Article September 4, 2006 Issue

Unconditional love—no ifs about it

BY WILLIAM H. HILL

THE LIFE OF Christ Jesus represents the greatest model of unconditional love. Jesus demonstrated the true, divine sense of love—with no strings attached. No "I will love you if ...." His Sermon on the Mount in the Bible advocates the importance of loving our neighbor unconditionally—being willing to turn the other cheek and go the next mile (see Matt. 5:39, 41). Whether we like these statements of truth or not, they come from the wisest man who ever lived. Jesus never justified hatred, anger, or violence. Rather, he advocated love in the purest sense of the word. And he demonstrated this love so we could follow his example.

I often turn to marriage and family as places where we see unconditional love in real-time action, and where we're often tested the most in our understanding of it. Mistakes arise when we first look to our spouse, to our children, or to other family members as our source of love. So it's imperative that we get our relationship with God right first. Mary Baker Eddy said we must "... rise to the true consciousness of Life as Love,—as all that is pure, and bearing the fruits of Spirit" (Science and Health, p. 391). And where do we find that pure sense of love? In God.

Here's an example. I got a call from a man I knew whose wife had recently passed away. When he came to see me in my practitioner's office, he was totally distraught and discouraged. He wanted to remarry, but said there were no prospects to be found. "I've looked everywhere," he told me. I challenged him to examine his thought. I said, "We're talking about love here, aren't we? Are you perhaps looking to the wrong source for this love?"