Article July 22, 2013 Issue

It's never too late

For the Lesson titled "Truth" from July 22 - 28, 2013

Christa Kreutz

Maybe you know Jonah: A Veggie Tales Movie, which included the song “Second Chances.” This week’s Christian Science Bible Lesson on Truth might be subtitled: “Counter-cultural risk takers and the God of second chances.” In this Lesson, the story of Jonah is one of the Bible stories that is particularly helpful in understanding the enduring nature of God’s healing truth and the benefits of obedience to that truth.

Jonah is a short story (see Section 4) written sometime after Israel’s exile, after 539 bc . There was a distinct tension at this time between viewing God as a national deity and a universal deity. Jonah’s response to God’s request to go to the Gentiles of Nineveh reflects that tension. Jonah had no interest in going to visit the “immoral” people of Nineveh. But after the storm and being swallowed by “a great fish,” perhaps he realized that there was risk in not obeying God! He also realized that God wasn’t going to give up on him, either. Jonah 3:1 (citation 16) says that “the word of the Lord” came to Jonah a “second time.” He listened this time. He went forward with his mission to persuade the Ninevites to turn to God and repent, and they did. The great news is that it is never too late to turn to God, or be persuaded by infinite Truth, and find our purpose, like Jonah.

The word obey comes from an Old English word meaning “to listen to” and relates to the word submit, or to put oneself under something. The Greek word peitho means to be persuaded or influenced and is the word Paul uses in his letter to the Galatians when they are being influenced by something other than God. “Who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?” (Galatians 5:7, cit. 13). We are either submitting to the infinite view of Truth or to the mortal ego—a limited view. And only one way will help us, as Mary Baker Eddy explains in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “Obedience to Truth gives man power and strength. Submission to error superinduces loss of power” (p. 183, cit. 29).