In the Christian Science Bible Lesson January 27, 2014 Issue

Love one another

For the Lesson titled “Love” from January 27–February 2, 2014

Kathleen Collins

“This is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another” (I John 3:11, Responsive Reading). And it’s the message that is repeated throughout this week’s Bible Lesson, titled “Love.”

“Love one another.” Such a simple phrase. But does it sometimes seem easier to love anyone else but the one right in front of us? The one who actually might need love the most—our parent, spouse, child, even our enemy? This Lesson reminds us that we are all one family because “Love, the divine Principle, is the Father and Mother of the universe, including man” (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 256, citation 14).

Indispensable to family harmony is obedience to the commandment “Honour thy father and thy mother” (Deuteronomy 5:16, cit. 4). In Genesis 9:20–23 (see cit. 5), Noah’s son Ham dishonored his father, abandoned him in a state of need, and then prattled about it to his brothers, Shem and Japheth. They, however, in spite of Noah’s condition, acted with filial responsibility, treating their father with love and respect. Ham was the ancestor of the Canaanites, who as polytheists did not honor the one Father, God. In later years, Abraham was adamant that a wife for his son Isaac would not be chosen from among “the daughters of the Canaanites” (see Genesis 24:3, cit. 9). Abraham appeared to know that “kindred tastes, motives, and aspirations are necessary to the formation of a happy and permanent companionship” (Science and Health, p. 60, cit. 10).