UPFRONT July 26, 2010 Issue

TWO DIVINELY INSPIRED, UNIVERSAL RULES

MAIKE BYRD, STAFF EDITOR

Many of our readers would agree that, at least to some degree, a lack of love is at the bottom of all human strife, wars, societal ills—even such natural calamities as the recent devastating oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. A Christian Science Monitor editorial (CSMonitor.com), responding to this, stressed that preventing such disasters in the future will include "a demand for higher qualities of thought, such as a greater sense of obligation to others, a respect for one another's views, and a longer-range regard for the collective good and the environment." A tall order, but not impossible to achieve. It's a natural consequence of persevering prayers born out of love for God and one another.

This double issue of the Sentinel discusses the divinely inspired, universal rules of love that Jesus said underlie all other Biblical commandments: to love God "with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind" and to love your neighbor "as yourself" (see Luke 10:27). His well-known parable of the good Samaritan illustrated for all time how intimately connected love for God and our fellow beings is. Indeed, one is not possible without the other.

"We should measure our love for God by our love for man ..." wrote Sentinel founder Mary Baker Eddy (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 12). She herself inspired her contemporaries through her sincere prayer and unshakable love for her enemies at a time of great hostility against her. Researcher Judy Huenneke describes these events in her article "'Next friends' and loving your neighbor" (p. 28).