ON THE NIGHT BEFORE HIS CRUCIFIXION, Jesus spent part of the evening with his disciples. He may well have thought deeply about how they would carry forward the work and ideas of his world-changing ministry. He might even have felt a sense of urgency. What we know for sure is that he told his disciples something of vital importance. He said: "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:34, 35).

This commandment sums up the fundamental thrust of Jesus' teaching—that love must be the generating force in the thought and actions of Christians. And he set a standard that each of us can strive to achieve. But how do we do that? First, by recognizing that the ability to love isn't personal virtue. For, despite his incredible record of healing, Jesus humbly acknowledged, "I can of mine self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me" (John 5:30). So we can be assured that God will provide the patience, energy, compassion, and understanding we need to do His will. And because the source of our being is God—Love itself—the ability to love others is intrinsic, a natural state of being.

So the obvious question arises: Why does the world suffer from hatred, war, hunger, genocide? Mary Baker Eddy explained these pictures of tragedy in this way: "The parent of all human discord was the Adam-dream, the deep sleep, in which originated the delusion that life and intelligence proceeded from and passed into matter" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, pp. 306-307).

Is there a practical way to escape this Adam-dream, this illusion of mortal discord that screams from every corner of the earth? How do we realize a world filled with love toward one another? St. John described this kind of world—spiritual reality—in the book of Revelation. He called it the city of God. This "holy city" is actually divine consciousness—the ongoing, present nowness of divine Love, peace, and eternal bliss, St. John saw this holy vision as present reality, here and now.

But does this heavenly state of being sound too idealized to really be practical? Maybe loving others—all others—right now seems a stretch in your life. Just getting by day to day and caring for your own needs is all you can manage. That's probably true for many of us. Yet, Jesus must have known that this commandment would have a huge impact on how we feel about ourselves and the rest of the world. Because getting out of our own shoes and standing in someone else's has a powerful effect. Getting a picture of other people's needs often puts our own dilemmas into perspective.

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus explained how far we need to go in loving others. For example, he said, "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven" (Matt. 5:44, 45). Today, these directives may seem counterintuitive—to love your enemies and to pray for those who use you. You may be saying, "That's not the way the world works!" But maybe Jesus knew that love is the only real solution to ending the Adam-dream world. The question then becomes, How do we get above the challenges weighting heavily in our own lives to extend love to others?

Small acts of love—like speaking gently instead of harshly to a misbehaving child, or expressing patience instead of exasperation when we're inconvenienced, or maybe taking the smaller portion so there's more for others—these quiet moments of loving may not be dramatic, but they are powerful. They make others feel cared for, worthwhile—lovable.

And that is a start toward larger transformations, whether right in our own backyards—with our next-door neighbor, our family, our church—or with pressing and desperate crises in far-off lands. No matter how large or small the situation, we can feel certain that lives change for the better when we respond with Christ-like love in whatever measure we can.