Christianity, as originally taught and demonstrated by Jesus, has been designated by Mary Baker Eddy as the religion of Love. In her writings she explains the nature of pure love and shows that Jesus' teachings on this subject referred to no sentimentalism or worldly affections, nor were they merely a pleasant philosophy or a formulated creed. She demonstrated the love he taught to be the absolute law and nature of harmonious being, which, when understood, frees humanity from the torment of fear of every kind. How to overcome fear is a subject that demands the attention of everyone, for fear seems to be present in every phase of mortal existence.
John, the beloved disciple, discerning the facts of harmonious being, declared (I John 4:18): "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love." The reader will note in this passage that the perfect love which John refers to has no specific person or thing as an object of its affection. Rather does it describe a constancy of thought in which is no belief in evil but a complete awareness of the fact that true being is expressed in infinite perfection.
The human, finite sense of mortals bestows its affections on persons and things, honors that which it approves, and hates and fears what it believes to be evil. This concept which mistakes approbation for love hardly glimpses the love referred to by John. His declaration concluding with the statement, "He that feareth is not made perfect in love," shows that love and fear are opposite states of consciousness; that love is a harmonious spiritual state, while fear must of necessity be a discordant mortal sense. The words love and perfect as used here are closely allied in meaning, and through the study of Christian Science we are enabled to understand why the pure consciousness of Love includes no sense of imperfection or fear.
