IN THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BIBLE LESSON June 28, 2010 Issue

THE WAY TO FREEDOM

MICHAEL HAMILTON

THE WORD TRANSLATED "LIBERTY" in the Golden Text (II Cor. 3:17) is the keynote of this week's Bible Lesson, titled "God." It comes from the Greek word eleutheria, which also means "freedom," associated with the liberty enjoyed by those who are free men and women, not slaves. Free persons are exempt from the obligations and liabilities of the enslaved. The Amplified Bible expands on this in its rendering: "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (emancipation from bondage, freedom)."

The whole Lesson offers a deeper look at the implications of this freedom, based on an understanding God. Section I stresses the necessity for clarity about the deific nature. In Exodus, God reminds Moses that He was first known to Abraham as "God Almighty," not Jehovah (Ex. 6:3, citation 1). This appellation appears in Genesis, as well as in Job. Science and Health offers insight regarding the name Jehovah in a correlative text. Jehovah represents a human concept of God (cit. 5).

The Bible passages in the first section close with God's tender words in Hosea: "When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love" (11:1, 4, cit. 3). The New International Version translates the first part of verse 4: "I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love."