Editorial June 14, 1993 Issue

The Comforter and the Ten Commandments

Barbara M. Vining

How we view God can determine much of how we view the Ten Commandments and how seriously we take them in relation to our daily life. Of course, how we view the Ten Commandments also has a lot to do with our concept of God.

Christ Jesus realized that love for God and the desire to obey His commandments would need to be firmly etched in the heart, soul, and mind of every disciple. Any tendency of thought to the contrary would need to be quickly and thoroughly detected, arrested, and cast out of consciousness and thereby deprived of the opportunity to take form in human experience. His own faithfulness to God's commands accounted for the astonishing success of his life and works. And now, as then, the spirit of Jesus' spiritual love and obedience infuses his teachings with the living power of Christ, Truth, to heal.

What impelled the undeviating love and obedience of Christ Jesus? As the Son of God, he naturally knew his own unity with the Father, and he fully understood God, Spirit, as the divine origin of man—as his Father and our Father. Jesus' life, from his virgin birth to his resurrection and ascension, bore witness to God's fatherhood. To secure us in the same saving and healing truth, Jesus instructed, "Call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven" (Matt. 23:9). In addition, he promised a Comforter that would fully explain his teachings. That Comforter, divine Science, is now here and is called Christian Science to show its practical application to human needs.