Editorial August 30, 1958 Issue

FORGIVING ENEMIES

Helen Wood Bauman

Christ Jesus demanded the full measure of forgiveness. When Peter asked him (Matt. 18:21), "Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?" the Master replied, "I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven." These figures are symbols of completeness and show the scientific nature of Jesus' teaching. We note the same exactness expressed in the Sermon on the Mount, in which the Way-shower required that we love enemies as well as those who love us, that we bless those who curse us, do good to them that hate us, and pray for those who persecute us (see Matt. 5:43-47).

This Christian ideal obeyed lifts one far beyond the old Hebrew law which called for revenge, "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," as cited in the same sermon. Jesus evidently did not think that loving one's friends made much of a demand upon one's character, since even the hated publicans did that. Christian Science requires that we see every individual as God makes him, sinless, spiritual, perfect; and this is the true basis of forgiveness.

In nothing was Jesus more the Scientist than in his demand that our attitude toward others be governed by the all-embracing law of Love. His entire life as well as his precepts taught that the individual must cleanse himself within, must demonstrate the Christ-consciousness, which knows only spiritual reality—the All-God and His perfect creation of ideas.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Editorial

NOTHING CAN DESTROY LIFE