TRUE service lies in our obedience to the spiritual laws of God. It begins with our understanding that God, Spirit, is the only creator and that man is spiritual, wholly good, created by God in His own image and likeness. The assumption that man is partly spiritual and partly material, partly good and partly bad, is opposed to the truth of being set forth in the Bible. The pressing need of mankind to awaken to God's presence and power was clearly perceived by the prophets of the Old Testament. Again and again they admonished their people to turn from false gods and serve God, their true Maker. In the book of Joshua we read (24:14), "Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord."
Jesus not only taught us man's wholly spiritual and perfect nature, but he gave us concrete proofs of his teaching by healing the sick and raising the dead, showing spiritual good to be the only reality, presence, and power. Have we met this need of a definite understanding of man's true being, and do we live accordingly? Then we are escaping the snares that serving the false master, mortal mind, would lead us into. This is a vital point to be considered. The ever-living words of our great Way-shower proclaim (Matt. 6:24): "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon."
Mary Baker Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 182): "The demands of God appeal to thought only; but the claims of mortality, and what are termed laws of nature, appertain to matter. Which, then, are we to accept as legitimate and capable of producing the highest human good? We cannot obey both physiology and Spirit, for one absolutely destroys the other, and one or the other must be supreme in the affections. It is impossible to work from two standpoints. If we attempt it, we shall presently 'hold to the one, and despise the other.'"
