Christ Jesus told us plainly that to realize eternal life, we must know God. He also demanded that one should love one's neighbor as oneself.

John in his first epistle gives a perfect standard by which we can measure our knowledge of and love for God. He says very clearly that only he who loves his brother knows, loves, and abides in God. He states positively (I John 4:8), "He that loveth not knoweth not God;" and he also says (verse 20), "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar."

One may ask oneself: "Why does one's love for one's brother measure one's love for God? What is the connection between loving one's neighbor as oneself and knowing and loving God? What enables one to love one's neighbor as oneself?" Christian Science gives the answer to all these questions. It starts from the premise that God is infinite, all-inclusive Love and that man is His image and likeness. On page 331 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mary Baker Eddy writes of God, "He is divine Principle, Love, the universal cause, the only creator, and there is no other self-existence." From this it follows that God, infinite Mind, admits of nothing outside His allness and oneness.

God therefore does not love something outside of Himself, because such a thing does not exist. He loves man, the reflection, expression, or evidence of the completeness, harmony, and perfection of His own all-inclusive being. Man therefore, as the child, idea, or manifestation of infinite Love, is lovable, loved, and loving. On page 336 of Science and Health we read: "The spiritual man's consciousness and individuality are reflections of God. They are the emanations of Him who is Life, Truth, and Love. Immortal man is not and never was material, but always spiritual and eternal."

Even a small understanding of the infinitude of God, good, makes it clear that the unlovely mortal and all phases of evil are delusion, without life, intelligence, or identity. It is mortal mind's ignorance of God's allness, its belief in a presence, power, and intelligence besides God, good, that is the origin of all sin, sickness, and death. Mortal mind sees its own objectified beliefs; but not knowing this it feels worried and helpless and turns to God to be saved from itself. In proportion as the infinite meaning of God's allness is understood, the claims of an evil power and presence are refused, and they lose their supposed reality and power.

Jesus always denied the reality of sin, sickness, and death, and he asked his followers to do likewise, and to heal through Love. He said (John 15:12), "This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you." Jesus, to whom God was all-inclusive Love, the Father, or Life, of man, understood himself and his neighbor as God's perfect reflection, or expression. Mrs. Eddy, who so deeply loved humanity, was able to understand Jesus, his expression of divine Love and Love's healing power. She writes on pages 476 and 477 of Science and Health: "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick."

To spiritual consciousness, which knows Love to be the only living presence and power, that which seems to be a sick, sinful, or unlovable mortal loses all claim to reality and identity. In the light of divine Love's allness we love God as our very Life, perfect and eternal, and we are able to love our neighbor as ourself because we realize that our neighbor's Life is God, just as our Life is God; that he is loved by God, just as we are loved by God; that in reality he expresses God's perfection, even as we express God's perfection.

The understanding of God's allness, expressed as love for mankind, calls for a life of unselfed love. In such a life is no room for vanity, dishonesty, envy, rivalry, ambition, pride, and hatred, which belong to the mortal mind dream of many minds and personalities. True love does not accept as real another's seeming difficulties, unloving traits, sins, sicknesses, and sorrows. In love there is no opportunity for slander, false criticism, or condemnation. Love is understanding, compassionate, kind, and tender. It does not seek self-glorification and does not try to detract from another, but gives honor to whom honor is due. When we learn how to love, then our neighbor's joy is our joy, his success our success, his progress our progress. Love that springs from the infinite looks beyond the suggestions of mortal sense and beholds God's perfect expression, thus bringing healing to humanity. Identifying man with divine perfection, and not with the mortal appearance, destroys mortal claims.

A very helpful example of overcoming the material sense testimony of fear and revenge with the understanding of the ever-presence of Love and its perfect man is found in the account of Jacob's struggle at Peniel. Years before, Jacob had wronged his brother and had fled before his anger. Now on his way home, Jacob was told that his brother was coming to meet him with many men. Jacob was afraid and struggled all night with material sense, until he realized in a degree that he was struggling with the mortal belief of life, intelligence, and mind separate from Love, and that man must be understood through spiritual sense. This realization was so clear that he saw his brother Esau's face as though he "had seen the face of God"(Gen. 33:10). The understanding he gained was evidenced in a most loving and harmonious meeting with his brother.

A Christian Scientist has the great privilege and duty to prove daily the healing presence and pow er of Love. Thus doing, he will help to promote the understanding of the universal brotherhood of man. Fear will be eliminated and great peace demonstrated, because he who reflects the all-inclusiveness of Love knows that there is nothing to be afraid of.

A Christian Scientist had often to meet and to work with a woman who in an underhanded way opposed him wherever it was possible. The Scientist accepted this appearance as real; their meetings were therefore rather unpleasant, and he almost feared them. But then it became clear to him that this was not the way of Truth and Love. It was his duty and privilege to see Love's perfect expression instead of an imperfect mortal; to know that in reality man is honest, loving, whole, and not governed by vanity, ambition, and pride. He knew that he had to take the first step as a Christian Scientist, because to whom much is given, of him much is required. At their next meeting he met her with friendly attention, good will, and the certainty of Love's government. He found an immediate response, and a harmonious relationship was established.

Recognizing oneself and one's neighbor as originating and living in divine Love, we prove the nothingness of error and demonstrate that, as we read in the first epistle of John (4:16), "God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him."