On the walls of many Christian Science Sunday Schools and churches appears the Bible quotation "God is Love." ^{I John 4:8;} This simple statement holds a profound promise for anyone who earnestly seeks to find Truth and to understand and reflect this Love. It promises the overcoming, here and now, of fear. It promises harmonious human relationships. It promises healing and salvation. And it promises an eventual end to all evil.

How does the truth that God is Love assure all this? Let us see. Since God is Love, He naturally and inevitably creates good and good alone. The first chapter of Genesis records that the whole of God's creation "was very good." ^{Gen. 1:31;} Then where does evil come from? Mrs. Eddy explains:

"Through these three statements, or misstatements, evil comes into authority:—

The basic teaching of Christian Science that evil has no creator and is therefore totally unreal and powerless delivers mankind from the effects of evil. The consciousness illumined with the understanding of the infinitude, the allness, of good is as free from discord as a lighted room is free from darkness. The realization that God is Love ensures in growing measure a heaven of good for each of us, right here and now, by strengthening us in our efforts to prove the absolute unreality of evil.

What about the overcoming of fear? Nobody fears good. The truth that God is Love and that His universe is filled only with the spiritual good that expresses Him and is known by Him shows us that there is nothing to dread. Not even matter in its most destructive form needs to be feared, for matter is only part of evil's unreality. The allness of Spirit, God, leaves nothing out of which to make matter. The persistent effort to know and apply this truth takes the danger out of matter by taking the seeming reality out of it. One does this by spiritually seeing the ideas of Spirit, divine Mind, in place of all that seems to be material.

The individual who accepts this great truth finds it logical and natural to counter every suggestion of fear by realizing that because all that is real is spiritual, harmless, and good he is not afraid. He thanks God that His infinite love protects and preserves him and his and all. The nature of divine Love is to cherish, tenderly care for, bless, and reassure, never to endanger, threaten, or frighten. The disciple John wrote, "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear." ^{I John 4:18;} The Apostle Paul declared, "In him [God] we live, and move, and have our being." ^{Acts 17:28;} We live in Love; so we cannot live in fear.

How does knowing that God is Love improve human relationships? By healing those attitudes between people that deteriorate relationships—suspicion, criticism, prejudice, jealousy, hate, and the like. Just as there is no fear in Love, so there is no malice or resentment. This is not to say, of course, that one must ever strive to love the evil a human individual seems to be expressing, any more than one must admire the grotesque Halloween mask a child may be wearing. Evil must be recognized as no real part of the individual. Sometimes, though, unlovely characteristics seem so much a part of a person's nature that it is very difficult to see past them to the perfect, incorporeal man created as the image, or reflection, of God. But, with Love's help, we can.

Someone who was finding it difficult to love or even tolerate a certain individual who seemed impossible to get along with was asked, "Does God love this individual?"

She answered promptly, "Why, yes! God is Love, and Love loves everyone."

"Well, then," concluded the questioner, "you do love this individual—through reflection."

This reasoning brought an immediate sense of peace to the one who had been struggling to love what seemed unlovable. She would often remind herself with joy, "I love everyone, through reflection, and everyone loves me!"

Love is the catalyst in human relationships that brings about wonderful changes. Human affection that is based upon the perfect, unchanging divine Love that is God never ceases to bless and be blessed.

"God is Love." Why does this promise healing and salvation? Because it removes the supposed cause, or origin, of disease and sin. They are no part of God's creation. There is nothing in Love to propagate anything harmful or wrong, nothing in Love to sustain disease or sin, and so they can have no duration. Christ Jesus proved this by compassionately healing all kinds of discord quickly and permanently. "Love is the liberator," ^{Science and Health, p. 225;} writes Mrs. Eddy in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health.

Expressing divine Love brings freedom from disease by bringing freedom from the wrong thinking that delineates itself in disease. Materiality, fear, anxiety, anger, resentment, disappointment, discouragement—all melt away in the warmth of love. A hymn in the Christian Science Hymnal puts it, "Healed is thy hardness, His love hath dissolved it." ^{Hymn No. 278.}

Whether the human need is to be delivered from lack or fear, to improve human relationships, or to be healed of a physical ailment or a sinful habit, this need is always met when divine Love is applied with sufficient understanding. Surely, whether you are a beginning or an advanced student of Christian Science, one of the most important spiritual facts for you to know is the wonderful, powerful, eternal fact that God is Love!