In the Christian Science Bible Lesson July 2, 2012 Issue

True worship is living love

For the lesson titled "Sacrament" from July 2 - 8, 2012

Karen Bailey—Santa Fe, New Mexico, US

This weeks Bible Lesson,   titled “Sacrament,” shows us two very different visions of what constitutes sacramental worship in the understanding and practice of one’s communion with God. The Lesson begins with the command in the Golden Text, “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness” (I Chronicles 16:29). 

We can see that while the Hebrew Bible would have encouraged people to obey this command, Jesus’ way of worship and perception of holiness was quite different from that of the Pharisees, for example. Science and Health explains, “Jesus taught the way of Life by demonstration, that we may understand how this divine Principle heals the sick, casts out error, and triumphs over death” (p. 25, citation 1). 

A primary difference between the Pharisees and Jesus is seen in their response to the divine demand, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48, referenced in Science and Health, p. 37, cit. 9). According to Howard Clark Kee and Franklin W. Young in Understanding the New Testament, “The Pharisees thought of perfection largely in terms of the literal fulfillment of laws; Jesus on the other hand thought of perfection in terms of God’s mercy and goodness, which could not be attained by fulfilling literal rules but was an inward condition of the heart that only God could give“ (p. 130).

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The Touch of Class
Led by God
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