When Jesus, speaking to his disciples, said (John 15:12), "This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you," the statement undoubtedly meant much more than the words would imply to the half-attentive hearer. Perhaps some of those whom Jesus taught, like some of us today who study Christian Science, found it difficult to be obedient to this command to "love one another." Yet this command, he pointed out, was second only to the greatest commandment of all (Matt. 22:37), "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind."
Love for God is of first importance, because only as we realize God's perfection can we see it imaged forth in our fellow man. No unlovely thought of our brother can exist where love for God, our brother's Ego, is supreme. Jesus, in commanding his disciples to "love one another," explained how they should love: "As I have loved you." Also he stressed the fact (John 15:14), "Ye are my friends."
What then should we do when error tempts us to ignore the command to "love one another"? Does evil suggestion tell us that we have been unjustly treated, or that we have been trampled upon? We may well ask what we can do to obliterate this false state of thought. When we realize that it is God whom we serve, and that we of ourselves can do nothing, we are imbued with a clear realization of God's allness. The consciousness of this enables us to wipe away all remembrance of any seeming wrong that may have been done us, until not even a vestige of resentment, self-pity, or self-righteousness remains.
