Article April 1, 1967 Issue

Divine Law Is Positive

LARNED L. TUTTLE

Law is defined as "a rule of conduct or action ... recognized as binding or enforced by a controlling authority." It is also defined as "a divine commandment or a revelation of the will of God." As law usually implies imposition by sovereign authority, we may say that divine law refers to the laws or statutes imposed and enforced by the authority of God. Since God is constant and unvarying in nature, as Christian Science teaches, His law is also constant and unvarying.

There is never a question that a mathematical law, once understood and proved, can be repeatedly applied. If a mathematician fails to get a right answer, he realizes that he has made a mistake by not adhering completely to the mathematical law involved. He therefore searches for his error and corrects it to obtain the proper answer. When it comes to divine law, there is a tendency to question the law or even to blame it for our failures, though Jesus proved that divine law supersedes all other law and is infallible.

What is the divine law to which one must be obedient? Divine law is God's will. In Christian Science we know God as Love, so the law of God must be the will of Love. An incident related in the Bible brings this out clearly. A Pharisee who was a lawyer asked a question of Christ Jesus, "tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law?" Jesus replied: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hangs all the law and the prophets."^{Matt. 22:35–40;}

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