The way to permanent peace
For the lesson titled "God" from June 25 - July 1, 2012
In the Responsive Reading, the Apostle Paul announces to the men of Athens, “The One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you” (Acts 17:23, New King James Version). He goes on to teach these Greeks what he knows about God—that God made all, that God doesn’t dwell in a building (temple), that God doesn’t need anything from men; indeed, it is men who get life from Him.
Through these declarations about the nature of God, Paul urges the Athenians to give up their sense of Deity as unknowable, and embrace God as All-in-all. Paul was in faraway Greece where men knew little of Christianity, and yet Paul shares his understanding that God’s allness includes even the Greeks. To this end he quotes a Greek poet, “ ‘For we are also His offspring’ ” (Acts 17:28). The Lesson this week shows how this idea—that we are all God’s family—can lead to peace within ourselves, our communities, our families, and even between nations.
The Responsive Reading closes with a verse from Isaiah that affirms that as we keep our thought on God and trust in Him, He will keep us in perfect peace (see chap. 26, verse 3). The ensuing Lesson examines this powerful promise.
Jeremiah informs us that God thinks only thoughts of peace toward us and not thoughts of evil (see Jeremiah 29:11, citation 2); while Science and Health explains that God’s thoughts of peace are truly the divine Principle at work in God’s universe, and only our ignorance of this Principle “produces apparent discord” (p. 390, cit. 4).
In Section III, Elijah apparently realizes the children of Israel have a very limited sense of this divine Principle, which is “not yet elevated to deific apprehension through spiritual transfiguration” (Science and Health, p. 576, cit. 9). The children of Israel’s ignorance of God triggers their threats against Elijah’s zeal for the one God, and Elijah must flee for his life. Ironically, Elijah himself goes through a transfiguration, a change, when he stands on the mountain and endures wind, earthquake, and fire, and learns that God is not in these discordant, destructive elements, but is in the “still small voice” (I Kings 19:12, cit. 10), which Science and Health equates with “scientific thought” (p. 559, cit. 15).
When we are governed by the one Mind, God, the divine law of Love unfolds in our experience with blessings.
This Truth calms and exalts our thinking to the point where the senses are silent and the peace of Spirit reigns supreme. And where do we find this peace of Spirit?—in Christ Jesus, who came “to reveal the Science of celestial being, to prove what God is and what He does for man” (p. 26, cit. 16). To attain Jesus’ example, we must gain “a better understanding of God as divine Principle, Love . . .” (p. 473, cit. 17). This divine Principle is manifested in “perfect God and perfect man” (p. 259, cit. 18).
As we acquaint ourselves with the knowledge of this relationship, the idea of peace in families and peace among nations becomes imminently possible. If we are all the children of God, why would we “deal treacherously” with one another? (Malachi 2:10, cit. 14); and Science and Health concurs that “God’s children in divine Science, are one harmonious family; . . .” (p. 444, cit. 21). God is Love, and when we are governed by the one Mind, God, the divine law of Love unfolds in our experience with blessings. We are urged to know this truth and practice it (see p. 490, cit. 24).
All the calamities and vapid fury of mortal existence may shake the very earth, but when this discord is “swallowed up in spiritual Truth,” we will know the peace that cannot be removed (p. 96, cit. 27).
