate God, good, would diminish. Possibly none of Christ Jesus' immediate followers had so pronounced a sense of brotherliness as had the beloved disciple John, who was imbued with love for God the Father and for man. In his Gospel, describes the life and activity of our Master and the manner in which final salvation is to be attained. In his epistles, he admonishes the followers of Christ Jesus to continue the work of salvation in the spirit of loving thought and action. His unselfed love reached its climax in the book of Revelation, where it is shown how all-conquering Love destroys evil, error, including all materiality.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

Charity

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access