When Jesus said, "Love thy neighbour as thyself" (Matt. 22:39), he was not merely telling his hearers that it is right to love one's neighbor. He was also informing them of a great spiritual fact, or law, for Jesus knew that the real man can no more resist loving than a rosebud can resist its own unfoldment. God is Love, and man the real and only man—is loving and lovable, for he emanates from Love; he is the outcome of Love. Because he is the manifestation, or expression, of Love, love is his nature, the essence of his being.
The earnest student of Christian Science soon learns that to demonstrate this in his daily life and make it practical he must differentiate between the real, ideal man, who lives and moves and has his being in Love, God, and the erroneous, material sense of man, which, from within its own dream concept, presents man as sickly, hateful, sinful, and worthy of condemnation.
The student sees that in making this separation between the real and the unreal his concept of his neighbor is clarified and the ideal spiritual man becomes more distinct; his perception penetrates the mist that has distorted his concept of the neighbor into magnified aspects of unloveliness. He is beginning to behold the perfect man. Very often the neighbor, feeling the warmth of Love's touch, responds to this impersonal realization of perfect man and becomes a friend.
