Article May 10, 1941 Issue

"Judge righteous judgment"

MABEL METZGER HERD

"YE judge after the flesh; I judge no man," said Jesus, and then he went on to say, "Yet if I judge, my judgment is true." Jesus counseled all to "judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment." Just what did Christ Jesus mean by the above statements? In the light that Christian Science throws upon the Scriptures they become clear and can be understood in their true spiritual meaning. Mortal man is prone to judge according to what he thinks he sees, hears, and knows about others; and this thinking, being but a mortal concept, is erroneous at all times. Mortal man thinks he beholds sin and sickness, not only in other mortals but often in himself, and so judges according to the material senses. By sympathizing in a merely human manner with the sick, or condemning the sinning, he but makes the error more real.

Christ Jesus judged no man, as he said, but he clearly knew the truth about man. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, referring to Christ Jesus' method, writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (pp. 476, 477), "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals." How necessary, then, to understand and follow his teaching! Studying the Bible with the Christian Science textbook, we learn and understand what the real man is. We come to know man as spiritual, the image of God, the spiritual idea of infinite Mind; we see through and beyond the false concept of materiality unto the perfect man, even as Christ Jesus did. To see and acknowledge man as the spiritual idea of God, divine Mind, is to understand and love God and His idea aright.

Christ Jesus also said, "If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." As a result of this admonition, we should perceive and be aware of God, good, persistently acknowledge as real only the true man and the spiritual universe, be alert to the activity and perfection of the spiritual law of Life, which governs spiritual man and the spiritual universe. When one understands the spiritual fact and puts it into practice, the foundation of true fellowship is established; then love for God and man reaches out and spans the world, bringing harmony and peace.

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