Article September 3, 2018 Issue

What dissolves the hardness of self-justification?

Kurt Lancaster

It can be all too easy to become angry with others when we feel wronged, letting thoughts of self-justification lead us to exert our will in certain situations. Such a response can even seem natural, so we tend to float along with action and reaction as a part of our lives.

But reacting to others in this way stems from our having a mortal view of ourselves and our fellow man instead of seeing everyone as the immortal man that God made. Since God is our common Father and Mother—the Divine Being who made us in His own image—a correct understanding of what God is and how He made us opens the way for healing the mortal tendency to indulge in self-justification. The Bible, which contains key insights about God being Spirit (see John 4:24) and God being Love (see I John 4:8), is full of examples of how a spiritual understanding of God can help us overcome temptation and false character traits and be healed of sickness. Because God made us in the likeness of His being—Spirit and Love—our true being is naturally spiritual and loving. Through Christian Science this truth can be applied and proven.

When we begin to see ourselves and others in the way God knows us, our interactions rise above the maelstrom of what the Apostle Paul calls the carnal mind, which is “enmity against God” (Romans 8:7). There’s no doubt that we’re often faced with challenges to seeing others as God does: spiritual, loving, and good. A mortal and material view of our neighbor as separated from God is a view that can rightly be classified as enmity against God—it denies the truth about what our neighbor is and what we ourselves really are as God’s spiritual children. Paul knew firsthand how easy it is to see the world from a mortal perspective. But after his transformation from a persecutor of the early Christians to Christianity’s devoted proponent, he realized that a carnal-minded approach perpetuates hate and death and does not come from God. He argued, “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you” (Romans 8:9). We’re made to express the divine Spirit, and when we see ourselves and others as God truly made us, we grow spiritually—seeing more clearly our inseparability from Spirit and Love. And this transforms us, so that instead of reacting in kind to anger and hate, we respond with the love that brings peace and healing.

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