Editorial January 25, 1930 Issue

Christian Discipleship

Duncan Sinclair

No one, surely, can be in doubt as to the meaning of Christ Jesus' words recorded in John's Gospel, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." John himself certainly understood their purport, for in his first epistle he writes, in his own wonderfully tender way, "My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth." Yes, the gospel of the Master is the gospel of divine Love; and the gospel of the disciples is the gospel of divine Love.

Sometimes one hears it said that Christian Science is a loveless religion; that its adherents are lukewarm in their sympathies and affections; that they have substituted for the understanding of God as the tender Father of all, a concept of Him as Principle, cold and inscrutable. Nothing could be farther from the truth. To the Christian Scientist, God is indeed unalterable Principle, but He is also Love, Mind, Soul, Spirit, Truth, Life—even the one perfect Father-Mother of the universe, including individual man. It is this perfect God, divine Love, that the Christian Scientist acknowledges as supreme over all, and seeks to obey. And he knows that in so far as he fails to measure up to the test set by the words of Jesus quoted above, he undoubtedly falls short of the standard of Christian discipleship established by the Master.

In the consideration of every question dealing with the Christian life, Christian Science always brings one back to fundamentals. Thus, in considering true Christian discipleship one is greatly helped by reflecting upon the true relationship existing between God and the real man. What is this relationship? It is, as Christian Science shows and as the Bible declares, that man is the image, likeness, or reflection of God. And since God is Love, man is the reflection of Love. In her Message to The Mother Church for 1902 Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 8): "Is it necessary to say that the likeness of God, Spirit, is spiritual, and the likeness of Love is loving? When loving, we learn that 'God is Love.' " Then she goes on to say that "mortals hating, or unloving, are neither Christians nor Scientists."

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