Christian Science reveals the true sense of love to those ready to receive it. Mary Baker Eddy says of love (Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 249, 250): "What a word! I am in awe before it. Over what worlds on worlds it hath range and is sovereign! the underived, the incomparable, the infinite All of good, the alone God, is Love."
John, the beloved disciple, beheld God as Love, and his exalted concept enabled him to write (I John 4:7-18): "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. . . . God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. . . . There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear."
Divine Love, God, has to be understood as infinite, for Love manifests divine completeness and perfection. A dictionary definition of the word "perfect" reads in part, "having all the properties naturally belonging to it; complete; sound; flawless." To gain the sense of perfect or complete Love and to demonstrate it in our experience is the desire of every Christian Scientist. Without this understanding of divine Love, fear oftentimes weighs heavily on the heart, thereby robbing mankind of joy and dominion.
In order to gain an understanding of the completeness of Love, we shall find it helpful to view Love in connection with the other synonyms for God, which are Principle, Spirit, Mind, Truth, Life, and Soul.
For example, when one understands Love as Principle, the spiritual cause and basis of all law, we see that Love can never vary or be unlike Principle. Since God is Spirit, Love is Spirit; and its nature is always to bless. That which is Spirit can include no element of materiality; hence there can be no material love. Wherever or however the qualities of divine Love appear, they express the divine nature. In this way Love satisfies and casts out all fear.
By viewing Love as Mind, we see Love as divine consciousness. Mind is always knowing the spiritual fact, the truth regarding everything. Truth always bears witness to that which is real and true. Since Life and Love are synonymous, they are inseparable. We live as we love, or we live by loving; for Life is Love. Love is Soul; it is sinless, divine consciousness. Love viewed as Soul points up its purity, beauty, and sinlessness.
With the recognition of Love as ever present we gain a satisfying sense of well-being and completeness which can know no lack or deprivation of any sort, no fear of any kind. This clear realization of God as all-inclusive Love enables us to be obedient to our great Teacher, Jesus, who pointed out the commandment (Mark 12:31), "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." In loving our neighbor as ourselves we have to begin with ourselves. It is not enough to say or feel, "Oh, if my brother would be more loving to me, then I could express love to him!" It is the recognition of Love present in our own consciousness that brings to us the realization of Love expressed everywhere.
Mrs. Eddy says (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 312): "Oh, may the love that is talked, be felt! and so lived, that when weighed in the scale of God we be not found wanting. Love is consistent, uniform, sympathetic, self-sacrificing, unutterably kind; even that which lays all upon the altar, and, speechless and alone, bears all burdens, suffers all inflictions, endures all piercing for the sake of others, and for the kingdom of heaven's sake." Love is impartial. It never singles out a particular person or thing to love. It knows only its own perfect expression. Hence Love is ever universal, not personal.
An understanding of the completeness of Love includes the recognition of the presence of the qualities which belong to the Father-Mother God. Thus we find completeness appearing in every expression of spiritual being.
Love, which is God, is ever conscious of spiritual man, the son of God. Divine Love can only be manifested in the expression of the qualities that represent Love. Some of these qualities are kindness, gentleness, tenderness. When these qualities appear in human experience, life's pathway is brightened and blessed, for they are the tangible evidence of Love. Love has to be expressed, experienced, and acknowledged, because Love exists.
Through the study of Christian Science we learn the importance of being alert to handle fear and to cast it out whenever it presents itself to us. The writer well remembers an experience when fear was cast out through the realization of the omnipresence of perfect Love. Despite faithful efforts to gain a sense of peace, an overwhelming fear persisted. Almost always it was fear for the well-being of a loved one. At times this fear would be so aggressive that it seemed to obliterate all else. It seemed to come as a premonition of evil; it might have been termed a fear of fear. One night, when the problem seemed especially real, the writer asked herself: "Why am I so afraid? Why do my prayers for peace and assurance, for security and dominion, remain unanswered in regard to this particular problem?"
The answer unfolded with startling clarity as she saw that the problem had not been solved because she was seeking the solution from the wrong standpoint. What needed to be seen was that since infinite divine Love is All, there can be nothing beyond Love's infinitude. There cannot be Love and something else! Therefore there actually is nothing to fear. She realized that Love was upholding and supporting her and her loved ones; that man is always an idea of God. An idea of God cannot be lost or in danger or harmed in any way.
The writer saw that she did not need to feel a sense of fear in striving and struggling to hold on to God. Love itself is ever protecting, supporting, holding all within its care. In this allness, there is nothing to fear. The completeness of Love encircles and includes all, and that is perfect protection. Then the beautiful words from a loved hymn came to her (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 53):
Everlasting arms of Love
Are beneath, around, above;
God it is who bears us on,
His the arm we lean upon.
The result of this prayerful unfoldment brought instantaneous release from the binding, restrictive fear; and through the years there has been greater freedom expressed in every way and a more satisfying sense of peace and harmony.
Perfect Love is complete and blesses all. As our recognition of perfect Love unfolds, we understand that Love is everywhere. From the standpoint of Love itself there is nothing else to be known. Thus we are able to understand more fully the meaning of our Leader's words (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 567), "To infinite, ever-present Love, all is Love, and there is no error, no sin, sickness, nor death."
