It is recorded in the twenty-second chapter of Matthew that a lawyer asked Christ Jesus which of the commandments in the law was the greatest. Jesus replied in substance that to love God supremely was the first and great commandment. The second, he explained, was like it, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."
What is this self that we must cherish in ourselves and in others? It must be man's real, spiritual individuality as the likeness of God, Spirit. It cannot be a mortal, material sense of personality, since this false concept of man would separate him from God.
Sometimes it is hard to maintain one's true individuality in the complexity of contemporary living when regimentation, restrictions, and conformity seem to be prevalent. A Christian Scientist is not afraid that he will lose his individual character, for he understands this to be his spiritual status as a divine idea, God's image. He is confident that God will maintain each of His ideas as distinct and whole throughout eternity. Thus the Scientist knows that he can neither be left out of significant human activities nor swallowed up in them, but will always be found in his proper place, manifesting the Godlike qualities individually bestowed upon him.
