Years ago, after hearing news reports of an awful event, a relative exclaimed, “Now we know that evil is real!” It was tempting in that moment to agree with her. The evidence of discord, hatred, and revenge was plain to see. 

As upsetting as the images of the event were, though, I mentally rebelled against this declaration that evil is real. But more was needed. To merely dismiss evil’s apparent reality and power would be uncaring and callous, turning a blind eye to human suffering. I knew in my heart that God is the only power. And as a Christian Scientist, I felt that not acknowledging the presence and power of God, divine Love, in any situation was simply wrong. The demand of the moment was that I recognize divine Love’s pervasive authority and understand that no suggestion of reality in evil could ever be the final word. 

Christ Jesus was able to reject a hypnotic, material picture of any situation because he must have known that seeing as God, Spirit, sees shows that the only true view is spiritual. When confronted by ten lepers (see Luke 17:11–19), Jesus did not express dismay or alarm. Those around him may have seen ten diseased men—unclean, rejected, and maybe even condemned by God. But Jesus saw and felt only what God was being and doing. As Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures explains, he “beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals” (Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 476–477). And the lepers were healed. 

St. Paul wrote, “Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)” (II Corinthians 10:3, 4). The “weapons” Paul speaks of are spiritual—the qualities we all have access to through our inseparable relationship to God. Peace, compassion, strength, courage, patience, and trust in good are divine attributes that are natural to each of us as God’s ideas.

Paul also told those early Christians at Corinth that they were “the temple of the living God,” impressing upon them that they needed to “come out from” the world—to be separate from worldly ways and means (II Corinthians 6:16, 17). Following Christ means trusting in spiritual power and expressing God’s nature through purity, righteousness, and love. 

Christian practice and healing begin when we embrace the presence of divine good and take a stand for spiritual power.

One definition of temple is “a place in which the divine presence specially resides” (Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828). Fulfilling our true, spiritual identity as the “temple of the living God” means recognizing that God’s qualities are being expressed right where we are. Christian practice and healing begin when we embrace the presence of divine good and take a stand for spiritual power. Love, trust, and courage may be invisible to the human eye, but they bring real and lasting meaning to human experience.

Church has been called a “laboratory” for human experience, and awhile back it served as the place where I learned an invaluable lesson in relying on God’s government. The Christian Science Society I attended was embroiled in divisive debate. Our previously tightknit little band seemed to be coming apart because of an inability to agree on an important decision. Hard words were spoken, feelings were hurt, and friendships suffered. Some spoke of leaving, others of the need for everyone to bend to one particular viewpoint or another. 

I was praying constantly. I knew this picture of church as a more-or-(in this case)-less functional social organization was not the reality, because it did not evidence God’s presence and power. I mentally replaced the image of contention with the spiritual idea of God’s irresistible government. God as divine Love is pervasive, universal; God as the one Mind pours out intelligence to all His ideas; as Soul, God inspires us and assures us that there can be no lack or loss of good. 

Meanwhile, nothing appeared to be happening. Everyone seemed firmly locked into opposition. When it seemed no progress could be made, we agreed to consider and vote on options at the upcoming membership meeting.

In the lead-up to the meeting, there was still no evident change. There was no apparent reason to expect that the meeting would go well, much less resolve the issue harmoniously. Still, whenever the discord would come to my thought, I continued to insist on the ever-presence of God’s sweet concord, on trusting His unfoldment of our church experience. Thinking about what Paul said—that we are all the temple of the living God—I resisted the temptation to see my fellow members as anything less than places where God’s own loving, intelligent nature was expressed.

When the meeting began, we all sat down together, and a solution that had previously been discounted received a unanimous “Yea” vote. Not a word was said about what had gone before. We were, as it says in the book of Acts, “all with one accord in one place” (2:1).

What had looked like solid evidence of discord turned out to have no real intelligence or substance. As Mrs. Eddy put it in an article titled “Love Your Enemies”: “Whatever purifies, sanctifies, and consecrates human life, is not an enemy, however much we suffer in the process. Shakespeare writes: ‘Sweet are the uses of adversity’ ” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 8).

In the best of times and the worst of times, Love is there. Love is what identifies us most truly. Love is what reveals God’s presence even where things seem most adverse. Whatever suffering we may go through on the way to letting go of a godless view of what is going on dissolves in the light of Love.

To find this spiritual sense, we must pause, still the noise of the carnal mind—the belief of a material intelligence opposed to the divine Mind—and its mesmerizing narrative of condemnation, hate, and fear. Mentally stepping into what Jesus refers to as the “closet” of prayer (see Matthew 6:6), we can listen for what God has to say about His creation. Remembering Jesus’ teachings and his proofs of God’s loving care, we yield to the ever-present power of divine Love. And then we live so that this spiritual understanding is expressed in our words and deeds.

Instead of bemoaning the rise and seeming power of this or that particular evil in our church, our workplace, our community, or society at large, we can take up our spiritual weapons and take a stand against despair. As words in the Christian Science Hymnal promise: 

O, sometimes gleams upon our sight, 
Through present wrong, th’ eternal right; 
And step by step, since time began, 
We see the steady gain of man.
(John Greenleaf Whittier, Hymn 238)

Our thoughts, when imbued with divine Truth and Love, can bring calm and assurance to those around us, and even to those we don’t know. Hold tight to that God-given spiritual sense, and you will find that hope is not a cheat. We really are the place where God is seen and heard.