IN THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BIBLE LESSON November 17, 2008 Issue

REST AND ACTION IN SOUL

MICHAEL PABST

IN THIS WEEK'S Bible Lesson on "Soul and Body," the opening Golden Text from the Bible points to that fact that our true identity has spiritual foundation. We are "the temple of God" (I Cor. 3:17). That's indeed a radical statement. We won't find our actual identity in a physical concept or physical body. God didn't create us as a mixture of spirit and matter. Since God is Spirit, Soul, our true nature must be entirely spiritual—we embody or manifest Soul as our spiritual identity. And we can never lose our identity by turning to God, but instead we find it more distinctly and tangibly in Soul.

The Lesson's six sections explore the consequences of what it means that our identity rests in Soul, not in matter.

Section II opens with Luke's account of many sick people being brought to Jesus at sundown. Jesus heals all of them. He casts out many "devils" and doesn't allow them to speak (Luke 4:40, 41, citation 5). Jesus' approach to healing says to me that the healer shouldn't waste time with an argumentative mentality. And today's world is filled with that kind of a mentality. We're surrounded by opinions that tell us to find our identity by understanding our body or our personality. Society is deeply concerned with body image and nutrition. And in essence, the Lesson shows me that this isn't where or how we'll find ourselves, our genuine identity.