Article February 5, 1977 Issue

Love Dissolves Obstructions

DAVID DEGLER

We don't have to look far to see there is a great need in the world for more love. Many of us yearn to know how to be more loving. We have a deep desire to dissolve the bitter struggles and conflicts between individuals and nations. But we may feel unable to live up to the standard demonstrated by Christ Jesus, who said, "This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you."^{John 15:12;}

How can we love more? What is it that obstructs our expression of love? Isn't it the false belief that man is mortal; that he is a material organism, governed by a fallible mortal mind; that, like Adam, he is formed "of the dust of the ground" and doomed to sin? Mrs. Eddy shows us in Christian Science the importance of destroying this belief. In Science and Health she writes, "Divide the name Adam into two syllables, and it reads, a dam, or obstruction." And further along on the same page she observes, "Here a dam is not a mere play upon words; it stands for obstruction, error, even the supposed separation of man from God, and the obstacle which the serpent, sin, would impose between man and his creator."^{Science and Health, p. 338;}

All discordant human relationships, all inharmony, resentment, bitterness, brutality, spring from this false belief that man is a mortal, material being, separated from God. But John records a different, a spiritual, view of man. He writes, "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God."^{I John 3:9.} This is the true concept of man. Everyone, in reality, is born of God and is spiritual—free from sin, hatred, jealousy, bitterness, deceit, greed, passion.