The love that perseveres

Christ Jesus' unceasing love gives us an example of God's eternal care for His beloved children. Jesus' apostle, John, tells us, "Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end." ^{John 13:1 .}

Right up until the moment of his ascension, Jesus' steadfast holy love for his disciples remained constant. Because Jesus' love emanated from God, divine Love, it transcended the human weaknesses his disciples sometimes expressed. Jesus' love, however, wasn't just a matter of his being humanly loving to others. It was a spiritual affection fulfilling an inescapable demand upon him, a requirement of God, divine Love. To demonstrate the full consciousness of immortal Life, he must demonstrate the continuing nature of infinite Love, for divine Love and divine Life are one. In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes, "... God is Love, and without Love, God, immortality cannot appear." ^{Science and Health, p. 312 .}

The demonstration of divine Love is both prerequisite for and coexistent with the full appearing of man's immortality. How important, then, that we maintain in consciousness the truth that the actual identity of both ourselves and others is spiritual man—the complete manifestation of God, eternal Love. Especially do we need this spiritual understanding of Love's ever-presence and man's embodiment of that Love when we're faced with trying situations where circumstances would tempt us to give up.

Man is never less than the image and likeness of eternal Love. Man is not failing, faithless, hopeless, impossible. Man is God's beloved child, the sublime expression of all the perfection of divine Life and Love itself. God sees and knows man as the manifestation of all that constitutes His own holy grandeur. Man expresses divine Love, divine Life, divine Truth; he always has and always will because he is governed by God. This is the truth of both ourselves and others.

How healing and encouraging the spiritual understanding of man's belovedness to God can be, particularly when we're close to people who appear to be afflicted with senility or stubborn human will or unrepentant moral attitudes. The more we understand that both we ourselves and the one we would help are in reality the eternally intelligent, obedient, and pure reflection of God, the more we'll feel the strength and patience of Love's control upholding us. When we understand that physical or mental discords are suggestions of mortality, rather than facts of man's true nature, they'll not overwhelm us. But what is more important, our recognition of man's true identity as God's idea will give us a tender desire to support and encourage the individual. This tenderness reflects the presence of Love, or God, in which an individual can recognize and respond to the healing Christ, Truth.

Jesus, often healed seemingly hopeless cases through his recognition of man's unity with God. He healed a man afflicted with a type of insanity (see Mark 5:1–20); an epileptic boy (see Matt. 17:14–21); a man involved in fraud (see Luke 19:1–10), as well as countless cases of disease; and he raised people from the dead.

These healings show that Jesus did not consider any physical or moral condition as beyond God's healing power. The Bible record shows that large numbers of people who turned to Jesus for healing were healed. No one was left out of the spiritual love he radiated that embraced each individual as the child of God.

The pure Christliness of Jesus' love included even those individuals whom some might say were hopeless—beyond physical healing or moral redemption. True Christliness never fails to uphold in thought man's wholly spiritual nature and condition. Then, if we are going to be Jesus' followers, neither can we allow the deceiving appearances of life in matter to tempt us into accepting the belief that man could ever be a hopeless, helpless mortal.

The love that perseveres in spite of all the contrary evidence of mortality's appearances is the Christ-love that knows, cherishes, and maintains man's freedom from disease, his innocence of sin, and his everlasting expression of divine Love. This is the rejoicing love that gives our caring for another a gentle lovingkindness, an uplifting and rousing quality that strengthens both him and ourselves. Jesus was so at one with God, and so fully exemplified the Christ, Truth, in the way he consistently helped others that he was able to say, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." And he added, "For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." ^{Matt. 11:28, 30 .}

As we learn to rely on the power of Love, our burdens can remain light too. No matter what we have to do humanly for another, our real work is to maintain our own grateful awareness that man is never imprisoned in or by material circumstance. Man lives spiritually in the freedom of being Life's harmonious expression. How blessed is the individual who is embraced in such a healing atmosphere.

The belief of life in matter presents all the phases of mortality to be overcome by Christian Science, so we should not be discouraged when we meet the apparently stubborn and resistant claims of mortal mind. Not everyone may be ready immediately to give up the errors of thought that constitute his difficulties. But Christ Jesus' spiritual example of turning to God, infinite Love, as the source of all true ministering love can encourage us. We can learn to see through mortal faults and difficulties and love the genuine man of God's creating. In this way, we will be doing much toward contributing to the individual's eventual receptivity to the healing Christ. Perhaps his healing will come because of our own love-filled spiritual understanding.

The love that perseveres is actually the reflection of God's everlasting love for His own likeness, spiritual man, which is the true identity of each one of us. Knowing this, we can feel the courage, strength, patience, and gentleness of the healing Christ in every situation. Our prayers will uphold the humanity of Mrs. Eddy's purpose when she said, "I love mankind, and shall continue to labor and to endure." ^{Science and Health p. 99 .}