I was thinking recently about two of my high-school teachers. Both were businesslike, even a bit stern, on the first day of class and for a few days after that. They were setting a serious tone, letting us know what they expected of us—laying down the law, so to speak. It wasn’t something that fifteen-year-olds took as a good sign of things to come!

In both instances, though, it turned out that they were not only excellent teachers but delightful individuals. One had a wonderful sense of humor that was increasingly on display as classes went forward. The other was thoroughly engaging in his discussion of the books we were assigned to read and was easy to get along with. Although I didn’t think of it in these terms at the time, both expressed a natural blend of qualities that pointed to God’s nature as Love and Lawgiver.

Leaning on God’s law of good, which maintains the harmony of every aspect of His creation, brought about a perfect solution. 

The Bible speaks of God as “our lawgiver” (Isaiah 33:22). And it refers to “the law of the Lord” as “perfect” (Psalms 19:7). The Scriptures strongly imply that God is the intelligent, divine Principle of the universe. And, of course, they tell us very directly that God is Love (see I John 4:8, 16).

In her writings, Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered and founded Christian Science, sometimes links the terms Principle and Love as two of seven Bible-derived synonyms for God. Other synonyms are Spirit, Mind, Soul, Life, and Truth. Referring to God, Mrs. Eddy says, “He is divine Principle, Love, the universal cause, the only creator, and there is no other self-existence” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 331). And in another place, “Love, the divine Principle, is the Father and Mother of the universe, including man” (Science and Health, p. 256).

We can all cite illustrations of this blend of what you might call love and law at work in everyday life—for instance, when a parent expresses a balance of tenderness and discipline. Rightly expressed, that discipline is, of itself, an indication of love. Another example might be found in the workplace, through a manager’s sometimes firm but supportive supervision of his or her employees.

Many would agree that the life of Christ Jesus provides the supreme example of what it means to express God’s nature as Love and Principle. The Way-shower’s healing works and his proof for humanity of the spiritual, indestructible nature of true existence showed profoundly that God is Love. The Master was also clear about the need for faithfulness to divine law, the law of good, as each of us strives progressively to demonstrate that life is actually in God, indestructible Spirit, not in matter. 

Jesus said, for instance, that we should enter in “at the strait gait: … because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:13, 14). This certainly indicates that it’s vital to keep our thoughts and lives aligned with the Ten Commandments and with the purity of Jesus’ teachings in order to stay on the right path, the path of genuine happiness and eternal life. What could be a greater expression of love?

These wonderful aspects of the divine nature are always present and at work on our behalf. This was clear to me at a time when I was in the entertainment field. Moving in that direction was, I felt, a gift from divine Love, an opportunity to use more widely a talent that had been developing for a long time. 

I was impressed during this period not only by the opportunities provided by Love but by what was clearly the government of divine Principle. In this very competitive business and often difficult environment, Principle’s control was expressed, to me, not so much in a disciplinary sense as in its maintaining, or you might say permitting—through the operation of universal, divine law—only what was appropriate for my individual experience, only that which was supportive of my well-being.

For instance, on one occasion I had a booking from an agency representing a number of venues. Then I received a call to work on the same night at the same time from an agent who had steadily been providing opportunities for me. When I told him I was already booked, he gave me an ultimatum: “If you choose to go with the other job instead of my offer, I won’t give you any more work.” 

Divine Principle, Love, wouldn’t be Love if it simply gave a green light, in a manner of speaking, under every circumstance.

Although that agent had helped me out in the early stages of my performing career, I was beginning to feel uneasy about some of the jobs he had in mind for me and the control I was sensing he wanted to have over my further steps in that field. There were other issues as well.

I had been receptive to divine direction, was dependent on it, and I was striving to yield to it through prayer at every step. It wasn’t surprising, then, that the ultimatum provided exactly the right occasion for me to tell him that I felt I should stay with the other job—even though there was no guarantee of any future work from that source—and to part ways. He wasn’t pleased, but the break was necessary, and liberating. And I didn’t suffer from any lack of work because of it. 

Leaning on God’s law of good, which maintains the harmony of every aspect of His creation, brought about a perfect solution. This was a small but helpful illustration to me that Love is Principle and that Principle is Love.

There were other times when the operation of divine law was clear, situations in which a surface view of things might suggest that an opportunity had been lost. But divine Principle, Love, wouldn’t be Love if it simply gave a green light, in a manner of speaking, under every circumstance. Under Principle’s jurisdiction, all is in perfect order. Nothing inappropriate has a place. How could an intelligent, loving creator allow discord to be a part of His creation?

Of course, people do face all kinds of troubles. But, in a fundamental sense, disharmony indicates the need for a deeper understanding of God and of man as His image. Christian Science helps us see that man isn’t truly a mortal, living apart from God in an unpredictable material universe that’s a mixture of good and bad. What our Father-Mother God created isn’t material and inherently flawed, even though it may seem to be. What God has created is spiritual and forever ideal, reflecting His nature as pure Spirit, as the divine Principle, Love.

Opening our thought to this higher view, coming to realize at least to some degree that existence is truly governed by the divine law of Love, makes God’s government, the government of Love and Principle, more evident in our lives and blesses our world.