In the Christian Science Bible Lesson November 14, 2011 Issue

Identity grounded in Soul

For the lesson titled "Soul and Body" from November 14–20, 2011

By Madelon Maupin

A biblical command from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians is the clarion call of this contemporary Lesson topic, “Soul and Body”: “Glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (I Cor. 6: 20, Golden Text). 

Preoccupation with the body—“Is it healthy, cold, hot, comfortable, thin, pretty, or handsome enough?”—can be a most mesmeric internal conversation today. Yet this Lesson, from its launch, sets up an alternative to consider and pursue: Soul, God, as the basis of identity, and the spiritual richness that includes. 

The Responsive Reading discloses a first step in our Soul journey away from fixation on the physical body as the whole of identity: Glorify God. Glory, from the Greek root doxa, in its verb form means to honor and praise. Its Hebrew roots are tied to how the Israelites believed Yahweh to reveal Himself, through light—thus the New Testament meaning of the noun as a divine, heavenly radiance and splendor. These meanings are at the heart of its many uses in John 17, Jesus’ longest prayer in the Gospels. Facing his most difficult hours, Jesus prays first for himself (verses 1–5) and then for his disciples (verses 6–10). What direction the master Christian provides us today! “Now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I shared with you before the world was created” (verse 5, Common English Bible). 