Command and Promise

MARGUERITE CRISP SAYE

When is a command more than a command? When it is God's. Why? Because each of His commands is twofold and includes not only a command but a promise that it can be obeyed.

Would a loving mother knowingly ask her child to do something she knew he couldn't? Of course not! Nor would our all-wise and all-loving Father-Mother God. God is just, and He knows man to be His own self-expression, therefore obedient and infinitely able.

In our daily lives how reassuring it is to know that God never demands of His children what cannot be fulfilled completely! And, obedient to these demands, we see blessings flow into our lives—joy, health, satisfying work, harmonious relationships.

Since Love demands only what we can certainly do, Christ Jesus' command "Love one another"^{John 13:34;} promises, "You can love one another." In proportion to our obedience to love do we destroy hate in its degrees of animosity and find peace, the natural blessing for all individuals, communities, and nations that love one another.

Another of Jesus' commands, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect,"^{Matt. 5:48;} assures us of spiritual perfection right here today. We find that promised perfection as we work to "put off the old man with his deeds,"^{Col. 3:9;} as Paul expresses it, and demonstrate the man of Christ's revealing. Every symptom of cold destroyed by Truth, every angry thought dissolved by Love, every lie of lack put down by adherence to Principle, helps us claim this perfect, spiritual manhood found through Christian Science. And we find ourselves both obedient and blessed.

Each of the Ten Commandments not only lays strict demands upon us but promises that the conditions to be enforced actually are current blessings we can claim.

Consider the First Commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me."^{Ex. 20:3;} What release from personal pressure we gain when we recognize and yield to the great truth that we cannot have any god other than God, for God is All-in-all! That is the promise: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." All supposititious gods—selfishness, sensuality, disease, limitation—must fall as we claim that promise. To the degree that we do, we are freed from their domination.

"Thou shalt not steal"^{v. 15 ;} assures us of our innate honesty. All fear that we could yield to temptation is destroyed when we know that God is saying, "Dear child, you shall not steal—that is My promise."

And the spiritual man made in Truth's image cannot steal. It is only the counterfeit mortal who could trespass this command. But when the human being sees himself in Science as spiritual—pure, innocent of anything unlike God, having all that he needs every moment—he can claim the blessing inherent in the command and go his way rejoicing. He is confident in God's power to enforce His command and keep His promise.

Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health, "Christian Scientists, be a law to yourselves that mental malpractice cannot harm you either when asleep or when awake."^{Science and Health, p. 442.} Obedience to this inspired rule affords us a refuge from all belief of enemies. We are freed from mental malpractice, from our own or others' fearful, negative thoughts, and we find ourselves in the harmony of heaven—protected and beloved, neither target nor channel for error.

We do not always demonstrate obedience without a struggle. In human existence many temptations seem to engulf us. But as we work to let Principle govern our lives, it is sustaining to know that there is not a single command of God's that does not promise its own fulfillment and, in its fulfillment, bless us.

How rich are God's commands!

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The Stationary Escalator

January 16, 1971

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